M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Laws for Washing

19 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “This is the Law which the Lord has told you. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a young red cow that is perfect, one that has never pulled a load. ³ You will give it to Eleazar the religious leader. It will be brought away from the tents and killed in front of him. ⁴ Next Eleazar the religious leader will take some of its blood with his finger, and put some of it toward the front of the meeting tent seven times. ⁵ Then Eleazar will watch the young cow being burned. Its skin, its flesh, its blood and its waste will be burned. ⁶ The religious leader will take cedar wood and hyssop and red cloth, and put it on the burning cow. ⁷ Then the religious leader will wash his clothes and wash his body in water. After this the religious leader may come among the tents, but he will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns it will also wash his clothes and wash his body in water. And he will be unclean until evening. ⁹ Now a man who is clean will gather up the ashes of the young cow and put them in a clean place away from the tents. They will be kept for the people of Israel to mix with the water used to make things clean, to take away sin. ¹⁰ The one who gathers the ashes of the young cow must wash his clothes. He will be unclean until evening. This will be a Law forever to the people of Israel and to the stranger who lives among them.

¹¹ “The one who touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He must clean himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not clean himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will be unclean. ¹³ Whoever touches the body of any man who has died, and does not make himself clean, makes the meeting tent of the Lord unclean. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for cleaning was not put upon him, he will be unclean.

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 will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ And every open pot that has no cover on it will be unclean. ¹⁶ Anyone in an open field who touches one who has been killed with a sword, or who has died, or who touches a bone of a man, or a grave will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷ The person who is unclean must take some of the ashes from the burning of the sin gift. Clean water must be added to them in a pot. ¹⁸ Then a clean person must take hyssop and put it in the water, and put it on the tent and on all the objects within the tent. He must put it on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the man who was killed or the dead person or the grave. ¹⁹ The clean person must put the water on whoever is unclean, on the third day and on the seventh day. He will make him clean on the seventh day. He will wash his clothes and wash himself in water, and will be clean at evening.

²⁰ “But the man who is unclean and does not make himself clean, will no longer be one of God’s people. Because he has made unclean the holy place of the Lord. The water for cleaning has not been put on him. He is unclean. ²¹ It will be a Law forever for them. He who puts the water on to be made clean must wash his clothes. And he who touches the water used to be made clean will be unclean until evening. ²² Anything that the person who is unclean touches will be unclean. And the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

Prayer of Trust in God

56 Show me Your loving-kindness, O God, for man has walked on me. All day long the one who tries to keep me down fights with me. ² All day long those who hate me have walked on me. For there are many who fight against me with pride. ³ When I am afraid, I will trust in You. ⁴ I praise the Word of God. I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can only a man do to me? ⁵ All day long they change my words to say what I did not say. They are always thinking of ways to hurt me. ⁶ They go after me as in a fight. They hide themselves. They watch my steps, as they have waited to take my life. ⁷ Because they are bad, do not let them get away. Bring down the people in Your anger, O God.

⁸ You have seen how many places I have gone. Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? ⁹ Then those who hate me will turn back when I call. I know that God is for me. ¹⁰ I praise the Word of God. I praise the Word of the Lord. ¹¹ In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? ¹² I am under an agreement with You, O God. I will give You gifts of thanks. ¹³ For You have set my soul free from death. You have kept my feet from falling, so I may walk with God in the light of life.

Prayer for Help

57 Show me loving-kindness, O God, show me loving-kindness. For my soul goes to You to be safe. And I will be safe in the shadow of Your wings until the trouble has passed. ² I will cry to God Most High, to God Who finishes all things for me. ³ He will send from heaven and save me. He will put to shame him who is breaking me under his feet. God will send His loving-kindness and His truth.

⁴ My soul is among lions. I must lie among the sons of men who breathe fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and whose tongues are a sharp sword. ⁵ Be lifted up above the heavens, O God. Let Your shining-greatness be above all the earth. ⁶ They have set a net for my steps. My soul is brought down. They dug a deep hole in front of me. But they themselves have fallen into it.

⁷ My heart will not be moved, O God. My heart cannot be moved. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! ⁸ Awake, my shining-greatness. Awake, harps. I will awake early in the morning. ⁹ O Lord, I will give thanks to You among the people. I will sing praises to You among the nations. ¹⁰ For Your loving-kindness is great to the heavens, and Your truth to the clouds. ¹¹ Be lifted up above the heavens, O God. Let Your shining-greatness be above all the earth.

Assyria Will Take the Land

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of stone and write on it in easy-to-read letters: ‘They hurry to get what they can. They run to pick up what is left.’” ² And I took men who could be trusted to watch the writing, Uriah the religious leader and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. ³ Then I went to the woman who spoke for God, and she was able to have a child, and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hashbaz. ⁴ For before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and everything of any worth in Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again, saying, ⁶ “These people have turned away from the gentle, flowing waters of Shiloah, and find joy in Rezin and the son of Remaliah. ⁷ So now, see, the Lord is ready to bring on them the strong and powerful waters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria and all his greatness. It will rise up high and cause a flood. ⁸ Then it will flow into Judah. It will flood and pass through, and come up even to the neck. And the spread of its wings will cover the width of your land, O Immanuel.

⁹ “Be broken, O people, and be afraid. Listen, all you far places of the earth. Get ready, yet be afraid. Get ready, yet be afraid. ¹⁰ Make a plan, but it will come to nothing. Give your plan, but it will not be done. For God is with us.”

The People Are Told to Obey

¹¹ For the Lord said this to me with great power, and told me not to walk in the way of these people. He said, ¹² “Do not call holy all that these people call holy. Do not fear what they fear, or be afraid of it. ¹³ It is the Lord of All Whom you should think of as holy. Let Him be the One you fear. He is the One to be afraid of. ¹⁴ Then He will become a holy place. But He will be a stone of trouble and a rock to fall over for both houses of Israel. He will be a net and a trap for the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Many will fall over them. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught.”

¹⁶ Put together what I have said. Hold to my teachings among my followers. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord Who is hiding His face from the family of Jacob. I trust Him and hope in Him. ¹⁸ See, I and the children the Lord has given me are something special to see and a wonder in Israel from the Lord of All, Who lives on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When they say to you, “Ask those who speak in secret with the spirits of the dead and who use their secret ways,” should not a people ask their God? Should they speak to the dead for the living? ²⁰ Tell them to put their faith in the teaching and the Law. If they do not speak what this word says, it is because they have no light in them. ²¹ They will pass through the land troubled and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse their king and their God as they look up. ²² Then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness and suffering and will be driven out into darkness.

Birth and Rule of the Prince of Peace

9 But there will be no more heavy hearts for those who were suffering. In the past God allowed the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali to be put to shame. In the future He will honor Galilee where those who are not Jews live and where the road to the sea is. It is on the other side of the Jordan. ² The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. The light will shine on those living in the land of dark shadows. ³ You will make the nation great. You will give them great joy. They will be glad before You, as with the joy of gathering time, and as men have joy when they divide the riches taken after a battle. ⁴ For You will break the heavy load from their neck and shoulders. You will break the power of those who made it hard for them, as at the battle of Midian. ⁵ For every shoe of the soldiers in the battle, and every coat rolled in blood, will be burned in the fire. ⁶ For to us a Child will be born. To us a Son will be given. And the rule of the nations will be on His shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Teacher, Powerful God, Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace. ⁷ There will be no end to His rule and His peace, upon the throne of David and over his nation. He will build it to last and keep it strong with what is right and fair and good from that time and forever. The work of the Lord of All will do this.

The Rich and the Poor

2 My Christian brothers, our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of shining-greatness. Since your trust is in Him, do not look on one person as more important than another. ² What if a man comes into your church wearing a gold ring and good clothes? And at the same time a poor man comes wearing old clothes. ³ What if you show respect to the man in good clothes and say, “Come and sit in this good place”? But if you say to the poor man, “Stand up over there,” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ are you not thinking that one is more important than the other? This kind of thinking is sinful. ⁵ Listen, my dear Christian brothers, God has chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich in faith. The holy nation of heaven is theirs. That is what God promised to those who love Him. ⁶ You have not shown respect to the poor man. Is it not the rich men who make it hard for you and take you to court? ⁷ They speak against the name of Christ. And it was Christ Who called you. ⁸ You do well when you obey the Holy Writings which say, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ⁹ But if you look on one man as more important than another, you are sinning. And the Law says you are sinning.

Keep the Whole Law

¹⁰ If you obey all the Laws but one, you are as guilty as the one who has broken them all. ¹¹ The One Who said, “You must not do any sex sins,” also said, “You must not kill another person.” If you do no sex sins but kill someone, you are guilty of breaking the Law. ¹² Keep on talking and acting as people who will be told they are guilty or not by the Law that makes men free. ¹³ Anyone who shows no loving-kindness will have no loving-kindness shown to him when he is told he is guilty. But if you show loving-kindness, God will show loving-kindness to you when you are told you are guilty.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ My Christian brothers, what good does it do if you say you have faith but do not do things that prove you have faith? Can that kind of faith save you from the punishment of sin? ¹⁵ What if a Christian does not have clothes or food? ¹⁶ And one of you says to him, “Goodbye, keep yourself warm and eat well.” But if you do not give him what he needs, how does that help him? ¹⁷ A faith that does not do things is a dead faith.

¹⁸ Someone may say, “You have faith, and I do things. Prove to me you have faith when you are doing nothing. I will prove to you I have faith by doing things.” ¹⁹ You believe there is one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that, and because they do, they shake.

²⁰ You foolish man! Do I have to prove to you that faith without doing things is of no use? ²¹ Was not our early father Abraham right with God by what he did? He obeyed God and put his son Isaac on the altar to die. ²² You see his faith working by what he did and his faith was made perfect by what he did. ²³ It happened as the Holy Writings said it would happen. They say, “Abraham put his trust in God and he became right with God.” ^(A) He was called the friend of God. ²⁴ A man becomes right with God by what he does and not by faith only. ²⁵ The same was true with Rahab, the woman who sold the use of her body. She became right with God by what she did in helping the men who had been sent to look through the country and sent them away by another road. ²⁶ The body is dead when there is no spirit in it. It is the same with faith. Faith is dead when nothing is done.