M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses
12 Moses had married a woman who was a descendant of Cush. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married that woman.[a] 2 They said, ‘We do not believe that the Lord has really spoken only by Moses. We believe that he has spoken by us too.’ The Lord heard what they said.
3 Moses was a very humble man. He was the most humble person in the whole world.
4 Immediately, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, ‘You three people come out to the Tent of Meeting.’ So the three people went there. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud. He stood at the door of the tent. He said that Aaron and Miriam should come nearer. They both came nearer. 6 Then he said, ‘Listen to my words! If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will show myself to him in a vision. Or I will speak to him in a dream. 7 But it is different when I speak to Moses. He is the one that I trust to lead all my people. 8 I speak clearly to him, as I come near to him. I do not say things to him that are hard to understand. He even sees the shape of the Lord. So you should have been afraid to speak against my servant Moses!’
9 So the Lord was very angry with Aaron and Miriam and he left them. 10 But when the cloud had gone away from over the tent, Miriam's skin became white, like snow. She now had the bad disease called leprosy in her skin. Aaron looked at her and he saw that she had leprosy.
11 Then Aaron said to Moses, ‘My master, please do not punish us because we have done this very silly thing. We have done a bad thing. 12 But do not let Miriam be like a baby that is born dead, with a body that is only half there.’
13 So Moses called loudly to the Lord, ‘Please God, make her well again!’ 14 But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Even if her father had spat on her face, she would have to be ashamed for seven days. So you must keep her outside the camp for seven days. After that you can let her come back inside the camp.’
15 So Moses kept Miriam outside the camp for seven days. The people did not start to travel again until they had brought Miriam back into the camp again.
16 After that, the people left Hazeroth. They went to the Paran desert and they put up their tents there.
Moses sends men to explore Canaan
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘I will give the land of Canaan to the Israelites. Now you must send men to explore that land. Choose one man from each tribe of your ancestors. Each man must be a leader among his tribe.’
3 So Moses obeyed the Lord's command. He sent the men from the Paran desert into Canaan. Each man was a leader among the Israelites. 4 This is a list of their names:
From Reuben's tribe: Shammua, the son of Zaccur.
5 From Simeon's tribe: Shaphat, the son of Hori.
6 From Judah's tribe: Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.
7 From Issachar's tribe: Igal, the son of Joseph.
8 From Ephraim's tribe: Hoshea, the son of Nun.
9 From Benjamin's tribe: Palti, the son of Raphu.
10 From Zebulun's tribe: Gaddiel, the son of Sodi.
11 From Manasseh's tribe: Gaddi, the son of Susi.
12 From Dan's tribe: Ammiel, the son of Gemalli.
13 From Asher's tribe: Sethur, the son of Michael.
14 From Naphtali's tribe: Nahbi, the son of Vophsi.
15 From Gad's tribe: Geuel, the son of Maki.
16 Those are the names of the men that Moses sent to explore the land. Moses changed the name of Hoshea, the son of Nun, to Joshua.[b]
17 Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan. He said to them, ‘Go north from here, through the Negev desert. Then continue to go north, into the place where there are hills. 18 Look at the land to see what it is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak. See whether few people or many people live there. 19 See whether their land is good or bad. Look at the towns where the people live. See if they have strong walls or they are in the open. 20 See whether the land is able to make good food grow there, or not. See whether there are forests that grow there. Then try to get some fruit from the land and bring it back here.’ (It was the time of year for the first grapes to be ready to eat.)
21 So the men went and they explored the land of Canaan. They started in the desert called Zin, and they continued to Rehob, near Lebo-Hamath. 22 When they had gone up through the Negev desert in the south of the land, they arrived at Hebron. That was where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were living. They had built Hebron seven years before the Egyptians built Zoan.
23 Then the men came to the valley called Eshcol. They cut a branch which had one group of grapes on it. It was so large that two men carried it between them on a pole. They also brought some other fruits called pomegranates and figs. 24 They called that valley ‘Eshcol’ because of the large group of grapes that the Israelites cut down there.
25 The men returned after they had explored the land for 40 days.
The men bring news to Moses
26 The men came back to Kadesh in the Paran desert. They brought their message to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelites there. They told them all about the land of Canaan and they showed its fruit to them. 27 They said to Moses, ‘We went to look at the land where you sent us. It is certainly a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. This is some of its fruit. 28 But the people who live in the land are strong. Their towns are very big, and strong walls keep them safe. Also, we saw some descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites are living in Negev, the land in the south of the country. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hills. And the Canaanites live by the sea and by the edge of Jordan River.’
30 Then Caleb stood in front of Moses and he told the Israelites to be quiet. He said, ‘We should go into the land and get power over it. We will certainly be able to do it!’
31 But the men who had gone into Canaan with him said, ‘These people are stronger than we are. So we cannot go and fight against them.’ 32 Those men gave to the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had explored. They said, ‘We went through that whole land and we explored it. The land seems to eat the people who live there! All the people that we saw there were very big and strong. 33 We also saw descendants of the Nephilites there. And we felt like very small insects when we looked at them. And we seemed like very small insects to them too.’ (The descendants of Anak are also descendants of the Nephilites.)[c]
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
Riches cannot save you
49 Listen to this, people from every nation.
Yes, listen carefully,
everyone who lives in this world!
2 All people must listen, whoever you are,
whether you are rich people or poor people.
3 I will speak wise words to you.
When you know my thoughts,
you will understand things better.
4 I have studied proverbs.
I explain what they mean
as I make music on my harp.
5 When trouble comes,
why am I afraid?
When cruel people are all round me,
and they want to hurt me,
why am I afraid?
6 Those people think that their money will keep them safe.
They are proud about their riches.
7 Nobody can pay the price to save another person.
Nobody can pay God the price for their life.
8 A human life costs too much to buy it back.
Nobody could ever pay enough.
9 So nobody can live for ever.
Everyone goes to their grave one day.
10 Surely you see that even wise people die,
in the way that fools and stupid people also die.
Then their money will belong to someone else.
11 Their graves will be their homes for ever.
They had their own land,
which was called by their name,
12 but people do not live for ever,
even if they are very rich.
They will die, just like the animals.
13 The same thing will happen to fools,
and to those who copy their way of life.
Selah.
14 They will follow one another like sheep.
Death will be their shepherd
that leads them into their graves.
But when the day arrives,
righteous people will rule over them.
They will no longer live in their great houses,
but death will destroy their bodies in their graves.
15 But God will save my life from the power of death.
He will take me to a safe place with him.
Selah.
16 If somebody becomes rich
and he has more and more things,
do not be afraid![a]
17 He cannot take anything with him when he dies.
His riches cannot go with him into death.
18 While he lived, he was happy with his life.
He thought, ‘People will praise me,
because I am rich.’
19 But he will join his ancestors in death.
He will never see the light of day again.
20 Rich people do not always understand the truth.
They will die, just like the animals.
Words that cause us to hope in God
2 This is the message that appeared to Amoz's son, Isaiah, about Judah and Jerusalem.
2 This is what will happen in the last days. The mountain where the Lord's temple is will continue to be there. It will be the most important mountain of all. It will be higher than all the hills around it. People from every nation will go there all the time.
3 As they come, people from many nations will say, ‘Come! We will go to the mountain of the Lord, Jacob's God. We will go to worship him at his temple. Then he will teach us how to live in a way that pleases him. We will be able to walk in his paths.’
At that time, Zion will be the place where people learn about what is right. Yes, in Jerusalem the Lord will teach people his message.[a]
4 God will be the judge between different nations. When they argue together, he will say who is right. They will take their swords and they will make them into ploughs. Their spears will become knives to cut their vines. Nations will no longer need weapons to attack other nations. They will not prepare to fight wars any more.
5 Jacob's family, come now! We need to live in the light that the Lord gives to us.[b]
The great day when the Lord will judge everyone
6 Lord, you have gone away from your people. They are Jacob's descendants. They are full of ideas from countries in the east. They use magic to learn about future times, as the Philistines do. They join hands with foreign people.
7 They are very rich and their land is full of silver and gold. They have many horses, and more chariots than you can count. 8 But their land is also full of useless idols. They worship things that they have made with their own hands. 9 People bend down low in front of their idols. They even lie flat on the ground!
Lord, do not forgive them!
10 Go up to the rocks in the hills! Find a hole in the ground where you can hide! Hide from the Lord's great power, because he is coming to punish you! He rules with great authority!
11 The Lord will bring proud people down low. People who boast will have to stop. On that day, people will see that only the Lord is great.
12 Yes! The Lord Almighty will choose his great day. On that day, he will judge all the proud people who think that they are great. He will bring them all down very low.
13 The Lord will cut down the great cedar trees in Lebanon, and the oak trees in Bashan. 14 He will bring down the high mountains and the highest hills. 15 He will knock down all the strong towers and walls. 16 He will destroy the great ships that travel across the seas, and all the beautiful boats.
17 Like that, the Lord will bring proud people down low. People who boast will have to stop. On that day, people will see that only the Lord is great.
18 All the useless idols will be there no more.
19 People will run away to the caves in the hills. They will try to hide in holes in the ground. They will try to escape from the great power of the Lord, when he comes to judge everyone. They will see that he rules with great authority. People will be very afraid when he comes to punish the people on earth.
20 At that time, people will throw away their silver idols and their gold idols. They made those idols so that they could worship them. But now they will throw them into caves where rats and bats live.
21 The people themselves will look for caves and holes in the rocks where they can hide. They will try to escape from the Lord's punishment. They will see that he rules with great authority. They will be afraid when he comes to judge the people on earth.
22 Do not trust people to help you. They are weak and they will all die one day. They are not strong enough to help you.
10 God's laws which he gave to Moses are like a shadow of the good things that would come later. But those laws do not show exactly what those good things are like. They say that the priests must continue to offer the same sacrifices on behalf of the people, year after year. So those sacrifices can never make the people completely clean when they come to worship God. 2 If the old rules could do that, the priests would have stopped offering sacrifices. The people who came to worship God would have become completely clean once, for all time. They would no longer have trouble in their minds about their sins. 3 But as it is, those sacrifices every year cause people to remember their sins. 4 We know that the blood of bulls and of goats cannot remove the punishment for sins. 5 So, when Christ came into the world, he said to his Father,
‘You have not wanted people to offer sacrifices and other gifts to you.
Instead, you have prepared a body for me to offer to you.
6 Sacrifices do not make you happy.
If people burn whole animals as a sacrifice,
or if they offer a sacrifice to make them clean from their sins,
that does not make you happy.
7 Then I said, “Here I am, my God.
I have come to do what you want.
That is what it says about me in the Bible.” ’[a]
8 So think about what Christ said there. First he said to God, ‘You have not wanted gifts and sacrifices of animals. Any kind of sacrifice like that does not make you happy.’ But we know that Moses' rules taught about those sacrifices. God's law said that they were necessary. 9 Then Christ said, ‘Here I am. I have come to do what you want.’ In that way, Christ took away the first agreement and its rules about sacrifices. Christ's sacrifice of his own body is the new way that God forgives our sins. 10 Jesus Christ was ready to do what God wanted. He offered his own body to God once, for all time. Because of Christ's sacrifice, God has made us clean so that we belong to him.
11 Every day, the priests do their work to serve God. They offer the same sacrifices to God again and again. But those sacrifices can never take away people's sins. 12 But Christ, our special priest, offered one sacrifice to take away our sins. He did that once, for all time. After that, he sat down at God's right side to rule with him. 13 Since then, he waits for God to win against his enemies completely. They will become like a place for him to put his feet. 14 So, as a result of his one sacrifice, Christ has made God's people completely clean for all time.
15 God's Holy Spirit also shows us that these things are true. He says this first:[b]
16 ‘The Lord God says:
After the time of the old agreement,
I will make a new agreement with my people.
It will be like this:
I will put my laws deep inside them.
I will put them into their thoughts.’
17 Then he says this:[c]
‘I will not continue to think about their sins
when they do not obey my laws.’
18 So that is the way that God forgives our sins. When God has done that, we do not need to have any other sacrifice to take away our sins.
We must continue to trust God
19 So then, Christian friends, we see that Jesus died as a sacrifice on our behalf. Because of that, we may go into God's Most Holy Place. We are not afraid to do that. 20 Jesus has opened a new way for us to come near to God. That way gives us life with God. It leads us through the curtain into God's Most Holy Place. Jesus opened that curtain for us when he offered his own body to God as a sacrifice.[d] 21 We have a great priest who rules the people of God's house. 22 So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. But we must be honest and we must continue to trust him. He has made us clean from the dirt of our sins. Our thoughts no longer give us trouble about our sins. We have become clean. It is like he has washed our bodies with clean water.[e]
23 We know that we can trust God to do the things that he has promised. So we must continue to expect those things. We must tell other people that we trust God. We should not stop doing that. 24 We should think about how we can help one another. We want everyone to show love to each other. We want everyone to do good things to help one another. 25 Some people have stopped meeting with the group of Christians. But that is not good. We should all continue to meet together. We need to help one another to be strong and brave. That is now even more important, because the Lord's great day is coming. You know that the Lord will return soon.
We must not turn away from Jesus Christ
26 Now that we have learned what is true, we must continue to believe in Jesus. If we know God's true message, but we still choose to do wrong things, God will not forgive us. There is no other sacrifice that will take away our sins. 27 We know that God will judge us, and that will make us very afraid. Because we know that God will punish everyone who is against him. That punishment will be a very hot fire that destroys people. 28 In the old agreement, anyone who refused to obey Moses' rules had to die. If two or three people said that he had done a bad thing, that person had to die. They would not forgive him.[f]
29 So think about a person who has turned against the Son of God. That person's punishment will surely be much worse! He says that Christ's sacrifice has no value for him. He has made God's new agreement seem like something bad. It was Christ's death on the cross that made that person clean, so that he belonged to God. But now that person has insulted God's Spirit, who brings God's kind help to us. 30 We know God and his message. And God said this: ‘I am the one who will punish people for their sins. I will give them the punishment that they ought to receive.’[g] God also said this: ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 31 Yes, if God takes hold of you to punish you, that will make you very afraid! He is the powerful God who lives for ever.[h]
32 Remember what happened to you in those early days. When you first understood the message about Christ, you had many troubles. But you continued to be strong. 33 Sometimes people insulted you. They made you ashamed in front of other people. Sometimes you chose to help other Christians who had trouble like that. Their troubles became your troubles. 34 You were kind to Christians who were in prison. When people took away your own things, you still chose to be happy. You knew that you had something better that would belong to you for ever.[i]
35 So continue to be strong in your thoughts. If you continue to trust God, you will receive great things. 36 You need to be patient and strong. Then you will continue to do what God wants. As a result, you will receive what God has promised. 37 This is what the Bible says:
‘In a very short time,
my special servant will come.
He is the one that I promised to send to you.
He will not be late.[j]
38 The person that I have accepted as right will live.
That person will live because he trusts me.
But if anyone is afraid and he turns back,
I will not be happy with that person.’[k]
39 But we are not like those people who are afraid and who turn back. If we were, God would destroy us. But we are people who continue to trust God. And so, our lives are safe with God.
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