M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Chapter 11

Discontent of the People. ¹ Now the people complained bitterly in the hearing of the Lord;^(A) and when he heard it his wrath flared up, so that the Lord’s fire burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. ² But when the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died out. ³ Hence that place was called Taberah,^[a] because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.

⁴ The riffraff among them were so greedy for meat that even the Israelites lamented again,^(B) “If only we had meat for food! ⁵ We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. ⁶ But now we are famished; we have nothing to look forward to but this manna.”^(C)

^7 (D)Manna was like coriander seed^[b] and had the appearance of bdellium. ⁸ When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, with a rich creamy taste. ⁹ At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.^(E)

¹⁰ When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the Lord became very angry, he was grieved. ¹¹ “Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the Lord. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? ¹² Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my breast, like a nurse carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers? ¹³ Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, ‘Give us meat for our food.’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face my distress.”

The Seventy Elders. ¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses: Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the tent of meeting. When they are in place beside you, ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will confer it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.

¹⁸ To the people, however, you shall say: “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat. For in the hearing of the Lord you have cried, ‘If only we had meat for food! Oh, how well off we were in Egypt!’ Therefore the Lord will give you meat to eat, ¹⁹ and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days, ²⁰ but for a whole month—until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the Lord who is in your midst, and in his presence you have cried, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

²¹ But Moses said, “The people around me include six hundred thousand soldiers; yet you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.’ ²² Can enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” ²³ The Lord answered Moses: Is this beyond the Lord’s reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have said to you takes place.

The Spirit on the Elders. ²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around the tent. ²⁵ The Lord then came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied^[c] but did not continue.

²⁶ Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in the camp, yet the spirit came to rest on them also. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; and so they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ So, when a young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,” ²⁸ Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “My lord, Moses, stop them.” ²⁹ But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the people of the Lord were prophets! If only the Lord would bestow his spirit on them!” ³⁰ Then Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.

The Quail. ³¹ There arose a wind^(F) from the Lord that drove in quail from the sea and left them all around the camp site, to a distance of a day’s journey and at a depth of two cubits upon the ground.^{[d] 32 (G)}So all that day, all night, and all the next day the people set about to gather in the quail. Even the one who got the least gathered ten homers^[e] of them. Then they spread them out all around the camp. ³³ But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, the Lord’s wrath flared up against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very great plague. ³⁴ So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah,^[f] because it was there that the greedy people were buried.

³⁵ From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, where they stayed.

Psalm 48^[a]

The Splendor of the Invincible City

¹ A psalm of the Korahites.^[b] A song.

I

II

III

IV

I. Isaiah 1—39

A. Indictment of Israel and Judah

Chapter 1

^1 [a]The vision which Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Accusation and Appeal

The Purification of Jerusalem

Judgment on the Sacred Groves

Chapter 9

The Worship of the First Covenant.^{[a] 1} Now [even] the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. ² For a tabernacle was constructed, the outer one,^[b] in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of offering; this is called the Holy Place.^{(A) 3 [c]}Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies,^{(B) 4} in which were the gold altar of incense^[d] and the ark of the covenant entirely covered with gold. In it were the gold jar containing the manna, the staff of Aaron that had sprouted, and the tablets of the covenant.^{(C) 5 [e]}Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the place of expiation. Now is not the time to speak of these in detail.^(D)

⁶ With these arrangements for worship, the priests, in performing their service,^[f] go into the outer tabernacle repeatedly,^{(E) 7} but the high priest alone goes into the inner one once a year, not without blood^[g] that he offers for himself and for the sins of the people.^{(F) 8} In this way the holy Spirit shows that the way into the sanctuary had not yet been revealed while the outer tabernacle still had its place. ⁹ This is a symbol of the present time,^[h] in which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper in conscience ¹⁰ but only in matters of food and drink and various ritual washings: regulations concerning the flesh, imposed until the time of the new order.^(G)

Sacrifice of Jesus. ^11 [i]But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be,^[j] passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,^{(H) 12} he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.^{(I) 13} For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes^[k] can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed,^{(J) 14} how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit^[l] offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.^(K)

^15 [m]For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.^{(L) 16 [n]}Now where there is a will, the death of the testator must be established. ¹⁷ For a will takes effect only at death; it has no force while the testator is alive. ¹⁸ Thus not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. ^19 [o]When every commandment had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves [and goats], together with water and crimson wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,^{(M) 20} saying, “This is ‘the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined upon you.’”^{(N) 21} In the same way, he sprinkled also the tabernacle^[p] and all the vessels of worship with blood.^{(O) 22 [q]}According to the law almost everything is purified by blood,^(P) and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

^23 [r]Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified by these rites, but the heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these.^{(Q) 24} For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf.^{(R) 25} Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own; ²⁶ if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages^[s] to take away sin by his sacrifice.^{(S) 27} Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment,^{(T) 28} so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many,^[t] will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.^(U)