M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Water that makes people clean

19 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² ‘This is another rule in the Lord's law that I am telling to you: Tell the Israelites that they must bring to you a young red cow. It must not have anything wrong with it. And nobody must have put a yoke on it. ³ They must take the cow outside the camp. They must kill it and then give it to Eleazar the priest. ⁴ Eleazar must take some of the blood from the cow. He must splash it seven times in front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ Then they must burn the whole cow while Eleazar is watching. They must burn its body with the skin, meat, blood and everything that is inside its body. ⁶ The priest must take some wood, some plants and some red wool. He must throw them on the fire. ⁷ Then he must wash his clothes and he must wash his body with water. After that, he can come into the camp, but he will not be clean until the evening. ⁸ And the man who burns the animal must also wash his clothes in water. And he must wash his body in water. He will not be clean until the evening.

⁹ Then a man who is clean must pick up all the ashes of the cow. And he must put them outside the camp in a clean place. Keep them safe there for all the Israelites. You must mix them with water to make special water. It will be water for someone who is not clean to make them holy again. It is water to remove sin. ¹⁰ The man who picks up the ashes must also wash his clothes. He will not be clean until evening. This rule is for the Israelites and for all the people who are living with them.

¹¹ Any person who touches a dead body will not be clean for seven days. ¹² He must use the water to wash himself on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. If he does not wash himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ¹³ A person might touch the body of a dead person. If he does not make himself clean, he has made the Lord's Tent of Meeting unclean. You must make that person separate from the Israelites. Because they did not splash the special water on him, he will not be clean. He will continue to be unclean.

¹⁴ This is the rule when a person dies in a tent. Any person who is in the tent will not be clean for seven days. ¹⁵ Any pot in the tent that does not have a lid will not be clean.

¹⁶ Also, a person might have killed someone with a sword out in the country. Or someone may have died because he was old or ill. Anyone who touches a dead body in the country will become unclean for seven days. Also if they touch a human bone, or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ Then for the person who is not clean, you must take some of the ashes of the young red cow. That is the cow to make people clean. You must put these ashes into a pot and you must mix them with water from a river. ¹⁸ Then a person who is clean must take hyssop. He must put it into the water. Then he must use it to splash the water on the tent and on everything that is in it. He must also splash the water on all the people who have been there. And he must splash it on the person who touched the bone or the dead body or the grave. ¹⁹ And the clean person must splash the water on the unclean person on the third day too. And he must do it on the seventh day. On the seventh day he will make the person clean again. Then the person who had not been clean must wash his clothes. And he must wash himself in water. In the evening, that person will become clean. ²⁰ The person who is not clean might not wash himself and his clothes. If he does not do it, you must make that person separate from the people. That is because he has made the Lord's Holy Place become unclean. Because the priest did not splash special water on him he will not be clean. ²¹ This rule is for now and for ever. The man who splashes the special water must also wash his clothes. Any person who touches the special water will not be clean until evening. ²² If an unclean person touches anything, that thing also becomes unclean. If anyone touches the unclean person, he also becomes unclean until evening.’

This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.

David wrote this prayer when the Philistines took hold of him in Gath.

Trust in God^[a]

This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.

David wrote this prayer when he ran away from King Saul to hide in a cave.

A prayer for help^[d]

God will use Assyria to destroy Israel and Syria

8 The Lord said to me, ‘Get a large board to write on. Then write clear words on it. Write this name: “Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”^{[a] 2} I will call Uriah the priest and Jeberekiah's son, Zechariah, to come to see this. They are honest people who will say what is true.’

³ Then I slept with my wife, the prophetess. She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, ‘Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ⁴ Before the child knows how to say “my father” or “my mother”, the king of Assyria will attack Damascus and Samaria. His army will carry away the valuable things from those cities. That is why your son's name must be Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again. ⁶ He said, ‘I have blessed my people, like the quiet stream of Shiloah. But they have not accepted my help. Instead, they are happy that King Rezin and Remaliah's son will help them.

⁷ So I will cause this to happen. I, the Lord God, will bring floods of water from the Euphrates river. That will be the king of Assyria and his powerful armies. They will come like a great river that rises high over its sides. ⁸ Its water will come as a flood into Judah. It will cover the land and it will rise as high as people's necks! He will make his wings very wide to cover all your land, Immanuel.’^[b]

⁹ You foreign nations must listen to this! Join together to fight. Shout as you go to battle. But you will never win! You people from countries that are far away, get ready for war. But you will be completely destroyed! ¹⁰ Decide how you will fight the battle, but your plans will fail! What you decide to do will never happen. God is with us!

The Lord's message to Isaiah

¹¹ Now the Lord spoke to me with great power. He warned me that I must not be like the other people in Judah. He said,

¹² ‘Those people are talking about an agreement to turn against the rulers. But do not agree with what they say. Do not be afraid of the things that frighten them. Do not be afraid, as they are. ¹³ Instead, you should understand that the Lord Almighty has all authority. You should respect him as holy and be afraid of him.

¹⁴ He will be a safe place for you. But for both nations in Israel he will become like a stone that causes people to fall to the ground.^[c] He will be like a rock that makes them fall down. He will take hold of the people who live in Jerusalem, like a trap that catches a bird. ¹⁵ Many people will fall against that rock. They will fall to the ground and it will hurt them. They will become caught in a trap.’

Isaiah's message to his disciples

¹⁶ Tie a string round the paper where I have written this. Keep it safe as a true message. Give it to my disciples, to teach them. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord to do what he says. He has turned away from the descendants of Jacob. But I will trust him to do what is right.

¹⁸ Look! Here I am, with the children that the Lord has given to me. We are messages from the Lord Almighty who lives on Mount Zion. We are messages to Israel's people.

¹⁹ They will say to you, ‘Go to the people who speak to the spirits of dead people. Go to the magicians who speak magic words. They will tell you what you should do. People should ask their gods and spirits to give them messages. People who are alive should ask the spirits of dead people to help them.’

²⁰ When they say that to you, remember my teaching. Tell them what I have said will happen. People who talk like that are completely in the dark. There is no truth in what they say. ²¹ Then the people will travel through the land, and they will be sad and hungry. Because of their hunger they will become angry.^[d] They will curse their king and their God, as they look up to the sky. ²² They will look down at the earth, but they will only see trouble. Everywhere will be dark and people will have no hope. Then they will fall into complete darkness.

Good news for God's people

9 But the darkness will not continue for ever. Those who had no hope will no longer be afraid. In past times, God let trouble happen to the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.^[e] But in future years, he will cause the people of that region to be great. Those are the places near the sea, and those beyond the Jordan River, and Galilee region where people from other nations live.

² The people who walk in the dark now see a bright light! Light is shining on those people who live in a land of complete darkness.

³ You, Lord, will make your nation stronger. You will cause your people to be very happy. They will be happy because you are with them. They will be like people who are happy at the time of harvest. They will be happy like soldiers who have won a battle, and who share their enemy's valuable things among themselves.

⁴ They are happy because you have removed the power of their cruel enemies. They no longer have to carry a heavy load, as slaves. You have rescued them from their enemies, in the same way that you won against Midian's army.^[f]

⁵ Fire will destroy every shoe that the soldiers wore to march into the battle. Their clothes which have the blood of war on them will also go into the fire.

⁶ Yes, your people are happy! A child has been born for us. We now have a son with the authority to rule. His names will be:

⁷ His authority to rule will be very great. The peace that he brings will never have an end. He will rule as king over David's kingdom. He will make it strong and safe, because he will do what is right and fair. He will rule like that now and for ever. The Lord Almighty will make those things happen, because he loves his people.

Every person has equal value

2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.

² When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. ³ You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ ⁴ If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.

⁵ My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. ⁶ But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. ⁷ It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.

⁸ But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. ⁹ But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. ¹⁰ Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law. ¹¹ For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.

¹² Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. ¹³ God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!

Believe God and do good things

¹⁴ My Christian brothers, you say that you believe in God. Then you must show this in the things that you do. If not, your faith will not help you. It will not save you. ¹⁵ For example, maybe a believer does not have enough clothes to wear or enough food to eat. ¹⁶ Then one of you may say to them, ‘Go with God's peace! I pray that you will be warm. I pray that you will eat well.’ But if you do not give to them what they need, that does not help them at all. ¹⁷ How we believe in God is also like that. If our faith does not lead us to do good things, then it is not worth anything. It is dead!

¹⁸ Someone may say, ‘You believe in God, but I do good things to help people.’ Then I would say, ‘You cannot show me that you believe in God if you do not do good things. I do good things, and that shows that I really believe in God.’ ¹⁹ You believe that there is only one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that! And it makes them very afraid.

²⁰ You fool! If someone's faith does not lead them to do good things, it is not worth anything. You should know that! ²¹ Think about our ancestor Abraham. He offered his son Isaac on the altar as a gift to God.^[a] Because he did that good thing, God accepted him as right with himself. ²² Abraham believed in God, and he did what God asked him to do. So you can see that both of these were necessary. When he did this good thing, he showed that he believed in God completely. ²³ The Bible tells us what happened. It says, ‘Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him.’^[b] God also called Abraham his friend.

²⁴ So you see how God accepts someone as right with himself. That person must not only believe in God. He must also do good things to show that he has faith.

²⁵ It was the same with Rahab, long ago. She was a prostitute. She helped some of God's people who came to her house. She kept them safe from their enemies and she sent them away again by a different road.^[c] Because she did those good things, God accepted her as right with himself. ²⁶ If our bodies have no spirit, they are dead. In the same way, if our faith does not lead us to do good things, it is dead.