M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Purification Rites

19 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:

² These are requirements of the law which the Lord has commanded.

Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, one that has no defect and that has never been under a yoke. ³ You are to give it to Eleazar the priest. He is to have it taken outside of the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ With his finger Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ The heifer is to be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood are to be burned along with its manure. ⁶ The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷ Then the priest will wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water. Afterward he will come into the camp, and the priest will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns the heifer is to wash his clothing in water and bathe his flesh in water. He will remain unclean until evening.

⁹ A man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the heifer’s ashes and place them outside of the camp in a clean place. They will be kept for the Israelite congregation to use to make the water for removing impurity.^[a] It is a sin offering. ¹⁰ The one who gathers the heifer’s ashes is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This will be a permanent regulation for the Israelites and the aliens residing among them.

¹¹ Whoever touches the body of a dead person will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He is to purify himself with the water on the third day, and he will become clean on the seventh day. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, then he will not become clean on the seventh day. ¹³ Anyone who touches a dead human body but does not purify himself defiles the Lord’s Dwelling. That person must be cut off from Israel. He is unclean, because he has not sprinkled himself with the water for removing impurity. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ This is the law when someone dies in a tent: Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ Every open container without a lid on it is unclean.

¹⁶ Anyone in the open countryside who touches someone killed by a sword or someone who has died, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ For the unclean person, take some of the ashes from the burnt sin offering, put them into a vessel, and add water from a flowing source^[b] to the ashes. ¹⁸ A ceremonially clean person is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the items, and on the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle it on anyone who has touched someone who was killed or someone who has died and on anyone who has touched a grave or a human bone. ¹⁹ The ceremonially clean person will sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, after the ceremonially clean person has purified the unclean person, that person will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be clean at evening. ²⁰ But anyone who is unclean and refuses to purify himself will be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for removing impurity was not sprinkled on him, so he remains unclean. ²¹ This will be a permanent regulation for them. The one who sprinkles the water for removing impurity shall wash his clothing, and whoever touches the water for removing impurity will be unclean until evening.

²² Everything that the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches those things will be unclean until evening.

Psalm 56

When I Am Afraid

Heading

For the choir director. “A Dove on Distant Oaks.”^[a]
By David. A miktam.^[b]
When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.^[c]

The Enemies

David’s Trust

The Enemies

David’s Trust

David’s Promise

Psalm 57

Refuge in the Shadow of Your Wings
(Psalm 57:7-11 parallels Psalm 108:1-5)

Heading

For the choir director. “Do Not Destroy.”^[j] By David. A miktam.
When he fled from Saul. In the cave.^[k]

The Opening Plea

The Problem

David’s Confidence

Isaiah and His Sons Are a Sign

8 The Lord said to me, “Get a large tablet and write on it with a man’s stylus: For Maher Shalal Hash Baz.”

² I also swore in faithful witnesses: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.^[a]

³ I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher Shalal Hash Baz.^{[b] 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 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said:

¹¹ Listen! This is how the Lord spoke to me with a strong hand upon me. He instructed me not to walk in the way of this people. He said:

¹⁶ Roll up the scroll of testimony. Seal the law among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will wait hopefully for him. ¹⁸ Look, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and warnings to Israel from the Lord of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When they tell you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists, who whisper and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ To the law and to the testimony! If people do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them. ²¹ They will pass through the land, distressed and starving, but when this takes place and they are starving, they will be frustrated, and they will curse their king and their God. They will turn their faces upward, ²² and then they will look down to the ground, but I tell you, they will see only distress, darkness, and the gloom that brings anguish. They will be banished into thick darkness.

A Second Description of Immanuel:
The Child Who Is Born to Us

9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for the land that was in anguish.^[g] In former times, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time^[h] he will cause it to be glorious, along the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.^[i]

Warning Against Partiality

2 My brothers, have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ without showing favoritism. ² For example, suppose a man enters your worship assembly^[a] wearing gold rings and fine clothing, and a poor man also enters wearing filthy clothing. ³ If you look with favor on the man wearing fine clothing and say, “Sit here in this good place,” but you tell the poor man, “Stand over there” or “Sit down here^[b] at my feet,” ⁴ have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil opinions? ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and don’t they drag you into court? ⁷ Aren’t they the ones who blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you? ⁸ However, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[c] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you are committing a sin, since you are convicted by this law as transgressors.

Keep the Whole Law

¹⁰ In fact, whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^[d] also said, “Do not commit murder.”^[e] Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For there will be judgment without mercy on the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs^[f] over judgment.

Faith Is Active

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but has no works? Such “faith” cannot save him, can it? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister needs clothes and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but does not give them what their body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ So also, such “faith,” if it is alone and has no works, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone 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. Good for you! Even the demons believe that—and shudder! ²⁰ But do you want proof, you mindless person, that such “faith” without works is dead?^{[g] 21} Wasn’t Abraham our father shown to be righteous by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²² You see that his faith was working together with his works, and by his works his faith was shown to be complete. ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”^[h] He was also called God’s friend.^{[i] 24} You see^[j] that a person is shown to be righteous by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵ In the same way also, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous by works when she welcomed the spies and sent them out another way? ²⁶ For just as the body without breath^[k] is dead, so also faith without works is dead.