M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Penalties for Disobedience

20 The Lord told Moses ² to say to the people of Israel, “Any of you or any foreigner living among you who gives any children to be used in the worship of the god Molech shall be stoned to death by the whole community. ³ If any of you give one of your children to Molech and make my sacred Tent unclean and disgrace my holy name, I will turn against you and will no longer consider you my people. ⁴ But if the community ignores what you have done and does not put you to death, ⁵ I myself will turn against you and your whole family and against all who join you in being unfaithful to me and worshiping Molech. I will no longer consider any of you my people.

⁶ “If any of you go for advice to people who consult the spirits of the dead, I will turn against you and will no longer consider you one of my people. ⁷ Keep yourselves holy, because I am the Lord your God. ⁸ Obey my laws, because I am the Lord and I make you holy.”

^9 (A)The Lord gave the following regulations. Any of you that curse your father or mother shall be put to death; you are responsible for your own death.

^10 (B)If a man commits adultery with the wife of an Israelite, both he and the woman shall be put to death. ^11 (C)A man who has intercourse with one of his father's wives disgraces his father, and both he and the woman shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. ^12 (D)If a man has intercourse with his daughter-in-law, they shall both be put to death. They have committed incest and are responsible for their own death. ^13 (E)If a man has sexual relations with another man, they have done a disgusting thing, and both shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. ^14 (F)If a man marries a woman and her mother, all three shall be burned to death because of the disgraceful thing they have done; such a thing must not be permitted among you. ^15 (G)If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he and the animal shall be put to death. ¹⁶ If a woman tries to have sexual relations with an animal, she and the animal shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death.

^17 (H)If a man marries his sister or half sister, they shall be publicly disgraced and driven out of the community. He has had intercourse with his sister and must suffer the consequences. ^18 (I)If a man has intercourse with a woman during her monthly period, both of them are to be driven out of the community, because they have broken the regulations about ritual uncleanness.

^19 (J)If a man has intercourse with his aunt, both of them must suffer the consequences for incest. ²⁰ If a man has intercourse with his uncle's wife, he disgraces his uncle, and he and the woman will pay the penalty; neither one will have children. ^21 (K)If a man takes his brother's wife, they will die childless. He has done a ritually unclean thing and has disgraced his brother.

²² The Lord said, “Keep all my laws and commands, so that you will not be rejected by the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. ²³ Do not adopt the customs of the people who live there; I am driving out those pagans so that you can enter the land. They have disgusted me with all their evil practices. ²⁴ But I have promised you this rich and fertile land as your possession, and I will give it to you. I am the Lord your God, and I have set you apart from the other nations. ²⁵ So then, you must make a clear distinction between animals and birds that are ritually clean and those that are not. Do not eat unclean animals or birds. I have declared them unclean, and eating them would make you unclean. ²⁶ You shall be holy and belong only to me, because I am the Lord and I am holy. I have set you apart from the other nations so that you would belong to me alone.

²⁷ “Any man or woman who consults the spirits of the dead shall be stoned to death; any of you that do this are responsible for your own death.”

A Prayer for Guidance and Protection^[a]

A Time for Everything

3 Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.

⁹ What do we gain from all our work? ¹⁰ I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us. ¹¹ He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does. ¹² So I realized that all we can do is be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive. ¹³ All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift.

¹⁴ I know that everything God does will last forever. You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him. ¹⁵ Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.

Injustice in the World

¹⁶ In addition, I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be. ¹⁷ I told myself, “God is going to judge the righteous and the evil alike, because every thing, every action, will happen at its own set time.”^{[a] 18} I decided that God is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals. ¹⁹ After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either. ²⁰ They are both going to the same place—the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it. ²¹ How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upward while an animal's spirit goes down into the ground? ²² So I realized then that the best thing we can do is enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do.^[b] There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.

Responsibilities toward Believers

5 Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as if he were your father. Treat the younger men as your brothers, ² the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, with all purity.

³ Show respect for widows who really are all alone. ⁴ But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should learn first to carry out their religious duties toward their own family and in this way repay their parents and grandparents, because that is what pleases God. ^5 (A)A widow who is all alone, with no one to take care of her, has placed her hope in God and continues to pray and ask him for his help night and day. ⁶ But a widow who gives herself to pleasure has already died, even though she lives. ⁷ Give them these instructions, so that no one will find fault with them. ⁸ But if any do not take care of their relatives, especially the members of their own family, they have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever.

⁹ Do not add any widow to the list of widows unless she is over sixty years of age. In addition, she must have been married only once^{[a] 10} and have a reputation for good deeds: a woman who brought up her children well, received strangers in her home, performed humble duties for other Christians, helped people in trouble, and devoted herself to doing good.

¹¹ But do not include younger widows in the list; because when their desires make them want to marry, they turn away from Christ, ¹² and so become guilty of breaking their earlier promise to him. ¹³ They also learn to waste their time in going around from house to house; but even worse, they learn to be gossips and busybodies, talking of things they should not. ¹⁴ So I would prefer that the younger widows get married, have children, and take care of their homes, so as to give our enemies no chance of speaking evil of us. ¹⁵ For some widows have already turned away to follow Satan. ¹⁶ But if any Christian woman has widows in her family, she must take care of them and not put the burden on the church, so that it may take care of the widows who are all alone.

¹⁷ The elders who do good work as leaders should be considered worthy of receiving double pay, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. ^18 (B)For the scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox when you are using it to thresh grain” and “Workers should be given their pay.” ^19 (C)Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or more witnesses. ²⁰ Rebuke publicly all those who commit sins, so that the rest may be afraid.

²¹ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the holy angels I solemnly call upon you to obey these instructions without showing any prejudice or favor to anyone in anything you do. ²² Be in no hurry to lay hands on people to dedicate them to the Lord's service. Take no part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.

²³ Do not drink water only, but take a little wine to help your digestion, since you are sick so often.

²⁴ The sins of some people are plain to see, and their sins go ahead of them to judgment; but the sins of others are seen only later. ²⁵ In the same way good deeds are plainly seen, and even those that are not so plain cannot be hidden.