M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Laws for Purification

19 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ² “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, ^(A)and on which a yoke has never come. ³ And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and ^(B)it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴ And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^(C)sprinkle some of its blood towards the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵ And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. ^(D)Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. ⁶ And the priest shall take ^(E)cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷ Then the priest ^(F)shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. ^8 (G)The one who burns the heifer ^(H)shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹ And a man who is clean shall gather up ^(I)the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a ^(J)clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for ^(K)impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. ¹⁰ And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^(L)shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

^11 (M)“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean for seven days. ¹² He ^(N)shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. ¹³ Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, ^(O)defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, ^(P)and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ “This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ And every ^(Q)open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. ^16 (R)Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a ^(S)grave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷ For the unclean they shall take ^(T)some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh^[a] water shall be added in a vessel. ¹⁸ Then a clean person shall take ^(U)hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. ¹⁹ And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean ^(V)on the third day and on the seventh day. ^(W)Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall ^(X)wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰ “If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, ^(Y)that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean. ²¹ And it shall be a statute for ever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. ²² And ^(Z)whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

In God I Trust

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A ^(A)Miktam^[a] of David, when the ^(B)Philistines seized him in Gath.

Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth

To the choirmaster: according to ^(V)Do Not Destroy. A ^(W)Miktam^[e] of David, when he fled from Saul, in ^(X)the cave.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet ^(A)and write on it in common characters,^[a] ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’^{[b] 2} And ^(B)I will get reliable witnesses, ^(C)Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

³ And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, ^(D)“Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ^4 (E)for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother’, the ^(F)wealth of ^(G)Damascus and the spoil of ^(H)Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶ “Because this people has refused the waters of ^(I)Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over ^(J)Rezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷ therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them ^(K)the waters of ^(L)the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it ^(M)will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, ⁸ and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, ^(N)reaching even to the neck, and its ^(O)outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, ^(P)O Immanuel.”

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

¹¹ For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and ^(T)warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹² “Do not call ^(U)conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and ^(V)do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. ¹³ But the Lord of hosts, ^(W)him you shall honour as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴ And he will become a ^(X)sanctuary and ^(Y)a stone of offence and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ And many ^(Z)shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

¹⁶ Bind up ^(AA)the testimony; ^(AB)seal the teaching^[f] among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will ^(AC)wait for the Lord, who is ^(AD)hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. ^18 (AE)Behold, I and ^(AF)the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹ And when they say to you, “Enquire of the ^(AG)mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people enquire of their God? Should they enquire of ^(AH)the dead on behalf of the living? ^20 (AI)To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no ^(AJ)dawn. ²¹ They will pass through the land,^[g] greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against^[h] their king and their God, and turn their faces upwards. ^22 (AK)And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into ^(AL)thick darkness.

For to Us a Child Is Born

9 ^[i] But there will be no ^(AM)gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he ^(AN)brought into contempt the land of ^(AO)Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he ^(AP)has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.^[j]

The Sin of Partiality

2 My brothers,^{[a] (A)}show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(B)the Lord of glory. ² For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³ and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place”, ^(C)while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there”, or, “Sit down at my feet”, ⁴ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become ^(D)judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers, ^(E)has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be ^(F)rich in faith and heirs of ^(G)the kingdom, ^(H)which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you ^(I)have dishonoured the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who ^(J)drag you ^(K)into court? ⁷ Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honourable ^(L)name by which you were called?

⁸ If you really fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, ^(M)“You shall love your neighbour as yourself”, you are doing well. ⁹ But if you ^(N)show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point ^(O)has become accountable for all of it. ¹¹ For he who said, ^(P)“Do not commit adultery”, also said, ^(Q)“Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under ^(R)the law of liberty. ¹³ For ^(S)judgement is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith ^(T)but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ^15 (U)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ^16 (V)and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[b] is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith ^(W)apart from your works, and I will show you my faith ^(X)by my works. ^19 (Y)You believe that God is one; you do well. Even ^(Z)the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ^21 (AA)Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that ^(AB)faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed ^(AC)by his works; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ^(AD)“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a ^(AE)friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And in the same way was not also ^(AF)Rahab the prostitute justified by works ^(AG)when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.