M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Punishment for Serious Crimes

20 Yahweh spoke to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites: If Israelites or foreigners living among you give one of their children as a sacrifice to the god Molech, they must be put to death. The common people must stone them to death. ³ I will condemn them and exclude them from the people. They gave one of their children to Molech, made my holy tent unclean, and dishonored my holy name. ⁴ If the common people ignore those who give their children to Molech and do not put them to death, ⁵ I will condemn them and their families. I will exclude them from the people. I will exclude from the people everyone who chases after Molech as if he were a prostitute.

⁶ “I will condemn people who turn to mediums and psychics and chase after them as though they were prostitutes. I will exclude them from the people.

⁷ “Live holy lives. Be holy because I am Yahweh your Elohim. ⁸ Obey my laws, and live by them. I am Yahweh who sets you apart as holy.

⁹ “Whoever curses his father or mother must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother and deserves to die.

¹⁰ “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife or with his neighbor’s wife, both he and the woman must be put to death for their adultery. ¹¹ Whoever has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife has violated his father’s marriage. Both he and his father’s wife must be put to death. They deserve to die. ¹² If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have done a disgusting thing and deserve to die. ¹³ When a man has sexual intercourse with another man as with a woman, both men are doing something disgusting and must be put to death. They deserve to die. ¹⁴ When a man marries a woman and her mother, they have done a perverted thing. The man and the two women must be burned. Never do this perverted thing. ¹⁵ A man who has sexual intercourse with an animal must be put to death. You must kill the animal, too. ¹⁶ When a woman offers herself sexually to any animal, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death. They deserve to die. ¹⁷ Whoever takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and has sexual intercourse does a shameful thing. They both must be publicly excluded from the people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister and must be punished. ¹⁸ If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman while she has her monthly period, both of them have had sexual intercourse in blood. They must be excluded from the people. ¹⁹ Never have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister. Whoever has sexual intercourse with a close relative must be punished. ²⁰ Whoever has sexual intercourse with his uncle’s wife violates his uncle’s marriage. That man and woman are guilty of sin. They will die without children. ²¹ Whoever marries his brother’s wife violates his brother’s marriage and does an unclean thing. That man and woman will have no children.

²² “If you carefully obey all my laws and my rules, the land I am bringing you to live in will not vomit you out. ²³ Never follow the practices of the people I am forcing out of your way. I cannot stand them because they did all these things. ²⁴ I have told you that you will take their land. I will give it to you as your own. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your Elohim who separated you from other people. ²⁵ Separate clean and unclean^[a] animals and birds. Never become disgusting by eating any animal or bird or anything that crawls on the ground. I have separated you from every unclean thing. ²⁶ Be my holy people because I, Yahweh, am holy. I have separated you from other people to be my very own.

²⁷ “Every man or woman who is a medium or a psychic must be put to death. They must be stoned to death because they deserve to die.”

Psalm 25^[a]

By David.

Everything in God’s Own Time

3 Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under heaven:

God Gives Mortals a Sense of Eternity

⁹ What do working people gain from their hard labor? ¹⁰ I have seen mortals weighed down with a burden that Elohim has placed on them. ¹¹ It is beautiful how Elohim has done everything at the right time. He has put a sense of eternity in people’s minds. Yet, mortals still can’t grasp what Elohim is doing from the beginning to the end of time.

¹² I realize that there’s nothing better for them to do than to be cheerful and enjoy what is good in their lives. ¹³ It is a gift from Elohim to be able to eat and drink and experience the good that comes from every kind of hard work.

¹⁴ I realize that whatever Elohim does will last forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken away from it. Elohim does this so that people will fear him.

¹⁵ Whatever has happened in the past is present now. Whatever is going to happen in the future has already happened in the past. Elohim will call the past to account.^[b]

Humans and Animals Meet the Same End

¹⁶ I saw something else under the sun:

¹⁷ I thought to myself, “Elohim will judge righteous people as well as wicked people, because there is a specific time for every activity and every work that is done.” ¹⁸ I thought to myself, “Elohim is going to test humans in order to show them that they are like animals.” ¹⁹ Humans and animals have the same destiny. One dies just like the other. All of them have the same breath of life. Humans have no advantage over animals. All of life is pointless. ²⁰ All life goes to the same place. All life comes from the ground, and all of it goes back to the ground. ²¹ Who knows whether a human spirit goes upward or whether an animal spirit goes downward to the earth?

²² I saw that there’s nothing better for people to do than to enjoy their work because that is their lot in life. Who will allow them to see what will happen after them?

Guidelines for Dealing with Other Christians

5 Never use harsh words when you correct an older man, but talk to him as if he were your father. Talk to younger men as if they were your brothers, ² older women as if they were your mothers, and younger women as if they were your sisters, while keeping yourself morally pure.

³ Honor widows who have no families. ⁴ The children or grandchildren of a widow must first learn to respect their own family by repaying their parents. This is pleasing in God’s sight.

⁵ A widow who has no family has placed her confidence in God by praying and asking for his help night and day. ⁶ But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead although she is still alive. ⁷ Insist on these things so that widows will have good reputations. ⁸ If anyone doesn’t take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the Christian faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

⁹ Any widow who had only one husband and is at least 60 years old should be put on your list of widows. ¹⁰ People should tell about the good things she has done: raising children, being hospitable, taking care of believers’ needs, helping the suffering, or always doing good things.

¹¹ Don’t include younger widows on your list. Whenever their natural desires become stronger than their devotion to Christ, they’ll want to marry. ¹² They condemn themselves by rejecting the Christian faith, the faith they first accepted. ¹³ At the same time, they learn to go around from house to house since they have nothing else to do. Not only this, but they also gossip and get involved in other people’s business, saying things they shouldn’t say.

¹⁴ So I want younger widows to marry, have children, manage their homes, and not give the enemy any chance to ridicule them. ¹⁵ Some of them have already turned away to follow Satan. ¹⁶ If any woman is a believer and has relatives who are widows, she should help them. In this way the church is not burdened and can help widows who have no families.

¹⁷ Give double honor to spiritual leaders^[a] who handle their duties well. This is especially true if they work hard at teaching the word of God. ¹⁸ After all, Scripture says, “Never muzzle an ox when it is threshing^[b] grain,” and “The worker deserves his pay.”

¹⁹ Don’t pay attention to an accusation against a spiritual leader unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. ²⁰ Reprimand those leaders who sin. Do it in front of everyone so that the other leaders will also be afraid.

²¹ I solemnly call on you in the sight of God, Christ Yeshua, and the chosen angels to be impartial when you follow what I’ve told you. Never play favorites.

²² Don’t be in a hurry to place your hands on anyone to ordain him. Don’t participate in the sins of others. Keep yourself morally pure.

²³ Stop drinking only water. Instead, drink a little wine for your stomach because you are frequently sick.

²⁴ The sins of some people are obvious, going ahead of them to judgment. The sins of others follow them there. ²⁵ In the same way, the good things that people do are obvious, and those that aren’t obvious can’t remain hidden.