M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Moses anoints Aaron and his sons

8 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Fetch Aaron and his sons.^[a] Bring their special clothes. Bring the oil. Bring the basket of bread that they made without yeast. Also bring the bull for the sin offering and the two male sheep. ³ Cause all the people to come to the door of the Tent of Meeting.’

⁴ Moses did what the Lord said. Moses and the priests and all the people came to the door of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ Moses said to the people, ‘The Lord said that I must do this.’ ⁶ Moses washed Aaron and his sons with water. ⁷ Moses put a shirt on Aaron and he tied a belt round Aaron. He put a robe and an ephod on him. He tied the ephod with its special belt. ⁸ Moses put the breastpiece on Aaron, and he put the Urim and Thummim in its pocket.^{[b] 9} Moses tied a piece of linen as a hat round Aaron's head. On the front of this linen he put a plate of gold with valuable stones on it. The Lord had said that Moses must do this.

¹⁰ Moses put some of the special olive oil on the tabernacle and on everything in it. He did this to make those things holy. ¹¹ Moses shook oil on the altar seven times. He put oil on the altar table and on all the tools to use with it. He put oil on the washing dish and on the table on which it stood. ¹² Moses anointed Aaron's head with oil to make him holy. ¹³ He put a robe on each of Aaron's sons. He tied cloth belts around them and cloth hats on their heads. The Lord had commanded Moses to do this.

¹⁴ Moses brought the bull as a gift to God. Aaron and his sons put their hands on the bull's head. ¹⁵ Moses killed the bull. He put his finger in the blood. He put the blood on the horns of the altar. That made it holy. Moses poured out the blood that he had not used. He poured it onto the floor in front of the altar. This is how he made the altar ready to make sacrifices. ¹⁶ He burnt the fat and the kidneys and the best piece of the liver on the altar. ¹⁷ Moses burnt the meat with the inside parts and the skin of the bull outside the camp. The Lord had said that Moses must do this.

¹⁸ Moses brought a male sheep to burn as a gift to God. Aaron and his sons put their hands on the sheep's head. ¹⁹ Moses killed the sheep. He threw the blood onto the sides of the altar. ²⁰ Moses cut the sheep into small pieces. He burnt the fat and the head and the pieces on the altar. ²¹ He washed the legs and the inside parts. He burnt them on the altar as an offering to the Lord. The smell of them while they were burning gave the Lord pleasure. The Lord had said that Moses must do this.

²² Moses brought the other male sheep. It was a gift. It showed that God had chosen Aaron's family to become his priests. Aaron and his sons put their hands on the sheep's head. ²³ Moses killed the sheep. He put some of its blood on Aaron's right ear. He also put blood on the thumb of Aaron's right hand. And he put some on the big toe of his right foot.^{[c] 24} Moses did the same to Aaron's sons. Then he threw blood on all the sides of the altar. ²⁵ Moses took the fat tail and the fat and the kidneys from inside the animal. He took the best piece of the liver from inside the animal. He took the top part of the right back leg. ²⁶ Moses took two flat loaves of bread that they had made without yeast and a biscuit. He took them from the basket that was in front of the Lord. One of the loaves had oil in it. He put them on top of the fat and the leg. ²⁷ Moses gave them to Aaron and to his sons. They lifted them up as a special gift to the Lord. ²⁸ Moses took the special gift from them and he burnt it on the altar. The smell of it while it was burning gave the Lord pleasure. ²⁹ Moses took his part of the animal, the meat of the ribs, and he lifted it up to the Lord. The Lord had said that Moses must do this.

³⁰ Moses took some of the oil and some of the blood from the altar. He shook them on Aaron and his sons. He also shook some of the blood and some of the oil on their clothes. He did that to make them holy.

³¹ Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, ‘Cook the meat at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Eat the meat with the bread in the basket by the door of the Tent of Meeting. ³² Burn the meat and bread that you do not eat. ³³ You must stay at the door of the Tent of Meeting for seven days. This will make you holy. You must stay for seven days to become holy. ³⁴ The Lord said that you must do this to atone for your sin. ³⁵ Remember that you must stay at the door of the Tent of Meeting. You must stay there for seven days and seven nights. The Lord told me that you must do this. If you do not obey him, you will die.’ ³⁶ So Aaron and his sons did everything that the Lord had told Moses.

This is a song that David wrote.

The leader must use the music ‘Death of the son.’

A song to thank God^[a]

More wise thoughts

23 6. When you sit down to eat a meal with a ruler, be careful how you eat. ² Even if you enjoy your food, do not eat too much of it. ³ Do not want his special food for yourself. He may be trying to deceive you.

⁴ 7. Do not work so hard to become rich that you make yourself ill. Be wise and rest when you need to. ⁵ Your money can disappear very quickly. It may seem to grow wings and then fly far away like an eagle.

⁶ 8. Do not go and eat a meal with someone who hates to spend his money. His food may be good, but do not be greedy for it.

⁷ He says, ‘Eat and drink as much as you want,’ but he does not really mean that. He is thinking about the cost of the food.

⁸ Even if you only eat a little of his food, it will make you sick. All your nice words to him will be useless.

⁹ 9. Do not speak to foolish people. They will think that your wise words are silly.

¹⁰ 10. Never move a stone that has always shown the border of someone's land. Do not take for yourself the fields of people who have no family to help them. ¹¹ God himself will be the relative who helps them. He will speak against you in court.

¹² 11. Listen carefully to your teacher and study well. Then you will learn knowledge.

¹³ 12. Remember to warn your children when they do something wrong. If you punish them with a stick, you will not kill them. ¹⁴ Punishment may save them from death.

¹⁵ 13. My child, if you become wise, I will be happy. ¹⁶ When I hear you speak true words, it will make me very happy.

¹⁷ 14. Do not be jealous of sinners. Always respect the Lord and obey him in everything that you do. ¹⁸ Then you will be happy in future days. What you hope for will surely happen.

¹⁹ 15. Listen to me, my child. Learn to be wise and to live in a good way.

²⁰ Do not be a friend of people who become drunk. Do not be a friend of greedy people who eat too much. ²¹ People who are like that soon become poor. They sleep too much, and their clothes have holes in them.

²² 16. Listen to your father. You would not be alive without him. Continue to respect your mother when she becomes old.

²³ Truth, wisdom, good teaching and knowledge are valuable things. Buy them for yourself. Do not sell them.

²⁴ The father of a righteous person will be very happy. He will be proud of a wise child. ²⁵ So make your father and your mother proud of you. Do things that will make your mother happy.

²⁶ 17. Listen to me carefully, my son. Watch how I live.

²⁷ Prostitutes are a dangerous trap for men. Women who are not faithful to their husbands can cause men to fall into danger, like a deep well. ²⁸ They are like robbers who wait to attack people. They take more and more men away from their wives.

^29-30 18. People who drink too much wine have many problems. Do you see someone who is in trouble? Someone who is very sad? Someone who argues or complains all the time? Do you see someone with wounds on his body for no reason, or someone with red eyes? Then you are looking at someone who likes to drink wine until late at night. He is someone who likes to try different drinks.

³¹ So do not even look at that beautiful red wine! Do not think about the pleasure it would give to you. ³² In the end, it will bite you, like a snake with its poison. ³³ Your eyes will see strange things. Your mind will be confused so that you say crazy things.

³⁴ You will roll about, like a man who tries to sleep on a ship in a storm. ³⁵ You will say, ‘Somebody must have hit me, but I do not remember what happened. I need to wake up soon and have another drink.’

Paul's work in Thessalonica

2 Our Christian friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you had good results. ² You know what happened to us before we came to you. The people at Philippi had done bad things to us.^[a] They had caused us to have trouble. When we came to you, our God helped us to be brave. We were not afraid to tell you his good news. Many people tried to stop us, but we told you God's message.

³ When we tell people to obey God's message, we are not saying anything that is not true. We do not have a wrong purpose. We are not trying to deceive anyone. ⁴ Instead, we say what God wants us to say. He has chosen us to tell his good news to people. So we do not do it to make people happy. We do it to make God happy. He is the one who knows what we are really like.

⁵ When we came to you, we spoke what was true. We did not just say nice things to make you feel good. You yourselves know that. We did not try to make you give things to us. We never had a secret purpose like that. God knows that this is true. ⁶ We did not want anyone to say that we are great people. We did not want you to do that, or anyone else. ⁷ We could have used our authority over you, because we are Christ's apostles. But instead, we chose to be kind to you and to help you. We took care of you, like a mother takes care of her little children. ⁸ We loved you very much, so we wanted to tell you God's good news. We wanted to share our lives with you too.^[b]

⁹ Our Christian friends, remember how we worked so hard to help you. We worked during the day and even during the night. We did not want to cause any problems for you. So we taught you God's good news and we did not ask you to give us anything in return.^[c]

¹⁰ You know that we lived in a good way when we were with you. God also knows that. We were completely honest with you believers. Nobody could say that we did anything wrong. ¹¹ You know that we helped you, like a father helps his own children. ¹² We taught you clearly what is true. We helped you to be strong as believers. God has chosen you to be his own people. You belong to his great kingdom, where he rules. So we told you to live in a way that pleases him.

¹³ There is another reason why we always continue to thank God for you. When we told God's message to you, you knew that it was not human ideas. You accepted it as God's own message, and that is what it certainly is. You continue to grow as believers because of God's message that you heard.

¹⁴ Our Christian friends, you have received the same kind of trouble that the people in the churches of Judea received.^[d] People in your own country have caused you to have trouble and pain. The same thing happened to the people in Judea who believed in Christ Jesus. They received trouble from their own Jewish people.

¹⁵ People like that even killed the Lord Jesus. They killed God's prophets, too. They also did bad things against us, so that we had to leave their towns. They make God become angry. They are enemies of all people, ¹⁶ because they try to stop us speaking to Gentiles. They do not want God to save anyone from another nation. In this way, they continue to do more and more bad things. When their sins become too many, God has to stop them. He has become so angry that he has punished them completely.

Paul wants to return to Thessalonica

¹⁷ Our friends, we have had to go away from you for a short time. But we have not stopped thinking about you. We have wanted more and more to come to see you again. ¹⁸ Yes, we really wanted to return to you. Certainly, I, Paul, tried again and again to come to you, but Satan stopped us.

¹⁹ You are the people that make us very happy! We know that you will continue to trust God. So, when our Lord Jesus returns, we will be proud of you. You will be like a crown that he gives us when we stand in front of him. ²⁰ You show the great results of our work. Yes, it is because of you that we are very happy.