M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Rules about oil and the bread that the people give to the Lord
24 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell Israel's people that they must bring to you the best oil. This will cause the light to burn all the time. 3 Aaron must put more oil in the lamp from evening to morning in front of the Lord. The lamp is outside the curtain. That curtain is in the Holy Place. The light must never go out. This rule is for now and for all time to come. 4 The lamps on the gold lampstand must burn always in front of the Lord.[a]
5 The people must bake 12 loaves of bread. They must use the best flour. They must weigh the flour for each loaf. They must use two tenths (2/10) of an ephah (4 litres). 6 They must put the loaves on a table in two rows in front of the Lord. There must be six loaves in each row. 7 They must put incense near each row. They must burn the incense as a gift to the Lord instead of the bread. 8 They must put the bread on the table every Sabbath. It is a covenant between Israel's people and the Lord. 9 The bread is for Aaron and for his sons. They must eat it in a holy place. It is their holy part of the burnt offering to the Lord.’
The story of a man who said bad things about the Lord
10 There was a man. His mother was an Israelite and his father was a man from Egypt. The man had a quarrel with an Israelite man. 11 The Israelite woman's son said bad things about God. The people took him to Moses. (The name of the mother was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri from the family of Dan.) 12 They locked the man up. The Lord told them what to do with him.
13 The Lord said to Moses, 14 ‘Take the man outside the camp. All the people who heard him speak must put a hand on him. All the people must throw stones at him until he is dead. 15 Tell Israel's people, “It is a sin if any man says bad things about God's name. 16 He must die. All the people must throw stones at him until he is dead.” You must kill anyone who says bad things about the Lord's name. They may be a foreigner or an Israelite. You must kill them.
17 If any man kills another man you must kill him. 18 A man might kill an animal that belongs to another man. Then he must give an animal that is alive to the man. You must give a living animal if you take a living animal's life. 19 If a man hurts another person, you must punish him as he deserves. Hurt him in the same way that he has hurt the other person. 20 If he has broken one of the person's bones, break one of his bones. If he hurt the person's eye, hurt his eye. If he has broken a person's tooth, break his tooth. 21 A man might hit an animal so that it dies. That man must give back an animal that is alive. But if he kills a man, you must punish him with death. 22 This rule is for all the people. It is the same rule for Israelites and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.’
23 Moses spoke to Israel's people. A man had said bad things about God. They took him outside the camp. They threw stones at him until he died. Israel's people did as the Lord had told Moses.
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
Lord, please help me!
31 Lord, I have come to you to keep me safe.
Never let me become ashamed.
You always do what is right
so please save me!
2 Listen to me,
and quickly send help to me.
Lord, be a rock where I can hide.
Be a strong place to keep me safe.
3 You are my high rock and my strong place.
Because of your good name,
lead me and be my guide.[a]
4 You are the place where I can hide,
so keep me safe.
Do not let my enemies' traps catch me.
5 I put my life into your hands.
I know that you will save me, Lord,
because you are a God that I can trust.
6 I hate people who worship useless idols.
As for me, I trust in the Lord.
7 I am very happy because of your faithful love.
You see when I suffer.
You know when I am very upset.
8 You have not put me under the power of my enemies.
You have led me into an open place,
where I can be safe.
9 Lord, I am very upset,
so please be kind to me.
My eyes are tired because I weep so much.
My whole body has become very weak.
10 I am near to death, because I am so sad.
I am crying with pain as my life comes to an end.
I have so much trouble
that I have no strength at all.
Even my bones have become weak.
11 All my enemies hate me.
My friends insult me.
Everyone who knows me is afraid of me.
They run away when they see me in the street.
12 Everybody has forgotten about me.
I might as well be dead!
They think that I am useless,
like a broken plate.
13 I hear what many people are saying against me.
News from everywhere makes me afraid.
They are deciding together
how to kill me.
14 But I continue to trust you, Lord.
I say, ‘You are my God!’[b]
15 You are the one who decides
what will happen to me in my whole life.
Save me from the power of my enemies
and from the people who want to catch me.
16 Turn towards me, your servant,
and be kind to me!
Keep me safe,
because of your faithful love.
17 Lord, do not let me become ashamed.
I call to you for help.
Cause evil people to become ashamed.
Let them go to their graves
and be silent there!
18 May people that tell lies become silent.
They insult righteous people.
They are proud people,
and they boast about themselves.
19 You have prepared many good things
to bless people who respect you.
While everyone watches,
you bless those who come to you for help.
20 You give them a place to hide,
and you keep them safe with you.
When their enemies want to attack them,
you take care of them.
When their enemies speak lies against them,
they are safe with you.
21 Praise the Lord!
When my enemies were all around me,
he showed me that his faithful love is very great.
22 When I was afraid, I said,
‘God is no longer with me!’
But I spoke too soon.
When I called to you for help,
you heard me and you answered me.
23 Love the Lord, all you people who belong to him!
If people serve the Lord faithfully,
he keeps them safe.
But if people are proud,
he punishes them as they deserve.
24 All you people who trust the Lord to help you,
you should be strong and very brave!
Learn about life and death
7 If people respect you as a good person,
that is better than expensive perfume.
The day of your death is better than the day of your birth.
2 If you go to a house where there is a funeral,
that is better for you than to go to a party.
Everyone will die one day.
People should think about death while they are still alive.
3 If you are sad,
that is better for you than to laugh all the time.
We learn more about ourselves when we are sad.
4 A wise person thinks about funerals and what they mean.
A foolish person thinks about how to enjoy a party.
5 If a wise person warns you, listen to him.
That is better for you than to listen to the songs of a foolish person.
6 If you use thorn bushes to make a fire,
they make a lot of noise but they burn too quickly.
When a foolish person laughs,
their noise also has no purpose.
7 If a wise person cheats people,
he becomes a fool.
If you accept a bribe,
you will no longer think properly.
8 If you finish some work,
that is better than to start something new.
It is better to be patient than to be proud.
9 Control your angry thoughts.
Only fools allow their anger to continue.
10 Do not say, ‘Everything was a lot better in the past.’
Those are not wise thoughts.
11 It is good to have wisdom,
like money that you receive from your father.
Wisdom helps everyone who lives.
12 Both wisdom and money can keep you safe.
But wisdom is better.
If you are wise, your knowledge can save your life.
13 Think about the things that God has done.
If God has bent something,
nobody can make it straight again.
14 If your life is good, you should be happy.
But if you have trouble, think about this:
God causes both joy and trouble in our lives.
We do not know what will happen next.
We can never know everything
15 In my short life on the earth
I have seen these things which have no purpose:
Sometimes righteous people may die when they are still young.
They did good things, but they died.
And sometimes wicked people continue to live for along time.
They did evil things, but they continued to live.
16 So do not try to be too good or too wise.
That might cause you to have trouble.
17 But do not be too wicked. Do not be a fool.
That might cause you to die when you are still young.
18 Remember both these things.
Do not forget either of them.
You can do that if you respect God and you obey him.[a]
19 Wisdom makes a wise person more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.
20 There is nobody on the earth who is so righteous
that they always do what is right.
There is nobody who never does a wrong thing.
21 Do not listen to all the things that people say about you.
You might hear your servant when he is cursing you!
22 Do not forget that you also have often cursed other people.
23 I have used wisdom to study all these things.
I tried very much to understand everything that happens.
But I could not do it.
24 People cannot understand these things.
The meaning of life is too difficult for anyone to understand.
25 I decided to study many things
so that I would become wise.
I wanted to understand the reason why things happen.
I also wanted to know why it is stupid to be wicked,
and why it is crazy to do foolish things.
26 I learned this:
Some women are like a trap that catches animals.
Women like that are more dangerous than death.
They may pretend to love you.
They may hold you in their arms.
But really their arms are like chains.
They want to catch you,
as hunters catch animals.
Women like that will easily catch
a man who has turned away from God.
But a man who pleases God
will escape from them.
27 This is what I, the Teacher, have learned.
I studied everything very carefully.
I wanted to know the reason why things happen.
28 I continued to try to learn more and more.
But I could not find the answers.
Among one thousand people,
I found one good man.
But among them all,
I did not find a good woman.
29 I did learn this:
God made people to do what is right.
But people have chosen their own way to do things.
People will turn away from God in the last days
3 Let me tell you this. During the last days of this world, there will be times of great trouble. 2 People will love only themselves, and they will want lots of money for themselves. They will be proud and they will say how great they are. They will insult other people. They will not obey their parents. They will not thank anyone who helps them. They will not respect anything that is good. 3 They will not be kind to other people, but they will like to quarrel. They will tell lies to hurt other people. They will be unable to control themselves properly. They will be cruel and they will hate anything that is good. 4 People will turn against their friends. They will do foolish things. They will boast that they are very important. They will not love God, but instead they will only want to enjoy themselves. 5 Those people will seem to be serving God. But really they refuse to accept God's power to help them. You must stay away from people like that.
6 Among those people, there are some men who find a way into people's homes. They get power over silly women who feel very guilty about their sins. Those women want to do wrong things and they cannot stop themselves. 7 They are always trying to learn new things, but they can never really understand God's true message. 8 These are people who speak against God's true message, in the same way that Jannes and Jambres spoke against Moses.[a] Their minds have become confused. The way that they serve God is false. 9 But they will not continue to do many more bad things. Everyone will see clearly that they are fools. That is what happened to Jannes and Jambres.
Timothy must copy Paul's example
10 But you, Timothy, have heard my message and you know it well. You also know the way in which I have lived. You know my purpose in life. You know how I trust God. You know how patient I have been. You know my love for God and for other people. You know that I have been strong during troubles. 11 You also know what happened to me in the cities called Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. People caused me to have a lot of trouble and pain in those places. But I was patient and brave in those bad troubles! And the Lord kept me safe in all those dangerous times.[b]
12 It is not only me. Every Christian who wants to live in a way that pleases God will have trouble from other people. 13 Bad people like that will become even worse. Some of them will teach a false message and people will believe their lies. Those false teachers even believe their own lies!
It is important for us to know the Bible
14 But you must continue to believe the things that you have learned. You know that those things are true. You know the teachers who taught you those things. 15 Even when you were a child, you already knew the message of the Bible. The Bible has taught you how you can be truly wise. You understand that God saves you because you believe in Christ Jesus. 16 Everything that is written in the Bible comes from God's Spirit. It helps us in many ways. The Bible teaches us what is true. It warns us when we are doing wrong things. It shows us what is right. It teaches us how to live good lives.[c] 17 As a result, people who want to serve God can know how to live properly. They will be people who are ready to do all kinds of good things.
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