M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
17 Now, at God’s command, the people of Israel left the Sihn Desert, going by easy stages to Rephidim. But upon arrival, there was no water!
2 So once more the people growled and complained to Moses. “Give us water!” they wailed.
“Quiet!” Moses commanded. “Are you trying to test God’s patience with you?”
3 But, tormented by thirst, they cried out, “Why did you ever take us out of Egypt? Why did you bring us here to die, with our children and cattle too?”
4 Then Moses pleaded with Jehovah. “What shall I do? For they are almost ready to stone me.”
5-6 Then Jehovah said to Moses, “Take the elders of Israel with you and lead the people out to Mount Horeb. I will meet you there at the rock. Strike it with your rod[a]—the same one you struck the Nile with—and water will come pouring out, enough for everyone!” Moses did as he was told, and the water gushed out! 7 Moses named the place Massah (meaning “tempting Jehovah to slay us”), and sometimes they referred to it as Meribah (meaning “argument” and “strife!”)—for it was there that the people of Israel argued against God and tempted him to slay them[b] by saying, “Is Jehovah going to take care of us or not?”
8 But now the warriors of Amalek came to fight against the people of Israel at Rephidim. 9 Moses instructed Joshua to issue a call to arms to the Israelites, to fight the army of Amalek.
“Tomorrow,” Moses told him, “I will stand at the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand!”
10 So Joshua and his men went out to fight the army of Amalek. Meanwhile Moses, Aaron, and Hur[c] went to the top of the hill. 11 And as long as Moses held up the rod in his hands, Israel was winning; but whenever he rested his arms at his sides, the soldiers of Amalek were winning. 12 Moses’ arms finally became too tired to hold up the rod any longer; so Aaron and Hur rolled a stone for him to sit on, and they stood on each side, holding up his hands until sunset. 13 As a result, Joshua and his troops crushed the army of Amalek, putting them to the sword.
14 Then the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.” 15-16 Moses built an altar there and called it “Jehovah-nissi” (meaning “Jehovah is my flag”).
“Raise the banner of the Lord!” Moses said. “For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.”
20 On one of those days when he was teaching and preaching the Good News in the Temple, he was confronted by the chief priests and other religious leaders and councilmen. 2 They demanded to know by what authority he had driven out the merchants from the Temple.
3 “I’ll ask you a question before I answer,” he replied. 4 “Was John sent by God, or was he merely acting under his own authority?”
5 They talked it over among themselves. “If we say his message was from heaven, then we are trapped because he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 6 But if we say John was not sent from God, the people will mob us, for they are convinced that he was a prophet.” 7 Finally they replied, “We don’t know!”
8 And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t answer your question either.”
9 Now he turned to the people again and told them this story: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers, and went away to a distant land to live for several years. 10 When harvest time came, he sent one of his men to the farm to collect his share of the crops. But the tenants beat him up and sent him back empty-handed. 11 Then he sent another, but the same thing happened; he was beaten up and insulted and sent away without collecting. 12 A third man was sent and the same thing happened. He, too, was wounded and chased away.
13 “‘What shall I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will show respect for him.’
14 “But when the tenants saw his son, they said, ‘This is our chance! This fellow will inherit all the land when his father dies. Come on. Let’s kill him, and then it will be ours.’ 15 So they dragged him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What do you think the owner will do? 16 I’ll tell you—he will come and kill them and rent the vineyard to others.”
“But they would never do a thing like that,” his listeners protested.
17 Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does the Scripture mean where it says, ‘The Stone rejected by the builders was made the cornerstone’?” 18 And he added, “Whoever stumbles over that Stone shall be broken; and those on whom it falls will be crushed to dust.”
19 When the chief priests and religious leaders heard about this story he had told, they wanted him arrested immediately, for they realized that he was talking about them. They were the wicked tenants in his illustration. But they were afraid that if they themselves arrested him, there would be a riot. So they tried to get him to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor as reason to arrest him.
20 Watching their opportunity, they sent secret agents pretending to be honest men. 21 They said to Jesus, “Sir, we know what an honest teacher you are. You always tell the truth and don’t budge an inch in the face of what others think, but teach the ways of God. 22 Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?”
23 He saw through their trickery and said, 24 “Show me a coin. Whose portrait is this on it? And whose name?”
They replied, “Caesar’s—the Roman emperor’s.”
25 He said, “Then give the emperor all that is his—and give to God all that is his!”
26 Thus their attempt to outwit him before the people failed; and marveling at his answer, they were silent.
27 Then some Sadducees—men who believed that death is the end of existence, that there is no resurrection— 28 came to Jesus with this:
“The laws of Moses state that if a man dies without children, the man’s brother shall marry the widow, and their children will legally belong to the dead man, to carry on his name. 29 We know of a family of seven brothers. The oldest married and then died without any children. 30 His brother married the widow and he, too, died. Still no children. 31 And so it went, one after the other, until each of the seven had married her and died, leaving no children. 32 Finally the woman died also. 33 Now here is our question: Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all of them were married to her!”
34-35 Jesus replied, “Marriage is for people here on earth, but when those who are counted worthy of being raised from the dead get to heaven, they do not marry. 36 And they never die again; in these respects they are like angels, and are sons of God, for they are raised up in new life from the dead.
37-38
39 “Well said, sir!” remarked some of the experts in the Jewish law who were standing there. 40 And that ended their questions, for they dared ask no more!
41 Then he presented them with a question. “Why is it,” he asked, “that Christ, the Messiah, is said to be a descendant of King David? 42-43 For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms: ‘God said to my Lord, the Messiah, “Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies beneath your feet.”’ 44 How can the Messiah be both David’s son and David’s God at the same time?”
45 Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, 46 “Beware of these experts in religion, for they love to parade in dignified robes and to be bowed to by the people as they walk along the street. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and at religious festivals! 47 But even while they are praying long prayers with great outward piety, they are planning schemes to cheat widows out of their property. Therefore God’s heaviest sentence awaits these men.”
35 Elihu continued:
2-3 “Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I haven’t sinned, but I’m no better off before God than if I had’?
4 “I will answer you and all your friends too. 5 Look up there into the sky, high above you. 6 If you sin, does that shake the heavens and knock God from his throne? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have upon him? 7 Or if you are good, is this some great gift to him? 8 Your sins may hurt another man, or your good deeds may profit him. 9-10 The oppressed may shriek beneath their wrongs and groan beneath the power of the rich; yet none of them cry to God, asking, ‘Where is God my Maker who gives songs in the night 11 and makes us a little wiser than the animals and birds?’
12 “But when anyone does cry out this question to him, he never replies by instant punishment of the tyrants.[a] 13 But it is false to say he doesn’t hear those cries; 14-15 and it is even more false to say that he doesn’t see what is going on. He does bring about justice at last if you will only wait. But do you cry out against him because he does not instantly respond in anger? 16 Job, you have spoken like a fool.”
5 For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 How weary we grow of our present bodies. That is why we look forward eagerly to the day when we shall have heavenly bodies that we shall put on like new clothes. 3 For we shall not be merely spirits without bodies. 4 These earthly bodies make us groan and sigh, but we wouldn’t like to think of dying and having no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will, as it were, be swallowed up by everlasting life. 5 This is what God has prepared for us, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6 Now we look forward with confidence to our heavenly bodies, realizing that every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus. 7 We know these things are true by believing, not by seeing. 8 And we are not afraid but are quite content to die, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So our aim is to please him always in everything we do, whether we are here in this body or away from this body and with him in heaven. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged and have our lives laid bare—before him. Each of us will receive whatever he deserves for the good or bad things he has done in his earthly body.
11 It is because of this solemn fear of the Lord, which is ever present in our minds, that we work so hard to win others. God knows our hearts, that they are pure in this matter, and I hope that, deep within, you really know it too.
12 Are we trying to pat ourselves on the back again? No, I am giving you some good ammunition! You can use this on those preachers of yours who brag about how well they look and preach but don’t have true and honest hearts. You can boast about us that we, at least, are well intentioned and honest.
13-14 Are we insane to say such things about ourselves?[a] If so, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ’s love controls us now. Since we believe that Christ died for all of us, we should also believe that we have died to the old life we used to live. 15 He died for all so that all who live—having received eternal life from him—might live no longer for themselves, to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them. 16 So stop evaluating Christians by what the world thinks about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, merely as a human being like myself. How differently I feel now! 17 When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!
18 All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him. 19 For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. 20 We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God. 21 For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us![b]
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.