M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
24 The Eternal One spoke to Moses.
Eternal One: 2-3 Direct the Israelites to bring you clear oil from pressed olives in order to keep the lamps in the sanctuary outside the veil covering the covenant chest continually burning. Aaron is to make sure the lamps continue to burn in My presence from dusk till dawn. This directive stands for all time throughout your generations. 4 On a regular basis, Aaron and the priests are to tend to the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before Me.
5 I want you to take the finest flour and bake 12 loaves of bread. Each loaf is to be made of four quarts of flour. 6 Then arrange the 12 loaves into two rows on the pure gold table in My presence. Put six loaves in each row. 7 Place pure frankincense along each row to serve as a memorial portion for the bread, as a fire-offering to Me. 8 Every Sabbath Aaron is to make sure these rows of bread are in order before Me. These loaves, baked and presented by the people of Israel, symbolize the perpetual covenant. 9 They are reserved for Aaron and his sons, but they must be eaten only in a sacred space. These loaves are most holy gifts to Aaron out of all the fire-offerings presented to Me; they are his due for all time.
10 One day there was a man who had an Israelite mother and Egyptian father who got into a fight with an Israelite inside the camp. 11 The first man uttered a curse and disparaged the name of the Eternal One. The people brought him to Moses to decide what must be done. (His mother was Shelomith, Dibri’s daughter. Dibri was from the Dan tribe.) 12 They kept him in custody until the Eternal One’s decision became clear to them.
13 The Eternal One told Moses what to do.
Eternal One: 14 Take the man who cursed and disparaged Me outside the camp and have everyone who was a witness to what he said place their hands on his head. Then have the entire community stone him. 15 Tell the Israelites, “Anyone who curses His God or disparages His name must bear his sin and suffer the punishment. 16 Any person who blasphemes My name must be put to death. Then you must have the entire community join in stoning him. Any person—whether native-born or an outsider—who disparages My name must be put to death.”
17 Anyone who kills another person must be put to death. 18 Anyone who kills an animal is to compensate his owner for it, life for life. 19 Anyone who injures his neighbor must have done to him what he did to the other. 20 If he breaks a man’s bone, his own bone must be broken. If he puts out a man’s eye, his own eye must be put out. If he knocks out a man’s tooth, his own tooth must be knocked out.[a] Whatever a person does to harm another must be done to him in return. 21 Any person who takes the life of an animal is to compensate his owner for it, but any person who takes the life of another human being must be put to death. 22 This law applies to everyone equally, both native-born Israelites and outsiders. I am the Eternal One, your God.
The “law of retaliation,” as it is called, is designed to curb cruelty. It limits the kind and extent of retaliation a person can suffer when he deliberately injures another.
23 Moses told the Israelites what God had decided, so they took the man who had uttered the curse outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did exactly as the Eternal One had instructed Moses.
Psalm 31
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 You are my shelter, O Eternal One—my soul’s sanctuary!
Shield me from shame;
rescue me by Your righteousness.
2 Hear me, Lord! Turn Your ear in my direction.
Come quick! Save me!
Be my rock, my shelter,
my fortress of salvation!
3 You are my rock and my fortress—my soul’s sanctuary!
Therefore, for the sake of Your reputation, be my leader, my guide, my navigator, my commander.
4 Save me from the snare that has been secretly set out for me,
for You are my protection.
5 I entrust my spirit into Your hands.[a]
You have redeemed me, O Eternal, God of faithfulness and truth.
6 I despise the people who pay respect to breathless idols,
and I trust only in You, Eternal One.
7 I will gladly rejoice because of Your gracious love
because You recognized the sadness of my affliction.
You felt deep compassion when You saw the pains of my soul.
8 You did not hand me over to the enemy,
but instead, You liberated me
and made me secure in a good and spacious land.
9 Show me Your grace, Eternal One, for I am in a tight spot.
My eyes are aching with grief;
my body and soul are withering with miseries.
10 My life is devoured by sorrow,
and my years are haunted with mourning.
My sin has sapped me of all my strength;
my body withers under the weight of this suffering.
11 To all my enemies I am an object of scorn.
My neighbors especially are ashamed of me.
My friends are afraid to be seen with me.
When I walk down the street, people go out of their way to avoid me.
12 I am as good as dead to them. Forgotten!
Like a shattered clay pot, I am easily discarded and gladly replaced.
13 For I hear their whispered plans;
terror is everywhere!
They conspire together,
planning, plotting, scheming to take my life.
14 But I pour my trust into You, Eternal One.
I’m glad to say, “You are my God!”
15 I give the moments of my life over to You, Eternal One.
Rescue me from those who hate me and who hound me with their threats.
16 Look toward me, and let Your face shine down upon Your servant.
Because of Your gracious love, save me!
17 Spare me shame, O Eternal One,
for I turn and call to You.
Instead, let those who hate me be shamed;
let death’s silence claim them.
18 Seal their lying lips forever,
for with pride and contempt boiling in their hearts,
they speak boldly against the righteous and persecute those who poured their trust into You.
19 Your overflowing goodness
You have kept for those who live in awe of You,
And You share Your goodness with those who make You their sanctuary.
20 You hide them, You shelter them in Your presence,
safe from the conspiracies of sinful men.
You keep them in Your tent,
safe from the slander of accusing tongues.
21 Bless the Eternal!
For He has revealed His gracious love to me
when I was trapped like a city under siege.
22 I began to panic so I yelled out,
“I’m cut off. You no longer see me!”
But You heard my cry for help that day
when I called out to You.
23 Love the Eternal, all of you, His faithful people!
He protects those who are true to Him,
but He pays back the proud in kind.
24 Be strong, and live courageously,
all of you who set your hope in the Eternal!
7 Teacher: A good name is worth more than the finest perfume,
and the day you die is better than the day you were born.
2 In the same way, it is better to go to a funeral
than a celebration.
Why? because death is the end of life’s journey,
and the living should always take that to heart.
3 Sorrow beats foolish laughter;
embracing sadness somehow gladdens our hearts.
4 A wise heart is well acquainted with grief,
but a foolish heart seeks only pleasure’s company.
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
than a song written by fools,
6 For the laughter of fools is like
the hiss and crackle of burning thorns beneath a pot.
This, too, is fleeting.
7 Oppression can turn the wise into fools,
and a bribe can damage the noblest heart.
8 Having the last word is better than having the first,
and patience will benefit you more than pride.
9 Do not be quick to anger,
for anger sits comfortably in the lap of fools.
10 Do not ask, “Where have all the good times gone?”
Wisdom knows better than to ask such a thing.
11 It is good to have wisdom along with an inheritance;
they give a clear advantage to those who see the sun.
12 For together wisdom and money are alike in this:
both offer protection from life’s misfortunes,
But the real advantage of knowledge is this:
wisdom alone preserves the lives of those who have it.
13 Think for a moment about the work of God.
Can anyone make straight what God has made crooked?
Often wisdom invites us to ponder great questions. The question, “Can anyone make straight what God has made crooked?” echoes the words of 1:15—“Something crooked cannot be made straight.” Only God can determine what is and what is not. God makes our paths crooked or straight. And we often do not understand why one person’s way is straight and another’s is crooked. The message of the teacher is simple: reverence God regardless of the path you have been given to walk.
14 Teacher: When times are good,
enjoy them and be happy.
When times are bad,
think about this:
God makes both good and bad times,
so that no one really knows what is coming next.
15 In the fleeting time I have lived on this earth, I have seen just about everything: the good dying in their goodness and the wicked living to a ripe old age. 16 So my advice? Do not act overly righteous, and do not think yourself wiser than others. Why go and ruin yourself? 17 But do not be too wicked or foolish either. Why die before it’s your time? 18 Grasp both sides of things and keep the two in balance; for anyone who fears God won’t give in to the extremes.[a]
After each act of creation in Genesis 1, “God saw that His new creation was beautiful and good.” When creation is nearly complete, God not only declares it “good” but is described as “savoring its beauty and appreciating its goodness” (Genesis 1:31). In the creation account recorded in Genesis 2, God places the tree of the knowledge of “good and evil” in the garden and commands the first couple not to eat of the tree. But that is precisely what they do; and in the act of eating, they gain knowledge of good and knowledge of what the absence of good brings. Adam and Eve’s children live with this dichotomy. For example, when Cain is distressed over God’s choice of Abel’s offering over his, God says to Cain, “Don’t you know that as long as you do what is right, then I accept you? But if you do not do what is right, watch out, because sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on you!” (Genesis 4:7). The temptation to scheme—that is, to do the “evil” rather than the “good”—begins with the first human pair; the teacher of Ecclesiastes reminds his readers that the same temptation still exists.
19 Wisdom is more powerful to a wise person than 10 rulers in a city.
20 There is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and never sins.
21 Don’t take to heart all that people say;
eventually you may hear your servant curse you.
22 And face it, your heart has overheard how often you’ve cursed others.
23 I have tested all of these sayings against wisdom. I promised myself, “I will become wise,” but wisdom kept its distance. 24 True wisdom remains elusive; its profound mysteries are remote. Who can discover it?
25 So I turned and dedicated my heart to knowing more, to digging deeper, to searching harder for wisdom and the reasons things are as they are. I applied myself to understanding the connection between wickedness and folly, between folly and madness. 26 Along this journey, I discovered something more bitter than death—a seductive woman. Her heart is a trap and net. Her hands shackle your wrists. Those who seek to please God will escape her clutches, but sinners will be caught in her trap. 27 Look at this! After investigating the matter thoroughly to find out why things are as they are, 28 I realize that although I kept on searching, I have not found what I am looking for. Only one man in a thousand have I found, but I could not find a single woman among all of these who knows this. 29 Here is what I have figured out: God made humanity for good, but we humans go out and scheme our way into trouble.
3 And know this: in the last days, times will be hard. 2 You see, the world will be filled with narcissistic, money-grubbing, pretentious, arrogant, and abusive people. They will rebel against their parents and will be ungrateful, unholy, 3 uncaring, coldhearted, accusing, without restraint, savage, and haters of anything good. 4 Expect them to be treacherous, reckless, swollen with self-importance, and given to loving pleasure more than they love God. 5 Even though they may look or act like godly people, they’re not. They deny His power. I tell you: Stay away from the likes of these. 6 They’re snakes slithering into the houses of vulnerable women, women gaudy with sin, to seduce them. These reptiles can capture them because these women are weak and easily swayed by their desires. 7 They seem always to be learning, but they never seem to gain the full measure of the truth. 8 And, just as Jannes and Jambres rose up against Moses,[a] these ungodly people defy the truth. Their minds are corrupt, and their faith is absolutely worthless. 9 But they won’t get too far because their stupidity will be noticed by everyone, just as it was with Jannes and Jambres.
Paul challenges Timothy to be prepared. Hard times are coming. Things will go from bad to worse, he warns, because pretentious, hostile, hateful, and betraying people are out there. He tells Timothy to stay away from them and to continue to look to Paul’s example, enduring in love and recalling how Paul himself has followed Jesus. For if Jesus was persecuted, then what should His followers expect for themselves? In the midst of this warning, Paul encourages Timothy.
10 You have been a good student. You have closely observed how I have lived. You’ve followed my instructions, my habits, my purpose, my faith, my patience. You’ve watched how I love and have seen how I endure. You have been with me 11 through persecutions and sufferings—remember what they did to me in Antioch? In Iconium and Lystra? I endured all of it, and the Lord rescued me from it all! 12 Anyone wishing to live a godly life in Jesus the Anointed will be hunted down and persecuted. 13 But as for the wicked and the imposters, they will keep leading and following each other further and further away from the truth. 14 So surely you ought to stick to what you know is certain. All you have learned comes from people you know and trust 15 because since childhood you have known the holy Scriptures, which enable you to be wise and lead to salvation through faith in Jesus the Anointed. 16 All of Scripture is God-breathed; in its inspired voice, we hear useful teaching, rebuke, correction, instruction, and training for a life that is right 17 so that God’s people may be up to the task ahead and have all they need to accomplish every good work.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.