M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The journey of the Israelites
33 This is the way that the Israelites travelled, after Moses and Aaron led them out of Egypt. They travelled in their family groups. 2 The Lord told Moses that he should write about the journey. These are the places where they made their camps on the way:
3 They left Rameses in Egypt on the 15th day of the first month. That was the day after the Passover meal. The Israelites marched out bravely, while all the Egyptian people watched them. 4 As they left, the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn sons, because the Lord had killed them. The Lord had shown his power over the Egyptians' gods.
5 They left Rameses and they travelled to Succoth. They made their camp there.
6 They travelled from Succoth to Etham. They made their camp there, on the edge of the desert.
7 They travelled from Etham and they turned round to go to Pi-Hahiroth, which is east of Baal-Zephon. They made their camp near Migdol.
8 They travelled from Pi-Hahiroth. They went through the middle of the sea and then went into the desert. They travelled for three days and then they made their camp at Marah, in Etham desert.
9 They travelled from Marah to Elim. At Elim, there were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees. They made their camp there.
10 They travelled from Elim and they made their camp by the side of the Red Sea.
11 They travelled from the Red Sea. And they made their camp in the Sin desert.
12 They travelled from the Sin desert and they made their camp at Dophkah.
13 They travelled from Dophkah and they made their camp at Alush.
14 They travelled from Alush and they made their camp at Rephidim. There was no water there for the people to drink.
15 They travelled from Rephidim and they made their camp in the Sinai desert.
16 They travelled from the Sinai desert and they made their camp at Kibroth-Hattaavah.
17 They travelled from Kibroth-Hattaavah and they made their camp at Hazeroth.
18 They travelled from Hazeroth and they made their camp at Rithmah.
19 They travelled from Rithmah and they made their camp at Rimmon-Perez.
20 They travelled from Rimmon-Perez and they made their camp at Libnah.
21 They travelled from Libnah and they made their camp at Rissah.
22 They travelled from Rissah and they made their camp at Kehelathah.
23 They travelled from Kehelathah and they made their camp at Shepher mountain.
24 They travelled from Shepher mountain and they made their camp at Haradah.
25 They travelled from Haradah and they made their camp at Makheloth.
26 They travelled from Makheloth and they made their camp at Tahath.
27 They travelled from Tahath and they made their camp at Terah.
28 They travelled from Terah and they made their camp at Mithcah.
29 They travelled from Mithcah and they made their camp at Hashmonah.
30 They travelled from Hashmonah and they made their camp at Moseroth.
31 They travelled from Moseroth and they made their camp at Bene-Jaakan.
32 They travelled from Bene-Jaakan and they made their camp at Hor-Haggidgad.
33 They travelled from Hor-Haggidgad and they made their camp at Jotbathah.
34 They travelled from Jotbathah and they made their camp at Abronah.
35 They travelled from Abronah and they made their camp at Ezion-Geber.
36 They travelled from Ezion-Geber and they made their camp at Kadesh in the Zin desert.
37 They travelled from Kadesh and they made their camp at Hor mountain. It is on the border of Edom land.
38 The Lord told Aaron that he must go up Hor mountain. Aaron went up and he died there. That was in the 40th year after the Israelites had left Egypt. He died on the first day of the fifth month. 39 Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Hor mountain.
40 The king of Arad lived in the south part of the land of Canaan. People told him that the Israelites were coming.
41 The Israelites travelled from Hor mountain and they made their camp at Zalmonah.
42 They travelled from Zalmonah and they made their camp at Punon.
43 They travelled from Punon and they made their camp at Oboth.
44 They travelled from Oboth and they made their camp at Iye-Abarim, on the border of Moab land.
45 They travelled from Iye-Abarim and they made their camp at Dibon-Gad.
46 They travelled from Dibon-Gad and they made their camp at Almon-Diblathaim.
47 They travelled from Almon-Diblathaim and they made their camp in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo.
48 They travelled from the mountains of Abarim and they made their camp in Moab beside the Jordan River. They were on the other side of the river from Jericho city.
49 They made their camp on the flat ground beside the river. Their tents covered the ground from Beth-Jeshimoth to Abel-Shittim.
50 Then the Lord spoke to Moses there in Moab beside the Jordan River. Jericho was on the other side of the river. The Lord said, 51 ‘Say to the Israelites, “You will cross over the Jordan River and you will go into the land of Canaan. 52 Then you must chase out all the people who live in that land. You must destroy all their idols that are made from wood or stone. Also destroy the altars where they worship their false gods. 53 I have given this land to you to live in. So you must win power over the people who live there now. 54 You must use lots to choose how to give part of the land to each family. You must give more land to the larger clans and you must give less land to the smaller clans. The lots will decide which piece of land belongs to each family. Each of your ancestors' tribes will get its own part of the land.
55 If any Canaanites remain in the land, they will bring trouble and pain to the Israelites. So you must chase them all away. 56 If you do not do that, I will punish you in the way that I wanted to punish them.” ’
Asaph wrote this special song.
God has been good to his people[a]
78 My people, listen to what I am teaching you.
Listen to the words that I speak.
2 I will tell you something to make you wise.
Then you will understand
things that happened long ago.
3 We have heard about these things
and we know them.
Our ancestors have told them to us,
4 and we will not hide them from our children.
We will tell our children and our grandchildren
why they should praise the Lord.
We will tell them about his strength,
and about the great things that he has done.
5 He gave his laws to Jacob's descendants,
the Israelite people.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children.
6 Then the children would know about them,
even the children still to be born.
When the time came,
they too would tell their children.
7 Then their family would trust in God.
They would not forget what God had done.
They would obey his commands.
8 So they would not be like their ancestors,
who turned against God.
Those people refused to obey God,
and they did not trust him to be their guide.
9 The soldiers of Ephraim had bows and arrows,
but they ran away when the battle started![b]
10 They did not obey the covenant
that God had made with them.
They refused to obey his laws.
11 They forgot about what he had done for them.
They forgot the miracles that he had shown them.
12 He did miracles for their ancestors to see,
in the region of Egypt that is called Zoan.
13 He cut the sea into two separate parts,
and he led them through it.
He made a path between two walls of water.[c]
14 He showed them the way with a cloud in the day
and with light from a fire all night.[d]
15 He broke rocks into pieces in the wilderness
so that his people had plenty of water.
Springs of water came from deep in the earth.
16 He caused streams to pour from the rocks
so that the waters ran like rivers.[e]
17 But his people continued to do bad things against him.
In the wilderness,
they turned against the Most High God.
18 They decided to test God,
to see what he would do.
They demanded to have the food that they liked best.
19 They spoke against God, and they said,
‘Can God give us food to eat here in the wilderness?
20 Yes, water did come out when he hit the rock.
There were streams of water that poured out like a river.
But can he also give us food to eat?
Can he supply meat for his people?’
21 When the Lord heard this,
he was very angry.
So he sent fire to punish his people.
He became very angry against the Israelites.
22 They did not trust God,
that he had the power to save them.
23 So God commanded the clouds high above
to give food to his people.
He caused the skies to open like a door.
24 He poured down manna like rain,
so that they could eat grain that came from heaven.[f]
25 In that way, people ate the special bread of angels!
God gave them all the food that they could eat.
26 Then God caused a wind to blow from the east.
He used his power to send a south wind too.
27 He caused meat to pour down on them,
like dust from the sky.
The birds covered all the ground
like sand on the shore of the sea.[g]
28 God made the birds fall near the tents
where his people were living.
29 They ate as much as they could eat.
Yes, God gave them what they had demanded!
30-31 But God became very angry with them,
even before they had finished eating.
While the food was still in their mouths,
he killed the strongest men among them.
Many of the best young Israelite men died.
32 Even when this happened,
the people continued to do bad things.
When God had done these miracles,
they still did not trust him to help them.
33 So he made their lives end quickly, like a breath.
They became very afraid.
34 When God killed some of them,
the other people turned to God.
They were sorry and they prayed to him.
35 They remembered that God
was their strong Rock.
They remembered that the Most High God
was their Redeemer.
36 But they deceived him with their words.
What they said to him was lies.
37 They did not really trust him.
They did not obey the covenant
that he had made with them.
A song to thank God
25 Lord, you are my God!
I will praise you
because your name is great.
You have done wonderful things.
You decided a long time ago what you would do.
And you have done exactly what you promised to do.
2 You have destroyed cities
so that they become a heap of stones.
You have destroyed the strongest cities.
The beautiful palaces in foreign lands have disappeared.
Nobody will build them again.
3 So people of strong nations will praise you.
The people of cruel nations will be afraid of you.
4 You Lord have been a safe place for poor people.
When helpless people were in trouble,
you have kept them safe.
You were a place for them to hide from the storm.
You gave them shade from the heat.
Yes, cruel people attack them
like a storm that hits against a wall.
5 and like strong heat in the desert.
You Lord stopped the proud noise of foreign people.
Like the shadow of a cloud that stops the heat of the sun,
you stopped our cruel enemy's songs.
You stopped them as they boasted of their strength.
6 The Lord Almighty will prepare a feast on this mountain.[a]
It will be a feast for all the nations of the world.
It will be a great feast, with plenty of meat and wine.
The best meat and the best wine will be there.
7 On this mountain the Lord will take away the things
that make all people sad.
He will remove the cloth
that covers the people of all nations.
8 The Almighty Lord will destroy death for ever.
He will clean away the tears in everyone's eyes.
His people will not feel ashamed any more.
Nobody in all the world will ever insult them again.
That is what the Lord has said.
9 At that time, people will say,
‘Look! This is our God!
We trusted him to keep us safe,
and he rescued us.
Yes, this is the Lord!
We trusted him to keep us safe.
We will sing with joy,
because he has saved us.’
10 The Lord's power will bless this mountain.
He will knock down Moab's people
and he will walk all over them.
He will walk on them,
as if they are straw in a heap of dung.
11 Moab's people will try to escape from that punishment.
They will push with their hands as they try to swim out!
But the Lord will make their proud strength useless,
whatever they do to escape.
12 He will knock down the high walls of Moab's city.
He will completely destroy their strong place.
It will all fall down into the dust on the ground.
We are God's children
3 Think about how much God the Father loves us. He calls us his children! God loves us so much that we really have become his children. The people who belong to this world do not understand who God is. Because of that, they do not understand who we are. 2 My friends, we are already children of God. We do not yet know clearly what we will become. But we do know this: when Christ returns to this world, we will become like him. We will be like him because we will see him as he really is. 3 Christ is completely good. So all of us who hope to see him then must keep ourselves clean from sin.
4 If a person continues to do wrong things, he is choosing not to obey God's rules. Sin is when we do not obey God's rules. 5 You know that Jesus came into the world so that he might take away our sins. He himself is completely clean from sin. 6 Anyone who lives together with Christ does not continue to do wrong things. If anyone continues to do wrong things, that person has not understood who Christ is. He does not know Christ.
7 My little children, do not let anyone deceive you about sin. It is people who live in a good way that God accepts as right. In the same way, Jesus did only what is good and right. 8 People who continue to do wrong things show that they belong to the Devil. The Devil has always been doing wrong things from the beginning. This is why the Son of God came to the world. He came to destroy everything that the Devil has done.
9 Everybody who is a child of God does not continue to do wrong things. This is because God has given them a new life. He has caused them to become his children. So they cannot continue to do wrong things. 10 In this way, we can see clearly who are God's children and who are the Devil's children. Anyone who does not live in a way that is good and right does not belong to God. People like that do not love other believers.
Christians must love one another
11 Yes, we must love one another. That is the message which you have heard from the beginning. 12 We should not be like Cain. He belonged to Satan and he even killed his brother, Abel. Why did he do that? Cain did bad things and he killed Abel because Abel did things that were right.
13 So, my Christian friends, do not be surprised when people who belong to this world hate you.
14 We know that we now have new life with God. Death no longer has power over us. We know this because we love our Christian friends. But anyone who does not love other believers is still under the power of death. 15 Anyone who hates other believers is like someone who murders other people. You know that a person like that does not have true life with God.
16 This is how we know what true love is: Jesus Christ gave his own life on the cross. He died on our behalf. So we too ought to give our lives for other believers. 17 When another believer has trouble, we need to be kind to him. Maybe you have all the things that you need to live. If you see another believer who needs things like that, you should help him. If you refuse to be kind to him, it shows that you do not belong to God. You do not love people in the way that God loves them.[a]
18 My little children, we should not show love for each other only by what we say. We should also show true love by the things that we do. 19 Then we will know that we truly belong to God. We will be obeying God's true message. As a result, our thoughts will not make us ashamed to come to God. 20 Even if our thoughts tell us that we have done something wrong, we still will not be afraid of God. We can trust God more than we trust our thoughts. He already knows everything about us.
21 My friends, if our thoughts do not tell us that we are guilty, we will not be afraid to come to God. 22 We can pray to God and we can ask him to help us. He will give us what we ask him for. That is because we obey his commands and we do the things that please him. 23 This is God's command to us: we must believe that Jesus Christ is his Son. And we must love each other, as Jesus commanded us. 24 Anyone who obeys God's commands lives together with God. God also lives in him. How do we know that God lives in us? It is because of his Holy Spirit that he has given to us.
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