M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The people complain

11 But the people started to complain about their problems.^[a] The Lord heard them and he became very angry. He sent fire. The Lord sent his fire to burn among them. It destroyed some parts of the camp at the edge. ² So the people asked Moses to help them. And Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire stopped. ³ So that place was called Taberah, because the Lord's fire burned among them there.

⁴ Some foreign people were travelling with the Israelites.^[b] Those people wanted very much to eat better food. So the Israelites wept again. They said, ‘We want meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt. We had as much as we wanted. And we remember all the nice vegetables, cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic. And we remember the melons. ⁶ But now our mouths are dry and we do not want to eat this food. There is not even anything to look at, except this manna.’ ⁷ The manna was like small seeds called coriander. Its colour was yellow and white. ⁸ The people walked about and they picked it up from the ground. They used stones to make it into flour. Or they beat it with a stick. They boiled it in pots, and they made cakes with it. The taste of the cakes was like olive oil. ⁹ At night, dew fell on the ground in the camp. The manna fell with the dew.

¹⁰ People in every family were crying at the doors of their tents. And Moses heard them. The Lord became very angry with the people. Moses too was not happy. ¹¹ So Moses said to the Lord, ‘I am your servant. But you have given this problem to me! It seems that you are not pleased with me. You have given to me the hard job to be leader of all these people. ¹² They are not my children! But you have said to me, “Take care of them like parents take care of their babies. Carry them to the land that I have promised to their ancestors.” ¹³ They are complaining to me. They are saying, “Give us meat that we can eat!” But I cannot get meat to feed all these people! ¹⁴ I cannot be the leader of all these people unless I receive help. This job is too difficult for me. ¹⁵ So if you do not want to help me, please kill me now. I do not want to continue to be so upset. So please be kind to me.’

¹⁶ So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Choose 70 leaders of the Israelites and bring them to the Tent of Meeting. You must know that they are leaders and officers that the people respect. Bring them to stand there with you. ¹⁷ Then I will come down and I will speak with you there. I will take some of the authority of my Spirit that I gave to you. I will share it with them. Then they will help you to lead the people. So you will not be the only man who is doing that job.

¹⁸ Then say to the people, “The Lord heard you when you were weeping. You said, ‘We want someone to give us meat to eat! Life was better when we were in Egypt.’ So the Lord will give you meat and you will eat it. So make yourselves clean for tomorrow, and then you will eat meat. ¹⁹ You will not eat it only for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or 20 days. ²⁰ You will eat it every day for a whole month! You will hate the smell of it and it will seem disgusting to you. This is because you have turned against the Lord. He is near to you and you have wept in front of him. You have said, ‘We should never have left Egypt.’ ” ’

²¹ Moses said to the Lord, ‘There are 600,000 men here. But you have said, “I will give to them meat to eat for a whole month.” ²² Even if we killed all our sheep and cows, we would not have enough meat for them. If we caught every fish in the sea, we still would not have enough!’

²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Do you think that I, the Lord, do not have enough power to do this? I have promised you to do it. So now you will see me do it!’

²⁴ So Moses went out from God's Tent and he told the people the Lord's message. He chose 70 leaders of the Israelites and he put them round the Tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud to speak to them. He took some of the authority of his Spirit that he had given to Moses. And he shared it with the 70 leaders. While God's Spirit stayed on them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again after that.

²⁶ But two men had stayed in the camp. Their names were Eldad and Medad. They were among the men that Moses had chosen. But they had not gone to meet with God in the special Tent. God's Spirit also came on them. So they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran to Moses and he said, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’

²⁸ Nun's son Joshua was there. Since he was a boy, he had been Moses' servant. Joshua said to Moses, ‘Moses, my master, stop them.’

²⁹ But Moses said to him, ‘Perhaps you think that I might be jealous of them. But I would be happy if the Lord would give his Spirit to all his people. I would like them all to be prophets!’ ³⁰ Then Moses and the leaders returned to the camp.

The Lord sends birds to feed the Israelites

³¹ Then the Lord sent a wind. It blew in birds called quails from the sea. They fell to the ground everywhere round the camp. There were birds everywhere as far as a person could walk in one day in any direction. They were about 1 metre deep all over the ground. ³² The people were picking up the birds all day and all night and all the next day. Each person got at least 220 litres of birds. They put their dead bodies on the ground everywhere round the camp. ³³ But the Lord became very angry with the people. They had not even started to eat the meat when the Lord sent a very bad disease among them.

³⁴ They buried there the bodies of people who had wanted better food. So the people called that place Kibroth-Hattaavah.^[c]

³⁵ From Kibroth-Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

This is a psalm that the sons of Korah wrote.

Zion is God's city

Isaiah's vision and message

1 This is a vision that God showed to Isaiah, the son of Amoz. It was a message about his country, Judah, and the city of Jerusalem.^[a] God showed it to Isaiah at the time when Uzziah, then Jotham, then Ahaz and then Hezekiah were kings of Judah.

God's people are guilty^[b]

² Hear the Lord, those who live in heaven!^[c] Listen to him, you people on the earth! Listen carefully because the Lord has spoken! He says, ‘I have helped my children to grow. I took care of them but now they have turned against me!

³ An ox knows its master. A donkey knows the place where its master feeds it. But Israel's people do not know me. My people do not understand me.’

⁴ Oh! Israel, you are a nation of people who do not obey me. The people are guilty of many evil things. Their sins are like a heavy weight on their backs. They are a family of people who do wicked things. They have turned away from the Lord, the Holy God of Israel. They have turned their backs against him.

⁵ You continue to fight against God. Why do you do that? God will continue to punish you. You are weak and you hurt all over. Your mind and your body have great pain. ⁶ From the bottom of your feet, to the top of your head, everywhere hurts! There are wounds all over your body that are still bleeding. Nobody has cleaned your wounds or covered them. Nobody has put olive oil on them to make them better.

⁷ Your land has become useless. Fire has destroyed your towns and cities. Foreign people have taken the crops from your fields, while you stood there and watched. Strangers have destroyed everything in your country.

⁸ Jerusalem is now like a hut in a vineyard or in a field of crops. It stands there alone, with its enemies all round it.

⁹ Unless the Lord Almighty had left some of us alive, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been completely destroyed, like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Yes, you are like the rulers of Sodom, so listen to the Lord's message! You are no better than the people in Gomorrah! So listen to what our God is saying to you.

¹¹ The Lord says, ‘All your sacrifices are not important to me. I have received too many sacrifices that you have burned as gifts to me. I have received too many sheep and fat animals. I do not want any more blood from bulls, goats and lambs that you have offered to me as sacrifices. They do not give me any pleasure.

¹² You come to worship me in my temple. But are you doing what I want? Did I ask you to march round the temple yards with all your animals?

¹³ Do not bring any more useless gifts to offer to me! I do not like your incense. You like to have feasts at new moons, or on Sabbath days. But because of your sins, I hate all your holy meetings.

¹⁴ I hate your new moon feasts and your holy meetings. They have become like a heavy load for me. I cannot carry it any longer!

¹⁵ When you lift up your hands to pray to me, I have to look away. Even if you pray very many times to me, I do not listen to you, because your hands are full of blood.^[d]

¹⁶ Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean! Remove your sins, so that I no longer see them. Stop doing evil things!

¹⁷ Instead, learn to do what is right. Be honest and fair in what you do. Help people who are in pain. Make sure that widows and children who have no family receive justice.’

¹⁸ The Lord says, ‘Please come, so that we talk about this together. Even if your sins are like a red stain, they will become as white as snow. Even if they are bright red, they will become like white wool.^[e]

¹⁹ I will forgive you if you agree to obey me. If you are ready to do that, you will again eat plenty of good food from the land. ²⁰ But if you refuse to obey me and you turn against me, you will die in war.’

That is what the Lord himself has said.

Jerusalem is guilty

²¹ Oh! Jerusalem! Once you loved the Lord, as a wife loves her husband. But now you have become like a prostitute! At one time, the city was full of justice, and honest people lived there. But now the city is full of murderers!

²² Your pure silver has become dirt. You have mixed water with your best wine.

²³ Your rulers have turned against God. They are friends of robbers. They all accept bribes and they love to receive gifts. But they do not help widows or children who have no family. They do not make sure that they receive justice.

²⁴ So the Lord says this. He is the Lord Almighty, Israel's Mighty One. He says, ‘Oh! I will punish my enemies as they deserve. I will pay them back!

²⁵ I will turn against you, Jerusalem. I will make you pure again. But you will be like metal that burns in a very hot fire to remove all the dirt.

²⁶ Then I will again give you honest judges, as you had a long time ago. I will also give you wise officers, as you had before. After that, you will be called “The Righteous City” and “The Faithful City”.’

²⁷ God will use justice to make Zion free. He will do what is right for those who return to serve him.

²⁸ But he will destroy people who turn against him, and those who continue to do wrong things. People who no longer trust the Lord will live no more.

²⁹ You will become ashamed because you trusted special oak trees to help you. You worshipped idols in your special gardens, and you will be ashamed because of that.

³⁰ You will be like an oak tree with leaves that have become dry. You will be like a garden that has no water.

³¹ Even your most powerful men will disappear. They will be like a piece of string that burns in a fire. Their sins will be the fire that destroys them. They and their sins will burn together, and nobody will put out the fire.

The old agreement and the tabernacle

9 The first agreement included rules about how people should worship God. It also spoke about a special place for people to worship God on this earth. ² Israel's people made a special tent for God.^[a] The first room in that tent was called the holy place. The special lampstand was in this room. The special table with the bread which they offered to God was there too.^[b]

³ Behind a second curtain, there was a very special room. It was called the Most Holy Place. ⁴ The gold altar for incense was in there.^[c] The Covenant Box was there too.^[d] The box had gold on all its sides. Inside the box was the gold pot that contained the special food called manna.^[e] The box also contained Aaron's stick that had grown leaves.^[f] It also contained the two flat stones on which God had written the rules of his agreement with his people. ⁵ The shapes of two special angels stood on the top of the box. They were made from gold and they showed that God was there with great power. The angels held out their wings over the lid of the box. That lid was the place where God forgave the people's sins. But we cannot explain everything about these things now.

⁶ So that was how they prepared the special tent. Then the priests would go into the first room of the tent every day. They went in there to serve God, as his rules taught. ⁷ But only the special leader of the priests could go into the second room. He went in there only once every year.^[g] He had to take with him blood from an animal that they had killed. He offered the blood to God on his own behalf, so that God would forgive his sins. He also offered it on behalf of the people. Then God would forgive their mistakes too.

⁸ In this way, God's Holy Spirit was showing that the most holy place was not yet open to everyone. While the tent with its first room was still there, those were the rules for people to worship God. ⁹ This is like a picture that means something for us today. It teaches us about the gifts and sacrifices that people offered to God, to worship him. When someone gave those things to God, it could not make him clean again in his mind. ¹⁰ The old rules taught people about different kinds of food and drink. They taught about how people should wash in special ways. Those rules were about people's bodies. They had authority only until the time when God would make things new and better.

God's new agreement

¹¹ But now Christ has come as our special priest. He brings us the good things that are now here. He has gone into God's own place in heaven. That is a greater and much better tent than the old tabernacle. No person made this tent. It does not belong to this world at all. ¹² Christ went into the Most Holy Place on our behalf. He did this once, for all time. He did not take with him the blood of goats or young cows when he went in there. Instead, he took the blood of his own death to offer to God. In that way, he made us free from sin for ever. ¹³ The old rules said that the priest must use the blood of goats or bulls to make people clean. Or he could burn a young cow and mix the ashes with water.^[h] He would then splash the blood or the ashes over the people who were unclean. Then those people became clean again in their bodies, and they could worship God.

¹⁴ But the blood of Christ's sacrifice will do much more than that! Christ offered himself to God, in the power of his Spirit, who lives for ever. That sacrifice was completely good. There was no wrong thing in Christ. He offered his own blood to make us completely clean inside ourselves. We no longer have to do things that lead to death. Instead, we can serve the God who lives for ever. ¹⁵ So, by Christ's death, God brings a new agreement between him and his people. God's people receive from him the good things that will be with them for ever. God has promised to give those things to the people that he has chosen. Christ's death has made them free from their sins. God will no longer punish them like the first agreement says should happen.

¹⁶ Think about this. A person may make an agreement about who will receive his things after his death. But nobody receives anything until it is clear that the person has really died. ¹⁷ The agreement only has authority after the death of the person who made it. It has no authority while that person is still alive.

¹⁸ So even God's first agreement with his people needed the blood of an animal. The agreement only had authority after a death. ¹⁹ It was like this. Moses read God's laws aloud to all Israel's people. He told them every rule that God had given them. After that, Moses killed some young cows and goats. He took some of their blood and he mixed it with water. He threw some of the blood to drop onto the book of God's laws. He also caused some to drop onto all the people. He used red sheep's hair and some small branches of a plant called hyssop to throw the blood and water. ²⁰ When Moses did this, he said to the people, ‘This blood shows that God's agreement with you has authority.’ ²¹ In the same way, Moses threw some of the blood onto the tabernacle. He also caused blood to drop onto all the things that the priests used to serve God there.^{[i] 22} God's Law taught that blood was necessary to make almost everything clean. We see that God does not forgive people for their sins unless there is blood from a death.

Christ's sacrifice on the cross

²³ The tabernacle and the things that were in it needed animals' blood to make them clean. That was a picture of the true place in heaven where people worship God. But the true things in heaven need better sacrifices to make them clean than the sacrifices of animals. ²⁴ Christ did not go into a holy place that people had made on earth. A place like that is only a picture of the true place in heaven. No, Christ went into heaven itself, where God is. Now he is there with God and he speaks to God on our behalf.

²⁵ The leader of the priests here on earth goes into the Most Holy Place every year. Each time, he takes with him the blood of an animal and he offers it to God. But when Christ went into heaven to offer himself to God, he did not do that again and again. ²⁶ To do that, he would need to die again and again, many times since the world began. No! Christ has appeared just once. He has appeared now, when time is near its end. He came and he died as a sacrifice. In that way, he has removed the power of sin. ²⁷ Every person must die once. After death, God will judge each person. ²⁸ Christ also died only once as a sacrifice. In this way, he took God's punishment for the sins of many people. Christ will return to earth a second time, but that will not be as a sacrifice for sins. That time, he will come to save those people who are waiting patiently for him.