M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Aaron’s budding staff
17 [a] The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 Speak to the Israelites and take from them a staff from each household, from each of the chiefs of their households, twelve staffs. Write each person’s name on his staff. 3 Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, for there will be one staff for the leader of each household. 4 Then you will place them in the meeting tent in front of the chest containing the covenant, where I meet you. 5 The staff of the person I choose will sprout. Then I will rid myself of the Israelites’ complaints that they make against you.
6 Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their chiefs gave him a staff, one staff for each chief and his household, twelve staffs, and the staff of Aaron was with their staffs. 7 Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the meeting tent. 8 The next day Moses entered the covenant tent, and Aaron’s staff of Levi’s household had sprouted. It grew shoots, produced blossoms, and bore almonds. 9 Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to the Israelites. They saw what happened, and each person took back his staff.
10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Return Aaron’s staff in front of the chest containing the covenant to serve as a sign to the rebels so that their complaints against me end and they don’t die.” 11 Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded him.
12 The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing. We are being destroyed. All of us are being destroyed. 13 Anyone who approaches the Lord’s dwelling will die. Are we doomed to perish?”
The priests’ and Levites’ duties
18 The Lord said to Aaron: You, your sons, and your household will bear the guilt of offenses connected with the sanctuary. You and your sons will bear the guilt of offenses connected with your priesthood. 2 Bring with you your brothers from the tribe of Levi, your father’s tribe, so that they can assist you and serve you and your sons before the covenant tent. 3 They will perform their duties for you and the service for the entire tent. But they will not approach the holy equipment of the sanctuary or the altar, lest both they and you die. 4 They will assist you and they will perform the duties of the meeting tent with regard to all the work of the tent. But no outsider may accompany you. 5 You will perform the duties of the sanctuary and the altar. Then there will no longer be any anger against the Israelites. 6 I have taken your brothers, the Levites, from the Israelites. They are a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to perform the service of the meeting tent. 7 You and your sons must perform the duties of your priesthood for all the matters of the altar and the area behind the curtain. I give you your priestly service as a gift. But an outsider who approaches will die.
The priests’ compensation
8 The Lord spoke to Aaron: I now place you in charge of my gifts, including all the Israelites’ sacred offerings. I have given them to you and your sons as an allowance. This is a permanent regulation. 9 This is what belongs to you from the most holy offerings, from the offerings by fire: all their offerings, including their grain offerings, their purification offerings, and their compensation offerings. The most holy offerings that they bring to me will be yours and your sons’. 10 You will eat it as a most holy thing. Every male may eat it. It will be holy to you. 11 This will also belong to you, your sons, and your daughters: I’m giving you the gift offerings and all the Israelites’ uplifted offerings. This is a permanent regulation. Anyone who is clean in your household may eat it. 12 All the choice oil, new wine, and the grain’s first harvest that they give to the Lord, I’m giving to you. 13 The early produce of everything in their land, which they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Anyone who is clean in your household may eat it. 14 Everything that is devoted to the Lord in Israel will be yours. 15 Any oldest male from the womb of any living thing that is presented to the Lord, whether human or animal, will be yours. However, you will redeem the oldest males of humans and of unclean animals. 16 Their redemption price from one month of age you will calculate at five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs. 17 But the oldest offspring of a cow, sheep, or goat you may not redeem. They are holy. You must dash their blood on the altar and turn their fat into smoke for a soothing smell to the Lord. 18 But their meat is yours. It will be yours just as the breast of the uplifted offering and the right thigh are yours. 19 All the holy gift offerings that the Israelites raise to the Lord I have given to you, your sons, and your daughters. This is a permanent regulation. It is a covenant of salt forever in the Lord’s presence, for you and your descendants.
20 The Lord said to Aaron: You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have a share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.
The Levites’ compensation
21 I have given all the one-tenth portions in Israel to the Levites as an inheritance. They are a reward for performing their service in the meeting tent. 22 The Israelites will no longer be able to approach the meeting tent, or they will be responsible for their sin and die. 23 The Levites will perform the service of the meeting tent, and they will be responsible for their own sins. This is a permanent regulation for all time. But they will not inherit land among the Israelites 24 because I’ve given the Israelites’ one-tenth portion, which they have raised to the Lord as a gift offering, as an inheritance to the Levites. Therefore, I’ve said to them, “They won’t inherit land among the Israelites.”
25 The Lord spoke to Moses: 26 Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the Israelites the one-tenth portion that I have given you from them as your inheritance, you also must present a gift offering to the Lord from it, a tenth from the one-tenth portion. 27 It will be considered your gift offering, like the grain of the threshing floor and what fills the winepress. 28 In this way you will also present a gift offering to the Lord from all the one-tenth portions that you take from the Israelites. You will provide from it a gift offering to the Lord for Aaron the priest. 29 You will present each gift offering to the Lord from all your gifts, from its best portions and its holiest parts.
30 You will say to them: When you have presented the best portion, it will be considered for the Levites equivalent to the produce of the grain and the produce of the winepress. 31 You and your household may eat it anywhere, because it is payment for your service in the meeting tent. 32 You will not bear guilt after you have presented the best portion. But you must not make the sacred gifts of the Israelites impure, on penalty of death.
Psalm 55
For the music leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil[a] of David.
55 God, listen to my prayer;
don’t avoid my request!
2 Pay attention! Answer me!
I can’t sit still while complaining.
I’m beside myself
3 over the enemy’s noise,
at the wicked person’s racket,
because they bring disaster on me
and harass me furiously.
4 My heart pounds in my chest
because death’s terrors have reached me.
5 Fear and trembling have come upon me;
I’m shaking all over.
6 I say to myself,
I wish I had wings like a dove!
I’d fly away and rest.
7 I’d run so far away!
I’d live in the desert. Selah
8 I’d hurry to my hideout,
far from the rushing wind and storm.
9 Baffle them, my Lord!
Confuse their language
because I see violence and conflict in the city.
10 Day and night they make their rounds on its walls,
and evil and misery live inside it.
11 Disaster lives inside it;
oppression and fraud never leave the town square.
12 It’s not an enemy that is insulting me—
I could handle that.
It’s not someone who hates me
who is exalted over me—
I could hide from them.
13 No. It’s you, my equal,
my close companion, my good friend!
14 It was so pleasant when
together we entered God’s house with the crowd.
15 Let death devastate my enemies;
let them go to the grave[b] alive
because evil lives with them—
even inside them!
16 But I call out to God,
and the Lord will rescue me.
17 At evening, morning, and midday
I complain and moan
so that God will hear my voice.
18 He saves me,[c] unharmed, from my struggle,
though there are many who are out to get me.
19 God, who is enthroned from ancient days,
will hear and humble them Selah
because they don’t change
and they don’t worship God.
20 My friend attacked his allies,
breaking his covenant.
21 Though his talk is smoother than butter,
war is in his heart;
though his words are more silky than oil,
they are really drawn swords:
22 “Cast your burden on the Lord—
he will support you!
God will never let the righteous be shaken!”
23 But you, God, bring the wicked
down to the deepest pit.
Let bloodthirsty and treacherous people
not live out even half their days.
But me? I trust in you!
Reassurance to King Ahaz
7 In the days of Ahaz (Jotham’s son and grandson of Judah’s King Uzziah), Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah (Remaliah’s son) came up to attack Jerusalem, but they couldn’t overpower it.
2 When the house of David was told that Aram had become allies with Ephraim, their hearts and the hearts of their people shook as the trees of a forest shake when there is a wind. 3 But the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,[a] at the end of the channel of the Upper Pool, by the road to the field where laundry is washed, 4 and say to him, ‘Be careful and stay calm. Don’t fear, and don’t lose heart over these two pieces of smoking torches, over the burning anger of Rezin, Aram, and Remaliah’s son. 5 Aram has planned evil against you with Ephraim and Remaliah’s son, saying, 6 “Let’s march up against Judah, tear it apart, capture it for ourselves, and install Tabeel’s son as its king.” 7 But the Lord God says: It won’t happen; it won’t take place. 8 The chief of Aram is Damascus; the chief of Damascus is Rezin (in sixty-five more years Ephraim will be shattered as a nation); 9 the chief of Ephraim is Samaria; and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you don’t believe this, you can’t be trusted.’”
The sign of Immanuel
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign from the Lord your God. Make it as deep as the grave[b] or as high as heaven.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask; I won’t test the Lord.”
13 Then Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Isn’t it enough for you to be tiresome for people that you are also tiresome before my God? 14 Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign. The young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel.[c] 15 He will eat butter and honey, and learn to reject evil and choose good. 16 Before the boy learns to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. 17 The Lord will bring upon you, upon your people, and upon your families days unlike any that have come since the day Ephraim broke away from Judah—the king of Assyria.”
The devastated land
18 On that day, the Lord will whistle for the flies from the remotest streams of Egypt and for the bees that are in the land of Assyria. 19 They will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the cracks of the cliffs, in all the thornbushes, and in all the watering holes.
20 On that day, the Lord will shave with a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—with the king of Assyria—the head and the pubic hair, and will cut off the beard as well.
21 On that day, one will raise a young cow and two sheep 22 and will eat butter because of the abundance of milk, for all who remain in the land will eat butter and honey.
23 On that day, there will be thorns and thistles in every place where a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels once grew. 24 Only those with bows and arrows will go there, because the entire land will become thorns and thistles. 25 As for the hills that were once farmed with hoes, you won’t go there for fear of the thorns and thistles. They will become places where cattle are turned loose and sheep wander.
Greeting
1 From James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To the twelve tribes who are scattered outside the land of Israel.
Greetings!
Stand firm
2 My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. 3 After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing. 5 But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. 6 Whoever asks shouldn’t hesitate. They should ask in faith, without doubting. Whoever doubts is like the surf of the sea, tossed and turned by the wind. 7 People like that should never imagine that they will receive anything from the Lord. 8 They are double-minded, unstable in all their ways.
9 Brothers and sisters who are poor should find satisfaction in their high status. 10 Those who are wealthy should find satisfaction in their low status, because they will die off like wildflowers. 11 The sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass so that its flowers fall and its beauty is lost. Just like that, in the midst of their daily lives, the wealthy will waste away. 12 Those who stand firm during testing are blessed. They are tried and true. They will receive the life God has promised to those who love him as their reward.
Our cravings versus God’s gifts
13 No one who is tested should say, “God is tempting me!” This is because God is not tempted by any form of evil, nor does he tempt anyone. 14 Everyone is tempted by their own cravings; they are lured away and enticed by them. 15 Once those cravings conceive, they give birth to sin; and when sin grows up, it gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all. 18 He chose to give us birth by his true word, and here is the result: we are like the first crop from the harvest of everything he created.
Welcoming and doing the word
19 Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. 20 This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.
22 You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. 23 Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. 24 They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. 25 But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do.
26 If those who claim devotion to God don’t control what they say, they mislead themselves. Their devotion is worthless. 27 True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible