M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Aaron’s Stick Began to Grow

17 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Speak to the people of Israel. Get walking sticks from them, one for each father’s house. Get twelve walking sticks, from all their leaders by their fathers’ houses. Write each man’s name on his stick. ³ Write Aaron’s name on the walking stick of Levi. For there will be one walking stick for the head of each father’s house. ⁴ Then put them in the meeting tent before the Law, where I meet with you. ⁵ And the walking stick of the man I choose will begin to grow. In this way I will stop the complaining of the people of Israel, who are complaining against you.” ⁶ So Moses spoke to the people of Israel. All their leaders each gave him a walking stick, one for each leader by their fathers’ houses, twelve walking sticks. And the walking stick of Aaron was among their walking sticks. ⁷ Moses put the walking sticks before the Lord in the meeting tent of the Law.

⁸ The next day Moses went into the meeting tent of the Law. And he saw that the walking stick of Aaron for the house of Levi had begun to grow buds and flowers and almonds. ⁹ Moses brought out all the walking sticks from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. They looked, and each man took his stick. ¹⁰ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put the walking stick of Aaron in front of the Law again. It will be something special to see against those who go against My Word. Then you may put an end to their complaining against Me, so they will not die.” ¹¹ So Moses did this. He did just as the Lord had told him.

¹² Then the people of Israel said to Moses, “See, we are being destroyed! We are dying! We are all dying! ¹³ Everyone who comes near, who comes near the meeting tent of the Lord, must die. Are we all to be destroyed?”

The Work of the Religious Leaders and Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and those of your father’s house will carry the guilt for any sin done in the meeting tent. And you and your sons with you will carry the guilt of any sin of the religious leaders. ² Bring with you your brothers also, the family of Levi, the family of your father. Then they may join you and help you while you and your sons are in front of the meeting tent of the Law. ³ They will help you and help in doing all the work of the tent. But they must not come near the objects of the meeting tent and the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴ They will join you and help do all the work of the meeting tent. But no one else may come near you. ⁵ You must do the work of the meeting tent and the work of the altar, so there will no longer be anger on the people of Israel. ⁶ See, I Myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the work for the meeting tent. ⁷ But you and your sons with you will do the religious work, in all that has to do with the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the work of being the religious leader as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the holy objects will be put to death.”

Gifts for the Religious Leaders

⁸ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Now see, I am giving you all the gifts brought to Me that are not burned on the altar. I am giving them to you as a share, and to your sons as a share forever. ⁹ This will be yours from the most holy gifts, kept from the fire: every gift of theirs, even every grain gift, every sin gift and every guilt gift, which they bring to Me. They will be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰ You will eat it as the most holy gifts. Every male will eat it. It will be holy to you. ¹¹ And this is yours: their gift that is lifted up and all the wave gifts of the people of Israel. I am giving them to you and to your sons and daughters with you, as a share forever. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹² I give to you all the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first-fruits of what they give to the Lord. ¹³ The first-fruits ready to eat of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹⁴ Everything in Israel that has been set apart to the Lord will be yours. ¹⁵ Every first-born of all flesh, man or animal, which they give to the Lord, will be yours. But you must pay the price and make free the first-born of man and the first-born of animals that are unclean. ¹⁶ You must make them free when they are one month old. The price to free them will be five large pieces of silver, the price decided upon at the meeting tent. One large piece of silver is worth twenty small pieces of silver. ¹⁷ But do not free the first-born of a bull or sheep or goat. For they are holy. You will put their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a gift by fire, a pleasing smell to the Lord. ¹⁸ But their meat will be yours, like the breast of a wave gift and like the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹ I have given to you and your sons and daughters, for a share forever, all the holy gifts which the people of Israel bring to the Lord. It is an agreement of salt forever before the Lord for you and your children with you.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no share in their land. You will not own any part of land among them. I am your part and your share among the people of Israel.

²¹ “See, I have given a tenth part of everything in Israel to the Levites, in return for the work they do, the work of the meeting tent. ²² The people of Israel must not come near the meeting tent again, or they will be guilty of sin and die. ²³ Only the Levites may do the work around the meeting tent, and they will carry their sin. It will be a Law forever for all your children-to-come. And they will have no land among the people of Israel. ²⁴ For I have given to the Levites one-tenth part of what the people of Israel give to the Lord. This is why I have said of them, ‘They will have no land among the people of Israel.’”

²⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tenth which I have given you from them for your share, then give a gift from it to the Lord. Give one-tenth part of the tenth. ²⁷ And your gift will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor or all the wine from the crushed grapes. ²⁸ So you must give a gift to the Lord from the tenth of what you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you must give the Lord’s gift to Aaron the religious leader. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you must give every gift that should go to the Lord, from all the best of them. Give the holy part from them.’

³⁰ “And say to them, ‘When you have given the best part of it, the rest of it will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor and the wine from the crushed grapes. ³¹ You and those of your houses may eat it in any place. For it is your pay for your work in the meeting tent. ³² You will not be guilty because of it, when you have given the best of it. But do not make unclean the holy gifts of the people of Israel, or you will die.’”

Prayer of a Man Hurt by a Friend

55 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not hide Yourself from what I ask. ² Hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I have no peace, ³ because of the voice of those who hate me and the power of the sinful. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they keep on having bad thoughts against me.

⁴ My heart is in pain within me. The fears of death have come upon me. ⁵ I have begun shaking with fear. Fear has power over me. ⁶ And I say, “If only I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. ⁷ Yes, I would go far away. I would live in the desert. ⁸ I would hurry to my safe place, away from the wild wind and storm.”

⁹ Mix them up, O Lord. Divide their tongues. For I have seen fighting and trouble in the city. ¹⁰ They go around on its walls day and night. Sin and wrong-doing are within it. ¹¹ Destroying powers are in the city. Trouble and lies never leave its streets.

¹² I would be able to take it if one who hates me were putting me to shame. I could hide from him. It is not one who hates me who has put himself up against me. ¹³ But it is you, a man like myself, one who has gone with me, my close friend. ¹⁴ We shared together. And we walked with the people in the house of God. ¹⁵ Let death take them by surprise. Let them go down alive to the grave. For sin is with them where they live. ¹⁶ As for me, I will call on God and the Lord will save me. ¹⁷ I will cry out and complain in the evening and morning and noon, and He will hear my voice. ¹⁸ He will save my soul in peace from those who make war against me. For there are many who fight me. ¹⁹ God sits on His throne forever. And He will hear them and bring trouble upon them, because there has been no change in them. They do not fear God. ²⁰ He goes against those who were at peace with him. He has broken his agreement. ²¹ What he says is smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are raised swords.

²² Give all your cares to the Lord and He will give you strength. He will never let those who are right with Him be shaken. ²³ But You, O God, will bring the sinful down into the hole that destroys. Men who kill and lie will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

Isaiah Is Sent to King Ahaz

7 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to make war against Jerusalem. But they could not win the battle. ² When the family of David was told, “Syria has joined with Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as trees shake with the wind.

³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Now you and your son Shear-jashub go out to meet Ahaz at the end of the ditch of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller’s Field. ⁴ Say to him, ‘Be careful and quiet. Do not be afraid or weak in your heart because of these two pieces of burnt and smoking wood. Do not be afraid of the burning anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, have made sinful plans against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and make the people very afraid. Let us break open its walls, and make the son of Tabeel its king.” ⁷ But the Lord God says, “This plan will not work. It will not happen. ⁸ For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be destroyed so that it is no longer a people.) ⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria. And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, for sure you will not last.”’”

Word about Immanuel

¹⁰ Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask for something special to see from the Lord your God. Ask for it to be as deep as the place of the dead or as high as heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” ¹³ Then Isaiah said, “Listen now, O people of David! Is it too small a thing for you to test men, that you will test my God as well? ¹⁴ So the Lord Himself will give you a special thing to see: A young woman, who has never had a man, will give birth to a son. She will give Him the name Immanuel. ¹⁵ He will eat milk and honey when He knows enough to have nothing to do with wrong-doing and chooses good. ¹⁶ For before the boy knows to turn away from what is bad and choose good, the land whose two kings you are afraid of will be left empty.” ¹⁷ The Lord will bring upon you and your people and your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim was divided from Judah. He is going to bring the king of Assyria on you. ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will call for flies that are in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for bees that are in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ They will all come and stay in the narrow valleys, on the hill-sides, on the thorn bushes, and in the fields.

²⁰ In that day the Lord will use the king of Assyria from the other side of the Euphrates to cut off the hair from your head, your legs, and your face.

²¹ In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. ²² And because they give much milk, he will have all he can use. For everyone who is left in the land will have milk and honey to eat. ²³ In that day, every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be thistles and thorns. ²⁴ Men will go there with bows and arrows because all the land will be covered with thistles and thorns. ²⁵ As for all the hills which used to be cared for as a garden, you will not go there for fear of thistles and thorns. They will become a place where cattle feed and where sheep will run.

1 This letter is from James. I am a servant owned by God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I greet the twelve family groups of the Jewish nation living in many parts of the world.

Take Hope When Tests Come

² My Christian brothers, you should be happy when you have all kinds of tests. ³ You know these prove your faith. It helps you not to give up. ⁴ Learn well how to wait so you will be strong and complete and in need of nothing.

⁵ If you do not have wisdom, ask God for it. He is always ready to give it to you and will never say you are wrong for asking. ⁶ You must have faith as you ask Him. You must not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like a wave which is pushed around by the sea. ⁷ Such a man will get nothing from the Lord. ⁸ The man who has two ways of thinking changes in everything he does.

⁹ A Christian brother who has few riches of this world should be happy for what he has. He is great in the eyes of God. ¹⁰ But a rich man should be happy even if he loses everything. He is like a flower that will die. ¹¹ The sun comes up with burning heat. The grass dries up and the flower falls off. It is no longer beautiful. The rich man will die also and all his riches will be gone. ¹² The man who does not give up when tests come is happy. After the test is over, he will receive the crown of life. God has promised this to those who love Him.

God Does Not Tempt Us

¹³ When you are tempted to do wrong, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God cannot be tempted. He will never tempt anyone. ¹⁴ A man is tempted to do wrong when he lets himself be led by what his bad thoughts tell him to do. ¹⁵ When he does what his bad thoughts tell him to do, he sins. When sin completes its work, it brings death.

¹⁶ My Christian brothers, do not be fooled about this. ¹⁷ Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God. He is the One Who made all light. He does not change. No shadow is made by His turning. ¹⁸ He gave us our new lives through the truth of His Word only because He wanted to. We are the first children in His family.

¹⁹ My Christian brothers, you know everyone should listen much and speak little. He should be slow to become angry. ²⁰ A man’s anger does not allow him to be right with God. ²¹ Put out of your life all that is unclean and wrong. Receive with a gentle spirit the Word that was taught. It has the power to save your souls from the punishment of sin.

²² Obey the Word of God. If you hear only and do not act, you are only fooling yourself. ²³ Anyone who hears the Word of God and does not obey is like a man looking at his face in a mirror. ²⁴ After he sees himself and goes away, he forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But the one who keeps looking into God’s perfect Law and does not forget it will do what it says and be happy as he does it. God’s Word makes men free.

²⁶ If a person thinks he is religious, but does not keep his tongue from speaking bad things, he is fooling himself. His religion is worth nothing. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and good before God the Father is to help children who have no parents and to care for women whose husbands have died who have troubles. Pure religion is also to keep yourself clean from the sinful things of the world.