M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The priests begin their work
9 On the eighth day, Moses told Aaron and his sons and the leaders of Israel that they must come.[a] 2 He said to Aaron, ‘Bring a young bull for your sin offering. And bring a male sheep for your burnt offering. They must be perfect to give to the Lord.’ 3 Moses said to Aaron, ‘Tell Israel's people that they must bring a male goat for a sin offering. And they must bring a young cow and a young sheep. The young cow and the young sheep must be one year old. They must be perfect to burn as an offering. 4 Tell Israel's people that they must bring a bull and a male sheep. They must bring them to sacrifice as a friendship offering to the Lord. They will sacrifice them. They must mix grain and oil to offer with them. They must do that because the Lord will appear to them today.’
5 The people brought all the animals and the grain to the door of the Tent of Meeting. Moses and all the people came. And they stood at the door of the Tent of Meeting to worship the Lord. 6 Moses said to the people, ‘The Lord has told you that you must do this. Do it. And then the Lord will show you how great he is.’
7 Moses said to Aaron, ‘Go to the altar. Sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to the Lord. You must do that to pay for your sins and those of the people. Then sacrifice the people's gift. Their offerings are an atonement for the bad things that they have done. The Lord said that you should do this.’
8 Aaron brought the young bull to the altar. He killed it. This was his offering to the Lord to atone for his sin. 9 His sons brought the blood to Aaron. He put his finger in the blood and he put it on the horns of the altar. He poured the blood that he did not use onto the floor in front of the altar. 10 Aaron burnt the fat, the kidneys and the best piece of the liver on the altar as a sin offering. He did it as the Lord had told Moses. 11 He took the meat and the skin from the young bull outside the camp and he burnt it.
12 Aaron brought the male sheep for the burnt offering to the altar. He killed it. His sons brought the blood to him. He threw the blood onto the sides of the altar. 13 The priests gave the pieces of the animal, including the head, to Aaron. Aaron burnt them on the altar. 14 He washed the inside parts and the legs. He burnt them on the altar on top of the burnt offering.
15 Aaron brought the goat. This was the people's sacrifice to God. Aaron killed it and he burnt it on the altar. It was an offering to atone for the people's sin. He offered this sacrifice in the same way as the first sacrifice for sin.
16 Aaron brought the other young cow. He killed it and he burnt it on the altar. He did it as Moses had told him. 17 He also brought the grain offering. He took some of it and he burnt it on the altar. He burnt it with the morning sacrifice.
18 Aaron killed the bull and the male sheep. These were friendship offerings from the people. The priests brought the blood to him. He threw it onto the sides of the altar. 19 Aaron took the fat tail, the fat and the kidneys and the best piece of the liver. 20 He put them on the meat of the animal's ribs. Then he burnt the fat on the altar. 21 Aaron lifted up the meat as an offering to the Lord. Moses had told him that he must do this.
22 When Aaron had finished burning the gifts, he lifted up his hands over the people. He had sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the friendship offering. Then he asked God to do good things for the people. And Aaron came down from the altar.
23 Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they asked God to do good things for the people. The bright light from the Lord appeared to the people to show how great he is. 24 Then the Lord sent a fire to show that he accepted the gifts.[b] It completely burnt all the fat and the offerings that were on the altar. The people were very happy when they saw this. They shouted and they fell down with their faces to the ground.
A prayer for help[a]
10 Must you stand so far away, Lord?
Why do you hide when there is trouble?
2 Wicked people are cruel to poor people.
They use their evil ideas
to take hold of weak people.
3 Not only do wicked people boast
because they get the things that they want.
They also praise robbers,
and they curse the Lord.
4 Wicked people are too proud to worry about God.
They think, ‘God will not give me any trouble.’
5 Often the wicked person seems to have success.
He does not respect your commands, God.
He laughs at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, ‘There will be no trouble for me.
Nothing bad will ever happen to me or to my children.’
7 Plenty of lies come from his mouth,
and he curses people.
The bad words that he speaks are very cruel,
and they hurt people.
8 He hides near the villages,
so that he can jump out and catch people.
He watches in secret to find a weak person that he can kill.
He murders people who have done nothing wrong.
9 Quietly, he hides like a lion among some bushes.
He waits there to catch a poor, weak person.
Like a hunter, he catches poor people in his net.
10 He stamps on the people that he catches,
and he knocks them down to the ground.
The weak person falls down,
because the wicked person is too strong.
11 The wicked person says to himself,
‘God will give me no trouble!
He does not even see what I do.’
12 Rise up, Lord!
Do something, God,
and knock down the wicked person!
Do not forget to help weak people.
13 Why do wicked people insult God?
They say to themselves,
‘God will not give me any trouble.’
14 Surely, God, you see what is happening.
You see how wicked people bring pain and trouble.
You decide what to do about it.
The weak person trusts that you will help him.
You take care of children who have no father.
15 Take hold of the arm of the wicked, evil man!
Break it and take away his strength!
Punish him for the bad things that he has done,
so that he has to stop.
16 The Lord will rule as king for ever!
The nations who do not serve him
will not remain in his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the prayers
of people who are suffering.
When they ask you to help them,
you make them feel strong.
18 You stand beside those who have no father,
and those who are poor and weak.
As a result, they will no longer be afraid.
No human on the earth can frighten them.
More wise thoughts
24 19. Do not be jealous of evil people. Do not try to be friends with them. 2 They only think about how to cause trouble. They only speak to be cruel.
3 20. It is wisdom that helps a man to build a house.[a] The house will have a strong foundation if he understands what is right. 4 Knowledge will help him to fill its rooms with beautiful and valuable things.
5 21. A wise man is better than a brave soldier. If a man learns knowledge, he will become stronger. 6 If you receive good advice before you fight a battle, you will win against your enemy.
7 22. A fool cannot understand wisdom. He has nothing to say when leaders meet.
8 23. If anyone has ideas to do evil things, people will know that he always causes trouble.
9 If you decide to do something foolish, that is a sin. People hate anyone who laughs at others.
10 24. If you stop trying in times of trouble, you are really very weak.
11 25. You should rescue people who are in danger of death. 12 You may say, ‘We did not know what was happening.’ But God knows your thoughts. He carefully watches your life and he knows what you are doing. He will pay back to you whatever you deserve.
13 26. My child, honey is good for you, so eat it. It is sweet on your tongue when you taste it.
14 In the same way, wisdom is also good for you. If you find wisdom, it will help you in life. The things that you hope for in the future will surely happen.
15 27. Do not be like wicked people who attack righteous people. Do not try to rob the homes of honest people. 16 If an honest person falls down seven times, he will still stand up again. But when trouble comes to a wicked person, that is the end of him.
17 28. Do not shout with joy when your enemy falls down. Do not be happy when his foot slips. 18 The Lord will know what you are thinking, and he will not be happy. He may decide not to punish your enemy.
19 29. Do not have trouble in your mind because of evil people. Do not be jealous of them. 20 A wicked person has nothing to hope for in the future. His life will end suddenly.
21 30. My child, respect and obey the Lord, and the king too. Do not be friends with people who turn against them. 22 Both the Lord and the king have the power to give strong punishment. In a moment they can destroy people who turn against them.
More wise thoughts
23 These are more things that wise people have said:
When you judge people, be fair. It is not good to respect some people more than others. 24 A judge must not say to a guilty person, ‘You are not guilty.’ If he does say that, everyone will curse him. People of all nations will say that he is bad. 25 When judges decide to punish a guilty person, they will be happy, because God will bless them.
26 Somebody who gives you an honest answer is your true friend.
27 Finish your work outside and prepare your fields. After that, you can build your house.
28 If you do not know what is true, do not speak against your neighbour in court. Do not deceive people with what you say. 29 Do not say, ‘I will do to him the same thing that he did to me. I will punish him because of what he did.’
30 I walked past the field of a lazy person. And I walked past the vineyard of a stupid person. 31 There were weeds and thorn bushes over all the ground. The wall of stones round the field had fallen down. 32 I looked at this and I thought about it carefully. I learned a lesson from the things that I had seen:
33 You may say, ‘I will have a short sleep. I will rest quietly for a while.’ 34 But while you sleep you will suddenly become poor. You will have nothing, as if someone has robbed you.
Timothy has brought news to Paul
3 1-2 After a long time, we could not be patient any longer. So we decided to send our friend Timothy to come to visit you. We ourselves would stay here in Athens. Timothy serves God with us here. He tells people the good news about Christ. We sent him to you so that he could help you to trust Christ more and more. 3 You are receiving many troubles. We did not want anyone among you to turn away from Christ because of that. You already know that we who are believers must receive troubles like that.
4 Even when we were there with you, we told you that troubles would come. We told you before the troubles came and now it has really happened. You know that it is true. 5 That is why I had to send Timothy to come to you. I could not wait to hear news about you any longer. I wanted to know whether you still trusted Christ. I was afraid that Satan had deceived you. If he had made you turn away from Christ, our work among you would have had no results.
6 But now Timothy has come back to us. And he has told us good news about you. He has told us that you continue to trust Christ and you love one another. He says that you always think about us in a good way. You want very much to meet us again, as we also want to meet you. 7 So we have become happy again because of you, our Christian friends. We continue to suffer and we have much trouble. But we are happy because you continue to trust Christ. 8 Yes, we are like people who have become alive again. We know that you are strong as you trust the Lord.
9 We thank God very much for you! You make us very happy when we talk to God about you. 10 We pray very much for you, during the day and during the night. We ask God to give us the chance to visit you again. We want to help you to understand the things that you still need to know. Then you will be able to trust Christ even more.
11 We pray that our Father God himself and our Lord Jesus will prepare the way for us. Then we will come to visit you. 12 We pray that the Lord will cause you to love people more and more. We love you very much. We pray that you will love each other and all people, as we love you. 13 Then God will cause you to become strong inside yourselves. You will live in a completely good way. One day our Lord Jesus will come back with all the people who belong to him. Then you will stand in front of God, our Father. He will say that you are not guilty of anything that is wrong.
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