M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Unclean people
5 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Speak to the Israelites. They must send any person with a disease of the skin away from the camp. Or somebody may have a disease that causes pus to come out of his body. Any person like that is not clean. Anyone who has touched a dead person is also not clean. Send those people out of the camp too. 3 Do this with both men and women. Send them out of the camp. They must not make the camp unclean, because that is where I live among the people.’
4 The Israelites did what the Lord had said to Moses. They sent those people outside the camp.
What to pay when you do a wrong thing
5 The Lord said to Moses, 6 ‘Tell these rules to the Israelites: A person might do a wrong thing against another person. If they do, then they have turned against the Lord. 7 That person must agree that they have sinned. They must pay the right amount to the other person. They must also pay them one fifth extra. 8 But the other person may have died. If they have no relative who can accept the money, the money must go to the Lord. The person who did a wrong thing must give the money and a male sheep to the priest. The sheep is a special gift to the Lord to make everything right. Then I will forgive that person. 9 All the special gifts from the Israelites to God are for the priest. 10 The priest will keep all the special gifts.’
Husbands and wives
11 The Lord said to Moses:
12 ‘Speak to the Israelites. Tell them to follow these rules. A woman may do wrong things against her husband. 13 She might have had sex with another man. The husband might not know about this. His wife might have kept it secret. Nobody came in while it was happening. So there is nobody to say that it happened. 14 But the man may think that it happened. He will be angry. But she may not have made herself unclean in that way. 15 The man must take his wife to the priest. He must bring one kilogram of barley flour with him. This is a grain offering to discover if his wife really did do those things. So he must not put oil or incense on the grain offering. That is an offering because the man does not trust his wife.
16 Then the priest will bring the woman to stand in front of the Lord. 17 He must pour some holy water into a bowl that someone has made from clay.[a] He must take some dust from the floor of God's Tent. And he must put the dust into the water. 18 Then the priest must bring the woman in front of the Lord. The priest must make the woman's hair free. He must put into her hands the grain offering. That is the offering because the man does not trust his wife. The priest must hold the bowl that contains the bitter water. The bitter water brings a curse. 19 Then the woman must agree to the strong promise that the priest tells her to say.
The priest must say to her, “This water brings a curse. If no other man has had sex with you, it will not hurt you. 20 But if another man has had sex with you, 21 may the Lord bring the curse on you. The bitter water will cause your female parts to become smaller. Your stomach will become very big. 22 That will happen when you drink the bitter water.”
The woman must say, “That should happen. I agree!”
23 The priest must write the curses on special paper. Then he must wash the words off the paper into the bitter water. 24 He must tell the woman that she must drink the bitter water. This water that brings a curse will go into her body. It may cause her to be very ill. 25 But first, the priest must take the grain offering from her hands. That is the offering because the man does not trust his wife. The priest must lift it up in front of the Lord. Then he must bring it to the altar. 26 He must burn a small part of it as a sacrifice. After that, the woman must drink the bitter water. 27 If the woman has had sex with another man, the water will cause her to have very bad pain. Her female parts will become smaller. Her stomach will become very big. And people will curse her. 28 But, if she did not do those wrong things, the water will not hurt her. She will be able to have babies.
29-30 Perhaps a man is jealous because his wife has had sex with another man. Or he may only think that his wife has had sex with another man. This is what the law says that the priest must do: The man must bring her in front of the Lord. 31 If the woman did not do those wrong things, you must not punish her husband. But if the woman did do those wrong things, you must punish her.’
David wrote this song for Jeduthun, the leader of the music.
Life is short[a]
39 I said, ‘I will be careful what I do,
so that I do not sin.
I will also be careful what I say.
When wicked people are listening,
I will not even open my mouth.’
2 So I did not speak a word,
even about good things.
That made me very upset.
3 It was like a fire inside me!
As I thought more about it,
I just had to say something!
So I said this:
4 ‘Lord, tell me about my life.
Tell me how long it will be,
and when it will finish.
I need to remember that life is only short.
5 Yes, you have made the days of my life only a few!
The time that I live seems very short to you.
Human life is only a breath,
even for those who seem to be strong.
Selah.
6 As we live, we are just like shadows.
We work to get things for ourselves.
We may get a lot of money,
but we do not know who will have it after we die.’
7 So, my Lord, what help can I hope to get?
You are the only one that I can really trust!
8 Save me from all my sins!
Do not let fools insult me.
9 I will not say anything more.
I will not open my mouth,
because it is you who have punished me!
10 Please do not hurt me any more!
You have already punished me enough,
so that I am almost dead!
11 When people do wrong things,
you warn them and you punish them.
You destroy their valuable things,
like a moth eats cloth![b]
Yes, our lives are only a breath!
Selah.
12 Lord, please hear my prayer.
Listen to me when I call to you for help.
Do not turn away from me when I weep.
I need your help,
like a foreign person who lives away from his home.
I live on earth as a stranger,
like all my ancestors did.
13 Stop being angry with me,
so that I can be happy again before I die.
A young woman's dream
The young woman:[a]
3 All night I lay on my bed.
I wanted my lover to come to me.
I looked for him but he did not appear.
2 I thought, ‘I will get up now and I will go into the city.
I will look everywhere for my lover.
I will look in all the streets.
I will look in all the market places.’
So I looked for him,
but I did not find him.
3 The city guards found me
as they walked in the streets of the city.
I asked them,
‘Have you seen the man that I love?’
4 Just then, as I left them, I found my lover!
I hugged him and I would not let him go.
I took him to my mother's house.
I took him into my mother's bedroom.
That is where my life started, inside my mother's body.
5 Promise this to me, young women of Jerusalem:
Do not cause our love to wake up.
Do not cause it to become too strong
until the time is right.
The gazelles and the wild deer will know about your promise.
A royal wedding
6 Who is this who is coming from the desert?[b]
It seems that smoke is rising into the air!
There is a lovely smell of myrrh and incense.[c]
It is the smell of all the spices that a trader sells.
7 Look! They are carrying King Solomon on a throne![d]
60 soldiers are travelling with it.[e]
They are Israel's bravest soldiers.
8 All of them have swords.
They all know how to fight well.
Their swords are ready for them to use.
They are ready for any danger that comes in the night.
9 King Solomon made the throne for himself.
He used wood from Lebanon to make it.[f]
10 He used silver to make the posts for it.
He used gold to make its back.
Its seat has valuable purple cloth to cover it.
The young women of Jerusalem made it beautiful inside,
to show their love.
11 Young women of Zion,
come out to see King Solomon![g]
He is wearing his crown.
His mother put the crown on him on his wedding day.
It was the happiest day of his life!
Jesus is greater than Moses
3 So, Christian friends, think carefully about who Jesus is. Like us, God has chosen you to belong to him. We tell people that we believe in Jesus as the messenger that God has sent. He helps us as God's most important priest. 2 That is what God sent Jesus to do. Jesus did everything that God wanted, just like Moses. Moses served God well when he was the leader of God's people long ago. 3 We know that someone who builds a house is more important than the house itself. In the same way, we should praise Jesus more than we praise Moses, because Jesus is greater. 4 Every house has someone who built it. But God is the one who has built all things. 5 We say that Moses served God well, like a servant in God's house. He took care of all God's people. In this way, Moses showed clearly the message that God would speak later. 6 But Christ serves in God's house as a son, not as a servant. He is the leader of God's people today. And we are God's people. We belong to his house if we continue to believe in Christ. We must be brave. We must continue to show people clearly that we trust God. He will do what he has promised to do.
A place where God's people can rest
7 God's Holy Spirit says this:
‘You must listen when you hear God speak today.
8 Do not refuse to obey him.
Do not be like God's people many years ago.
When they travelled in the wilderness, they turned against me.
They wanted to see if I would punish them.
9 For 40 years your ancestors saw the great things that I did.
But still they did not obey me.
10 That is why I became angry with them.
I said, “They always want to do what is wrong.
They refuse to understand my message.”
11 Because of that, I promised to punish them.
Because I was angry with them, I said,
“They will never arrive in my special place of rest.” ’[a]
12 So be careful, my Christian friends. Do not refuse to trust God. That would be a very bad thing to do. Do not turn away from the God who lives for ever. 13 Instead, help each other to be strong every day. Today, you can still hear God's message. While that is still true, do not refuse to obey God. Do not think that sin will not hurt you. That is a lie. 14 We must continue to trust Christ very well, as we did when we first believed in him. We must continue to trust him until the end of our lives. Then we will share in everything that is his. 15 We have seen what the Bible says:
‘You must listen when you hear God speak today.
Do not refuse to obey him.
Do not be like God's people many years ago,
when they turned against God.’
16 Who were those people who heard God speak? All of them were the people that Moses led away from Egypt. They heard God's message, but they refused to obey him. 17 Who was God angry with for 40 years? He was angry with those same people. They did what was wrong. So they died and their bodies remained in the wilderness. 18 God promised to punish them, because they refused to obey him. He said, ‘They will never arrive in my special place of rest.’
19 So we must be careful ourselves! Those people did not trust God. As a result, they never arrived in God's special place.
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