M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

God repeats his covenant

24 Then God said to Moses, ‘Come up to me, the Lord. Come with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 of the leaders of Israel. Worship me, but do not come near. ² Only Moses can come near to me, but not the others. The people must not come up the mountain with him.’

³ Moses went and he told the people all the Lord's commands and his teaching. The people answered together, ‘We will do everything that the Lord has told us.’ ⁴ Then Moses wrote down everything that the Lord had said.

Early the next morning, Moses built an altar at the bottom of the mountain. Then he put up 12 stone pillars. Each pillar stood there for one of Israel's 12 tribes. ⁵ Moses sent young Israelite men to burn animals there, as offerings to the Lord. They also killed young bulls as friendship offerings to the Lord.

⁶ Moses took half of the blood of these animals and he put it into some bowls. He splashed the other half of the blood over the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of God's Covenant and he read it to the people. They replied, ‘We will do everything that the Lord has told us. We will obey his commands.’

⁸ Then Moses used the blood in the bowls to splash on the people. He said, ‘This blood shows that you accept the covenant that the Lord has made with you. You agree to obey the rules of his covenant.’

⁹ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the 70 Israelite leaders went up the mountain. ¹⁰ They saw the God of Israel there. Under his feet was something like a jewel called sapphire. It was as bright as a clear blue sky. ¹¹ God did not hurt those Israelite leaders. They saw God. They ate a meal and they drank together.

¹² The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain. Stay here. I will give you the flat stones with my Law on them. I have written on them my Law and my commands, so that you can teach them to the people.’

¹³ So Moses went up the mountain of God. His servant Joshua went with him. ¹⁴ Moses said to the leaders, ‘Wait here for us. We will come back to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. If you have any arguments, they can decide who is right.’

¹⁵ When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it. ¹⁶ The Lord's bright glory appeared on Sinai mountain. The cloud covered the mountain for six days. On the seventh day, the Lord called out to Moses from inside the cloud. ¹⁷ The people could see the Lord's bright glory. To them, it looked like a fire that was burning the top of the mountain. ¹⁸ Moses went up the mountain and he went into the cloud. He stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a Pharisee called Nicodemus. He was one of the Jewish leaders. ² He came to speak with Jesus at night. He said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that God has sent you to us. We have seen the miracles that you are doing. Nobody could do these things unless God was with him.’ ³ Jesus replied, ‘I tell you this: Unless a person is born from above, they cannot understand the kingdom of God.’ ⁴ Nicodemus asked, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot return into his mother's body. He cannot be born a second time.’ ⁵ Jesus explained, ‘I tell you this: Unless a person is born by water and by God's Spirit, he cannot come into the kingdom of God. ⁶ People give birth to what is human. But God's Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ I said to you, “You must be born from above.” What I said should not surprise you. ⁸ When someone is born by God's Spirit, it is like the wind that blows. The wind blows wherever it chooses to blow. You can hear it. But you do not know where it came from or where it is going.’

⁹ Nicodemus asked, ‘How can this happen?’ ¹⁰ Jesus replied, ‘You are an important teacher of people in Israel. You ought to understand these things! ¹¹ I tell you this: We speak about things that we know. We tell you about what we have seen. But even then, you people do not believe our message. ¹² I have told you about things that happen in this world. And you do not believe me. But now I am telling you about things that happen in heaven. So I do not think that you will ever believe me about those things. ¹³ The Son of Man came down from heaven. Nobody else has gone up to heaven except him. ¹⁴ Long ago Moses lifted up the metal snake in the wilderness to save his people.^[a] In the same way, people must lift up the Son of Man on a cross. ¹⁵ As a result, everyone who believes him will be able to live for ever with God. ¹⁶ God loved the people in the world so much that he gave his one and only Son to save them. As a result, everyone who believes in the Son will not die. Instead, they will live for ever with God.’

¹⁷ God did not send his Son into the world because he wanted to punish people. He sent his Son to save the people in the world from punishment. ¹⁸ God will not punish anyone who believes in his Son. But if people refuse to believe in the Son, God has already decided that he must punish them. They have not believed in God's one and only Son. ¹⁹ God's Son has brought light into the world. But some people did not love the light. They loved the dark instead. That was because they were doing evil things. That is why God has decided to punish those people. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil things hates the light. A person like that will not come to the light because he is afraid. He does not want the bad things that he has done to show clearly. ²¹ But anyone who does what is true will come to the light. The light will show clearly that he has been doing what is right. Everyone can see that he has been obeying God.

Jesus and John the Baptist

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the country places in Judea. Jesus stayed there with his disciples for some time, and they baptized people there. ²³ John was also baptizing people. He was at a place called Aenon, near Salim, because there was a lot of water there. People were coming to him and John was baptizing them. ²⁴ (This happened before the rulers put John in prison.) ²⁵ John's disciples began to argue with a certain Jew about some Jewish rules. Those rules told people how they should wash properly. ²⁶ The disciples then came to John. They said to him, ‘Teacher, remember the man, Jesus, that you spoke to us about. He was with you on the other side of the Jordan River. Now he is baptizing people and everyone is going to him.’

²⁷ John replied, ‘A man can receive only what God gives to him, nothing else. ²⁸ You yourselves will remember that I said, “I am not the Messiah, but God sent me to prepare things for the Messiah.”^{[b] 29} When a man marries a wife, she belongs to him. The man's special friend listens carefully. He wants to know when the man will arrive. That friend is very happy when he hears the man's voice. I am like that friend, so I am completely happy now. ³⁰ Jesus must become greater, but I must become less important.

³¹ The one who comes from above is greater than all things. A person who comes from the earth belongs to the earth. A person like that speaks only about things that belong to the earth. But the one who comes from heaven is greater than all things. ³² He tells people about the things that he has seen. He tells about what he has heard. But people do not believe his message. ³³ Anyone who does believe his message agrees that God is true. ³⁴ The one that God has sent speaks God's words. God has given his Spirit to fill that person completely. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son. He has given his Son authority over all things. ³⁶ Anyone who believes in the Son has life with God for ever. But anyone who refuses to obey the Son will never have life with God. God will continue to be angry with people like that.’

Job replies to God^[a]

42 Then Job replied to the Lord. He said this:

The end of the story^[b]

⁷ When the Lord had spoken to Job, he said this to Eliphaz, the man from Teman:

‘I am very angry with you and with your two friends. The things that my servant Job has said about me are true. But the things that you said were not right. ⁸ You three men must now go to Job. Take seven bulls and seven male sheep with you. Burn them as sacrifices for yourselves. After you have done that, my servant Job will pray for you. I will answer his prayer. Then I will not punish you as you deserve because of your foolish words. My servant Job has spoken the truth about me, but you have not.’

⁹ So Eliphaz, the man from Teman, Bildad, the man from Shuah, and Zophar, the man from Naamah, did what the Lord had told them to do. And the Lord answered Job's prayer.

¹⁰ After Job prayed for his three friends, the Lord made him a rich man again. He gave Job twice as many things as he had before. ¹¹ Then Job's brothers and sisters came to eat a big meal with him in his house. People who had been Job's friends came also. They all told him that they were sad about his troubles. They were upset because the Lord had caused him to suffer. Each of them gave Job a piece of silver and a gold ring.

¹² After this, the Lord blessed Job more than in the beginning of his life. All these animals belonged to Job: 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 pairs of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³ He had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The daughters' names were Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ They were the most beautiful women in the whole land of Uz. Job said that they should receive some of his things after he died, along with their brothers.^[c]

¹⁶ Job lived for 140 years after this. He was still alive when his grandchildren and their grandchildren were born. ¹⁷ So when Job died, he had lived for a long time.

How God has helped Paul

12 I must continue to praise myself. It will not really help you, but I will tell you anyway. The Lord has shown me special things, like in a dream. ² I know a certain man who belongs to Christ. 14 years ago, God quickly took this man up to the third heaven. Perhaps this man was still in his body. Perhaps he had gone away from his body. I do not know. Only God knows. ^3-4 I know that God took this man up to paradise. I do not know whether this man was still in his body or not. Only God knows. When this man was in heaven, he heard about secret things. Those are things that no words can describe. God will not let any person speak about those things. They are too special.^[a]

⁵ I will say proud things about a man like that. But I will not be proud of anything good about myself. I will only be proud of things that show my weakness. ⁶ If I did want to praise myself, that would not make me a fool. No, because I would be saying true things. But I will not say good things about myself. I want everyone to think properly about me. People should look at how I live. They should think about what I say. That is enough for them to decide about me.

⁷ Yes, God did show me many things that were very special. But he did not want me to be proud because of that. So he gave me a pain in my body, like a sharp thorn. Satan uses that pain to give me much trouble. It is like Satan's angel that he sends to hurt me. That certainly stops me from being proud of myself! ⁸ I asked the Lord three times to take this pain away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, ‘I will be kind to you and I will help you. That will be enough for you. When you are weak, I will show that I am completely powerful to help you.’

So I am happy to be proud about my weakness. Then I know that Christ's power will be with me. ¹⁰ That is why I am happy even when I am weak. People may insult me. They may bring me trouble. They may want to hurt me. I may have many kinds of trouble. But I am still happy because I am serving Christ. Yes, whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul is a true apostle

¹¹ I am speaking like a proud fool, but you have made me do it. You yourselves should be saying good things about me. I may not be important. But I am as good as those very special apostles.^{[b] 12} When I was there with you, I showed that I was a true apostle. I worked patiently among you. I did many miracles and great things that showed God's power. ¹³ I worked among you in the same way as I did with the other churches. You were never less important to me than they are. The only difference is that I did not ask you to help me with money. So perhaps I should ask you to forgive me for that!

¹⁴ Listen to me! This is the third time that I am ready to visit you. I will not ask you to give anything to me. I do not want any of your things. Instead, I want you yourselves. You are like my children. Children should not have to supply what their parents need. It is parents who should supply what their children need. ¹⁵ So I will be happy to give everything that I have to you. I will be happy to give myself too, because I want to help you. Perhaps I love you too much! But that should not mean that you will love me less than you should.

¹⁶ I did not give you trouble. You surely know that. But some of you say that I deceived you. You think that I was clever and I got money from you. ¹⁷ That is not true! When I sent people to you, they never cheated you on my behalf. ¹⁸ I asked Titus to come and visit you, and I sent another Christian friend with him. But Titus certainly did not deceive you to get anything from you. Both he and I have always been completely honest with you. We both think in the same way.

¹⁹ What are you thinking when you read all this? Do you think that we want to show you how good we are? No, we are speaking as people who belong to Christ. God knows us. Everything that we do is to help you. We love you and we want to make you stronger as believers.

²⁰ When I come there to visit you, I hope you will be living in a good way. But I am afraid that I will not see what I want to see. Then you will see that I am different from what you want me to be! I am afraid that you may be quarrelling. You may be jealous of each other. You may be very angry with each other. Some of you may just want to please yourselves. You may be insulting one another, or telling lies about one another. You may be proud of how good you are. You may be causing trouble for one another. Yes, I am afraid that all those things may be happening among you.

²¹ I am afraid that I may be very sad when I come back to you. My God may cause me to feel ashamed about you. Some of you may still be doing bad and disgusting things. You may be having sex with people that you are not married to, or in other wrong ways. Those are the bad things that many of you did at one time. If you have not turned away from those bad things, that will make me weep.