M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The altar for incense

30 Use acacia wood to make an altar so that you can burn incense on it. ² The altar must be square. Make it 45 centimetres long, 45 centimetres wide and 90 centimetres high. The altar's horns must be part of it, made from one piece of wood. ³ Cover all the altar with gold: its top, its sides and the horns. Build up an edge of gold around the four sides. ⁴ Make two gold rings for the altar. Fix them below the gold edge on two opposite sides. They will hold the poles for you to carry the altar. ⁵ Use acacia wood to make the poles. Cover them with gold.

⁶ Put the altar for incense in the Holy Place in the tabernacle. Put it in front of the curtain that hides the Covenant Box. It will be near the special lid that covers the Covenant Box. That is the place where I will meet with you.

⁷ Every morning, Aaron must burn sweet incense on this altar. He must do this when he goes in to take care of the lamps. ⁸ He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps in the evening. Incense must burn there as an offering to the Lord every day from now on. ⁹ Only offer proper incense on this altar. Do not offer any burnt offerings or grain offerings on it. And do not pour any drink offerings on it. ¹⁰ Once every year, Aaron must make the altar clean and pure. He must put some of the blood from the sin offering on the horns of the altar. A priest must do this every year from now on. The altar is holy because it belongs to me, the Lord.’

Money for the tabernacle

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹² ‘When you count the number of the Israelites, each person must pay the Lord a price for his life. Everyone must do this at the time when you count them. Then no bad illness will happen to them as you count them. ¹³ Each person that you count must give six grams of silver. That is the proper weight that they use in the tabernacle. The silver is an offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ You must count every person who is 20 years old or more. Each person must offer his gift to the Lord. ¹⁵ Rich people must not give more than six grams of silver. Poor people must not give less than that. That is the offering that you must each give to the Lord. It is the price that everyone must pay for his life. ¹⁶ Receive these silver coins from the Israelites. Use the money to take care of the Tent of Meeting.^[a] Then the Lord will always remember that you belong to him. You have paid money for your lives.’

The bronze bowl

¹⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ ‘Use bronze to make a large bowl for water. Also use bronze to make a base for it to stand on. Put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar. Fill it with water.

¹⁹ Aaron and his sons must use the water from the bowl to wash their hands and their feet. ²⁰ Every time they go into the Tent of Meeting, they must wash in the same way. Then they will not die. They must also wash before they go to the altar to make a burnt offering to the Lord. ²¹ If they wash their hands and their feet, they will not die as they serve me. This will always be a rule for Aaron and for his descendants, the priests.’

Special oil and incense

²² Then the Lord said to Moses, ²³ ‘Mix together these special spices:

²⁵ Mix these spices to make a special oil. A worker should use special skills to make it, so that it has a sweet smell, like perfume. It will be a very special oil to put on things that belong to me.

²⁶ Then pour some of this special oil on these things:

²⁹ You must make all these things special for me. They will be very holy things. Anything that touches them will also become holy.

³⁰ Pour some of the special oil on Aaron's head and on the heads of his sons. Make them special for me. Then they can serve me as my priests. ³¹ Say to the Israelites, “This will always be my special oil for all time. ³² Do not put it on the bodies of anyone, except priests. Do not use spices like this to make oil for yourselves. It is holy and you must always think about it as holy. ³³ Nobody must make a perfume that has a sweet smell like this oil. Nobody must put this oil on any person who is not a priest. Anyone who does not obey this rule will no longer belong to my people.” ’

³⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Use the same amount of each of these sweet spices to make some incense: gum resin, onycha, galbanum and frankincense.^{[c] 35} Give them to a worker who can use special skills to make the incense. It must have a sweet smell, like a perfume. Add some salt to it so that it is a pure and holy incense. ³⁶ Beat some of the incense to make powder. Put this in front of the Covenant Box, in the Tent of Meeting. That is where I will meet with you. This incense will be a very holy thing for you. ³⁷ Do not make any incense like this for yourselves. You must always think about it as very holy. It belongs to the Lord. ³⁸ If anyone makes any incense like it for his own perfume, he will no longer belong to my people.’

Jesus makes a blind man able to see

9 While Jesus was walking along, he saw a certain man. This man had been blind since he was born. ² Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Teacher, why was this man blind when he was born? Was it because he himself did something wrong? Or was it because his parents did something wrong?’ ³ Jesus answered, ‘It was not because either this man or his parents did something wrong. It happened so that God could show his great work in this man. ⁴ While it is still day, we must continue to work. God has sent me and we must do his work. We must work now because it will be night soon. Then nobody can work. ⁵ While I am still here in the world, I am the world's light.’

⁶ When Jesus had finished speaking, he spat on the ground. He mixed it with dirt on the ground so that he made mud. Then he put some of the mud on the eyes of the blind man. ⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Siloam pool.’ (The name Siloam means ‘Sent’.) So the man went there and he washed himself. When he returned, now he could see.

⁸ People began to talk about him. Some of these people lived near him. Others had seen him when he was asking for money. They said, ‘This is the man who sat here. He asked people to give him money. Isn't that right?’ ⁹ Some people said, ‘Yes, it is him.’ But other people said, ‘No, it is someone who seems to be like him.’ But the man himself said, ‘I am that man.’

¹⁰ They asked him, ‘How did your eyes now become able to see?’ ¹¹ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made some mud. He put the mud on my eyes. Then he sent me to wash in the Siloam pool. So I went there and I washed. Then I could see.’

¹² They asked him, ‘Where is this man?’ He replied, ‘I do not know.’

The Pharisees talk to the man who had been blind

¹³ The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ It was a Jewish day of rest when Jesus had done this miracle. He had used mud to make the man's eyes able to see. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees asked the man again, ‘How did you become able to see?’ The man replied, ‘Jesus put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I can see.’

¹⁶ So some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man Jesus cannot have come from God. He does not obey the rules about our day of rest.’ But other Pharisees said, ‘Nobody who is bad could do great things like this!’ So they did not agree with each other. ¹⁷ The Pharisees spoke again to the man who had been blind. They said to him, ‘What do you yourself say about this man? It was your eyes he has now made able to see.’ The man replied, ‘He is a prophet.’

¹⁸ The Jewish leaders still did not believe that the man had really been blind. They did not want to believe that he had now become able to see. So they told the man's parents to come to them. ¹⁹ They asked the parents, ‘Is this your son? You say, “When he was born, he was blind.” But now he can see. How did this happen?’ ²⁰ The parents replied, ‘We know that this is our son. And when he was born, he was blind. We know that, too. ²¹ But we do not know how he can see now. We do not know who made his eyes able to see. Ask him. He is old enough to answer you for himself!’ ²² The man's parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders did not want anyone to say that Jesus was the Messiah. They would not let anyone like that belong to their meeting places. ²³ That is why the man's parents said, ‘Ask him. He is old enough.’

²⁴ So the leaders again spoke to the man who had been blind. They said to him, ‘In front of God, promise that you will speak only true things. We know that this man Jesus does not obey God.’ ²⁵ The man replied, ‘I do not know whether he obeys God or not. But I do know one thing: I was blind and now I can see.’ ²⁶ Then they asked him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he make your eyes able to see?’ ²⁷ He answered them, ‘I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Maybe you want to become his disciples too!’ ²⁸ Then the leaders were very angry with him. They shouted at him, ‘No, it is you! You are that man's disciple. But we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses. But who is this man? We do not even know where he comes from.’

³⁰ The man answered, ‘That is a very strange thing! You do not know where this man comes from. But he is the one who made my eyes able to see. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to people who do not obey him. But he does listen to good people who do what he wants them to do. ³² Nobody has ever made the eyes of a blind man able to see, if that man had been blind when he was born. Since the world began, that has never happened! ³³ So this man Jesus must have come from God. Unless he came from God, he could not do anything like that.’

³⁴ The Jewish leaders answered him, ‘Since the day that you were born, you have never obeyed God's laws. You cannot teach us anything!’ And they threw him out of the meeting place.

People who do not believe in God are like blind people

³⁵ Jesus heard that the Jewish leaders had thrown the man out. So he went and he found the man. Jesus asked him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ³⁶ The man answered, ‘Sir, please tell me who he is. Then I can believe in him.’ ³⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘You have already seen him. It is me, the one who is talking to you now.’ ³⁸ Then the man said, ‘Lord, now I believe.’ He bent down on his knees and he worshipped Jesus.

³⁹ Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world to judge people. Then people who know that they are blind will be able to see. And people who think they can see will become blind.’ ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were there with him heard this. They asked Jesus, ‘Do you mean that we are also blind?’ ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, God would not punish you for the wrong things you have done. But you say that you can see. You do wrong things with your eyes open, so God will punish you as guilty people.’

Dangerous things

6 My child, be careful not to promise more than you can really do. You may have promised to pay the debts of a friend or of a stranger. ² Then what you have promised to do may become a trap that catches you.

³ Now you need to escape from your problem. Your friend has got power over you. So you must be humble. Go quickly to him and ask him to forgive the debt. ⁴ Do not let yourself sleep or even stop to rest until you have met with him. ⁵ You must make yourself free from the trap. Escape quickly, like a bird or a deer that runs away from a hunter.

⁶ Learn a lesson from the ants, you lazy person! See how hard they work. ⁷ They have no leader or ruler, ⁸ but they get their food during the summer. At the time of harvest they store food to prepare for winter.

⁹ But you, you lazy man, you lie in bed too long! Will you never get up to work? ¹⁰ You say, ‘I will have a short sleep. I will rest quietly for a while.’ ¹¹ But while you sleep you will suddenly become poor. You will have nothing, as if someone has robbed you.

¹² A useless, wicked person is always deceiving people. ¹³ He sends secret messages with his eyes, his feet or his fingers. ¹⁴ He uses evil thoughts to decide how he will hurt people. Wherever he goes, there is trouble.

¹⁵ Because of this, trouble will suddenly happen to him. It will knock him down and he will never get up again.

¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates, or even seven things:

²⁰ My child, obey your father's commands. Do not forget what your mother has taught you. ²¹ Keep their teaching in your thoughts. Keep it as near to you as a necklace that you wear.

²² Wherever you go in life, their words will be your guide. They will keep you safe while you sleep. When you wake up, they will teach you.

²³ Their commands and their teaching are like a lamp that gives you light. When they warn you that you are doing wrong things, that helps you to live well.

²⁴ They will keep you safe from any bad woman, so that the sweet words of an adulteress will not deceive you. ²⁵ Do not keep thinking how beautiful her body is. Do not let her use her eyes like a trap to catch you.

²⁶ If you sleep with a prostitute, that may cost the price of a meal. But if you sleep with another man's wife, you may pay with your life.

²⁷ You cannot carry fire next to your body and not burn your clothes. ²⁸ You cannot walk over hot pieces of coal and not burn your feet. ²⁹ It is the same when a man has sex with another man's wife. Anyone who does that will receive punishment that hurts him.

³⁰ People may excuse someone who steals food because he is hungry.^{[a] 31} But if someone catches him, he must pay back seven times what he took. He may lose everything that he has in his house.

³² But a man who sleeps with another man's wife is stupid. He is destroying his own life. ³³ He deserves his punishment and shame. He will never stop being ashamed.

³⁴ The woman's husband will be jealous, and he will become very angry. He will want the man to receive full punishment. ³⁵ He will not accept any money or bribe to pay the debt, even if it is a lot of money.

We should live as free people

5 Christ has made us free so that we can be really free! So be strong and do not turn back. Do not let yourselves become slaves to the Jewish rules again.

² Listen carefully! I, Paul, tell you this. If you agree that someone should circumcise you, then Christ will be worth nothing to you. ³ I will say it very clearly. Every man who lets someone circumcise him must then obey all the Jewish rules. ⁴ I say this to you people who try to obey the rules of God's Law. If you think that God will accept you as right because you do that, you have turned away from Christ. You no longer agree to accept God's kind gift. ⁵ But if we trust what Christ has done for us, God's Spirit helps us to wait. We are sure that God will accept us as right with him. ⁶ We belong to Christ Jesus. So it does not matter whether anyone has circumcised us or not. The only thing that matters is that we believe in Christ. As a result we will love others in the way that we live.

⁷ Like good runners, you were doing very well! You should not have let anyone turn you away from God's true message. ⁸ It is not God who has caused you to change what you believe. No! God is the one who has chosen you to serve him. ⁹ People say this: ‘Only a small amount of yeast in the flour will cause a loaf of bread to grow big.’^{[a] 10} But I feel sure about you, because we belong to the Lord. I know that you will agree with what I say about this. But as for the man who is confusing you, God will punish him. It does not matter who he is, God will punish him.

¹¹ My Christian friends, do you think that I still teach that someone must circumcise believers? If I really taught that, then I would not still receive trouble from people. What I teach about Christ's death on the cross would not cause anyone to become angry. ¹² Those people who are causing trouble and want to circumcise you should cut their own bodies! Yes, that is what they should do!

Live by God's Spirit

¹³ My Christian friends, God has chosen you to serve him as free people. But you are still weak and human. So you are not free to do anything that you might want to do. Instead, you must serve one another, because you love each other. ¹⁴ One rule brings together all the rules in God's Law. That one rule says: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’^{[b] 15} So you must not live like wild animals. Wild animals fight and they eat each other. If you live like that, be very careful! You may destroy one another completely.

¹⁶ So this is what I say: Let God's Spirit show you how to live in a good way. Then you will not do the wrong things that you may want to do, as people who are weak and human. ¹⁷ The things that you want to do as a weak person are opposite to the things that God's Spirit wants. The things that God's Spirit wants are the opposite of what we want as weak people. Our own thoughts fight against what God's Spirit wants us to do. As a result, you are not free to do the things that you really want to do. ¹⁸ But if God's Spirit leads you, then the rules of God's Law have no authority over you.

¹⁹ Everyone knows the kinds of bad things that weak people want to do. They have sex with people that they are not married to. They do things that are bad and disgusting. ²⁰ They worship idols. They do magic to hurt people. They become enemies and they fight one another. They are jealous of other people. They become very angry. They want to please themselves and to be important. They cause trouble. They make people belong to different groups. ²¹ They want things that belong to other people. They are drunks. They have wild parties. And they like to do many other bad things like those. So I warn you again, as I have already warned you before. People who continue to do any of those bad things will not receive good things from God. God has prepared those good things for the people who belong to his kingdom.

²² But God's Spirit causes us to live in a different way. We love other people. We are happy and we have peace in our minds. We are patient, kind and good. People can trust us to do what is right. ²³ We respect other people and we rule ourselves properly. God's Spirit helps us to live in that way. There is no law that says these things are wrong.

²⁴ We belong to Christ. As a result, we no longer obey our wrong human thoughts. We stop doing the bad things that our thoughts want us to do. It is like we have killed those thoughts on the cross. ²⁵ Now it is God's Spirit that gives us life. So we must let God's Spirit lead us in how we live. ²⁶ We must not become proud. We must not be jealous of each other, so that we cause trouble to one another.