M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

19 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ² “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked. ³ You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face. ⁴ Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. ⁵ One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn. ⁶ The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer. ⁷ Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening. ⁸ He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.

⁹ “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering. ¹⁰ He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever.

¹¹ “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. ¹² He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. ¹³ Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles Yahweh’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him.

¹⁴ “This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵ Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.

¹⁶ “Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷ “For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured on them in a vessel. ¹⁸ A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. ¹⁹ The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening. ²⁰ But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. ²¹ It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

²² “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A poem by David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

8 Yahweh said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen, ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz’;^{[a] 2} and I will take for myself faithful witnesses to testify: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

³ I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ‘Maher Shalal Hash Baz.’ ⁴ For before the child knows how to say, ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, ⁶ “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; ⁷ now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks. ⁸ It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck. The stretching out of its wings will fill the width of your land, O Immanuel.

⁹ Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered! ¹⁰ Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.”

¹¹ For Yahweh spoke this to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ¹² “Don’t call a conspiracy all that this people call a conspiracy. Don’t fear their threats or be terrorized. ¹³ Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread. ¹⁴ He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall. For the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare. ¹⁵ Many will stumble over it, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured.”

¹⁶ Wrap up the covenant. Seal the law among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. ¹⁸ Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ Turn to the law and to the covenant! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. ²¹ They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry. It will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse their king and their God. They will turn their faces upward, ²² then look to the earth and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.

9 But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

² The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. ⁴ For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian. ⁵ For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. ⁶ For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.

2 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. ² For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue,^[a] and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in, ³ and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool” ⁴ haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

⁸ However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^(A) you do well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. ¹¹ For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^(B) also said, “Do not commit murder.”^(C) Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. ¹⁸ Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

¹⁹ You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder. ²⁰ But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? ²¹ Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected. ²³ So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,”^(D) and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. ²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.