M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Worship of Molech forbidden

20 The Lord said to Moses, ² You will also say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or any immigrant living in Israel who gives their children to Molech must be executed. The common people will stone such a person. ³ Moreover, I will set my own face against such a person, cutting them off from their people, because they gave their children to Molech, making my sanctuary unclean and degrading my holy name by doing so. ⁴ But if the common people choose to look the other way when someone gives their children to Molech and do not execute such a person, ⁵ I will set my own face against such a person and their extended family, cutting off from their people both the guilty party and anyone with them who faithlessly followed Molech. ⁶ I will also oppose anyone who resorts to dead spirits or spirits of divination and faithlessly follows those things. I will cut such an individual off from their people.

Sexual prohibitions

⁷ You must be holy and keep yourselves holy because I am the Lord your God. ⁸ You will keep my rules and do them; I am the Lord, who makes you holy. ⁹ If anyone curses their father or mother, they must be executed. They have cursed their own father and mother; that person’s blood is on their own heads. ¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with a neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be executed. ¹¹ If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹² If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be executed. They have acted perversely; their blood is on their own heads. ¹³ If a man has sexual intercourse with a man as he would with a woman, the two of them have done something detestable. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹⁴ If a man marries a woman and her mother as well, it is shameful. They will be burned with fire—the man and the two women—so that no such shameful thing will be found among you. ¹⁵ If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be executed and you must kill the animal. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any kind of animal to mate with it, you must kill the woman and the animal. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹⁷ If a man marries his sister—his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter—and they have sexual contact with each other, it is a disgrace. They will be cut off in the sight of their people. Such a man has had sexual contact with his sister; he will be liable to punishment. ¹⁸ If a man sleeps with a woman during her menstrual period and has sexual contact with her, he has exposed the source of her blood flow and she has uncovered the same. Both of them will be cut off from their people. ¹⁹ You must not have sexual contact with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, because that exposes your own close relative; both of you will be liable to punishment. ²⁰ If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. The man and the aunt will be liable to punishment; they will die childless. ²¹ If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is indecent. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; the man and the woman will be childless.

Conclusion concerning conduct

²² You must keep all my rules and all my regulations, and do them so that the land I am bringing you to, where you will live, won’t vomit you out. ²³ You must not follow the practices^[a] of the nations that I am throwing out before you, because they did all these things and I was disgusted with them. ²⁴ But I have told you, “You will certainly possess their fertile land; I am giving it to you to possess. It is a land full of milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from all other peoples. ²⁵ So you must separate between clean and unclean animals, and between clean and unclean birds. Do not become detestable through some animal, bird, or anything that moves on the fertile ground that I have separated from you as unclean. ²⁶ You must be holy to me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from all other peoples to be my own. ²⁷ If someone, whether male or female, is a medium with the dead or a diviner,^[b] they must be executed. They will be stoned; their blood is on their own head.

Psalm 25^[a]

Of David.

A season for everything

Hard work

⁹ What do workers gain from all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have observed the task that God has given human beings. ¹¹ God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts, without enabling them to discover what God has done from beginning to end.

¹² I know that there’s nothing better for them but to enjoy themselves and do what’s good while they live. ¹³ Moreover, this is the gift of God: that all people should eat, drink, and enjoy the results of their hard work. ¹⁴ I know that whatever God does will last forever; it’s impossible to add to it or take away from it. God has done this so that people are reverent before him.^{[a] 15} Whatever happens has already happened, and whatever will happen has already happened before. And God looks after what is driven away.^[b]

Enjoy what you do now

¹⁶ I saw something else under the sun: in the place of justice, there was wickedness; and in the place of what was right, there was wickedness again! ¹⁷ I thought to myself, God will judge both righteous and wicked people, because there’s a time for every matter and every deed. ¹⁸ I also thought, Where human beings are concerned, God tests them to show them that they are but animals ¹⁹ because human beings and animals share the same fate. One dies just like the other—both have the same life-breath. Humans are no better off than animals because everything is pointless.

²¹ Who knows if a human being’s life-breath rises upward while an animal’s life-breath descends into the earth? ²² So I perceived that there was nothing better for human beings but to enjoy what they do because that’s what they’re allotted in life. Who, really, is able to see what will happen in the future?

Caring for God’s family

5 Don’t correct an older man, but encourage him like he’s your father; treat younger men like your brothers, ² treat older women like your mother, and treat younger women like your sisters with appropriate respect.

³ Take care of widows who are truly needy. ⁴ But if a particular widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn to respect their own family and repay their parents, because this pleases God. ⁵ A widow who is truly needy and all alone puts her hope in God and keeps on going with requests and prayers, night and day. ⁶ But a widow who tries to live a life of luxury is dead even while she is alive. ⁷ Teach these things so that the families^[a] will be without fault. ⁸ But if someone doesn’t provide for their own family, and especially for a member of their household, they have denied the faith. They are worse than those who have no faith.

⁹ Put a widow on the list who is older than 60 years old and who was faithful to her husband. ¹⁰ She should have a reputation for doing good: raising children, providing hospitality to strangers, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in distress, and dedicating herself to every kind of good thing. ¹¹ But don’t accept younger widows for the list. When their physical desires distract them from Christ, they will want to get married. ¹² Then they will be judged for setting aside their earlier commitment. ¹³ Also, they learn to be lazy by going from house to house. They are not only lazy, but they also become gossips and busybodies, talking about things they shouldn’t. ¹⁴ So I want younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their homes so that they won’t give the enemy any reason to slander us. (¹⁵ Some have already turned away to follow Satan.) ¹⁶ If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should take care of them and not burden the church, so that it can help other widows who are truly needy.

Instructions for elders

¹⁷ Elders who lead well should be paid double, especially those who work with public speaking and teaching. ¹⁸ The scripture says, Don’t put a muzzle on an ox while it treads grain,^[b] and Workers deserve their pay.^{[c] 19} Don’t accept an accusation made against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. ²⁰ Discipline those who are sinning in front of everyone so that all the others will be afraid. ²¹ I charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to follow these practices without bias, and without playing favorites. ²² Don’t rush to commission anyone to leadership, and don’t participate in the sins of others. Keep yourself morally pure.

²³ Don’t drink water anymore, but use a little wine because of your stomach problems and your frequent illnesses. ²⁴ The sins of some people are obvious, and the sins are judged before the people must face judgment, but the sins of other people show up later. ²⁵ In the same way, the good that people do is also obvious and can’t be hidden.