M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
12 Miriam and Aaron began to criticize Moses because he was married to a woman from Sudan. 2 They asked, “Did Yahweh speak only through Moses? Didn’t he also speak through us?” Yahweh heard their complaint.
3 (Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth.)
4 Suddenly, Yahweh said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “All three of you come to the tent of meeting.” So all three of them came. 5 Then Yahweh came down in the column of smoke and stood at the entrance to the tent. He called to Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.
6 He said, “Listen to my words: When there are prophets of Yahweh among you, I make myself known to them in visions or speak to them in dreams. 7 But this is not the way I treat my servant Moses. He is the most faithful person in my household.[a] 8 I speak with him face to face, plainly and not in riddles. He even sees the form of Yahweh. Why weren’t you afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”
9 Yahweh was angry with them, so he left.
10 When the smoke left the tent, Miriam was covered with an infectious skin disease. She was as white as snow. Aaron turned to her and saw she was covered with the disease. 11 So he said to Moses, “Please, sir, don’t punish us for this foolish sin we committed. 12 Don’t let her be like a stillborn baby that’s not completely developed.”
13 So Moses cried to Yahweh, “Please, El, heal her!”
14 Yahweh replied to Moses, “If her own father had spit in her face, wouldn’t she be excluded from the community for seven days? She must be put in isolation outside the camp for seven days. Then she can be brought back.” 15 So Miriam was put in isolation outside the camp for seven days. The people didn’t break camp until she was brought back.
16 After that, the people moved from Hazeroth and set up camp in the Desert of Paran.
Moses Sends Out 12 Spies
13 Yahweh said to Moses, 2 “Send men to explore Canaan, which I’m giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of their ancestors’ tribes.”
3 So at Yahweh’s command, Moses sent these men from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
4 These are their names:
Shammua, son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben;
5 Shaphat, son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon;
6 Caleb, son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah;
7 Igal, son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar;
8 Hoshea, son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim;
9 Palti, son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin;
10 Gaddiel, son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulun;
11 Gaddi, son of Susi, from the tribe of Joseph (that is, the tribe of Manasseh);
12 Ammiel, son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan;
13 Sethur, son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher;
14 Nahbi, son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali;
15 Geuel, son of Machi, from the tribe of Gad.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. But Moses gave Hoshea, son of Nun, the name Joshua.
17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he told them, “Go through the Negev and then into the mountain region. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 Is the land they live in good or bad? Do their cities have walls around them or not? 20 Is the soil rich or poor? Does the land have trees or not? Do your best to bring back some fruit from the land.” (It was the season when grapes were beginning to ripen.)
21 So the men explored the land from the Desert of Zin to the border of Hamath. 22 They went through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai lived. They are descendants of Anak. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they came to the Eshcol Valley, they cut off a branch with only one bunch of grapes on it. They carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 So they called that valley Eshcol [Bunch of Grapes] because of the bunch of grapes the Israelites cut off there.
25 Forty days later, they came back from exploring the land. 26 They came back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. They gave their report and showed them the fruit from the land.
27 This is what they reported to Moses: “We went to the land where you sent us. It really is a land flowing with milk and honey. Here’s some of its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are strong, and the cities have walls and are very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountain region. And the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and all along the Jordan River.”
30 Caleb told the people to be quiet and listen to Moses. Caleb said, “Let’s go now and take possession of the land. We should be more than able to conquer it.”
31 But the men who had gone with him said, “We can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!” 32 So they began to spread lies among the Israelites about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored is one that devours those who live there. All the people we saw there are very tall. 33 We saw Nephilim there. (The descendants of Anak are Nephilim.) We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that’s how we must have looked to them.”
Psalm 49
For the choir director; a psalm by Korah’s descendants.
1 Listen to this, all you people.
Open your ears, all who live in the world—
2 common people and important ones,
rich people and poor ones.
3 My mouth will speak wise sayings,
the insights I have carefully considered.
4 I will turn my attention to a proverb.
I will explain my riddle with the music of a lyre.
5 Why should I be afraid in times of trouble,
when slanderers surround me with evil?
6 They trust their riches
and brag about their abundant wealth.
7 No one can ever buy back another person
or pay Elohim a ransom for his life.
8 The price to be paid for his soul is too costly.
He must always give up
9 in order to live forever and never see the pit.
10 Indeed, one can see that wise people die,
that foolish and stupid people meet the same end.
They leave their riches to others.
11 Although they named their lands after themselves,
their graves[a] have become their homes for ages to come,
their dwelling places throughout every generation.
12 But mortals will not continue here with what they treasure.
They are like animals that die.
13 This is the final outcome for fools and their followers
who are delighted by what they say: Selah
14 Like sheep, they are driven to hell
with death as their shepherd.
(Decent people will rule them in the morning.)
Their forms will decay in the grave,
far away from their comfortable homes.
15 But Elohim will buy me back from the power of hell
because he will take me. Selah
16 Do not be afraid when someone becomes rich,
when the greatness of his house increases.
17 He will not take anything with him when he dies.
His greatness cannot follow him.
18 Even though he blesses himself while he is alive
(and they praise you when you do well for yourself),
19 he must join the generation of his ancestors,
who will never see light again.
20 Mortals, with what they treasure, still don’t have understanding.
They are like animals that die.
The Lord Will Teach the Nations(A)
2 This is the message which Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw about Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In the last days the mountain of Yahweh’s house
will be established as the highest of the mountains
and raised above the hills.
All the nations will stream to it.
3 Then many people will come and say,
“Let’s go to the mountain of Yahweh,
to the house of the Elohim of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways so that we may live by them.”
The teachings will go out from Zion.
The word of Yahweh will go out from Jerusalem.
4 Then he will judge disputes between nations
and settle arguments between many people.
They will hammer their swords into plowblades
and their spears into pruning shears.
Nations will never fight against each other,
and they will never train for war again.
5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
let’s live in the light of Yahweh.
Israel’s Sins
6 Yahweh, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob,
because they are filled with Eastern influences.
They are fortunetellers like the Philistines,
and they make deals with foreigners.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is filled with idols,
and they worship what their hands have shaped
and what their fingers have molded.
9 People will be brought down. Everyone will be humbled.
Do not forgive them.
10 Go in among the rocks and hide underground
because of Yahweh’s terrifying presence
and the honor of his majesty.
11 The eyes of arrogant people will be humbled.
High and mighty people will be brought down.
On that day Yahweh alone will be honored.
The Day of the Lord’s Judgment
12 Yahweh Tsebaoth will have his day
against all who are arrogant and conceited
and all who are proud of themselves (they will be humbled),
13 against all the towering and mighty cedars of Lebanon
and all the oaks of Bashan,
14 against all the high mountains
and all the lofty hills,
15 against every high tower
and every fortified wall,
16 against all the large ships of Tarshish
and all the beautiful boats.
17 Then arrogant people will be brought down,
and high and mighty people will be humbled.
On that day Yahweh alone will be honored.
18 Then idols will disappear completely.
19 People will go into caves in the rocks
and into holes in the ground
because of Yahweh’s terrifying presence
and the honor of his majesty
when he rises to terrify the earth.
20 On that day people will throw to the moles and the bats
the silver and gold idols that they made
for themselves to worship.
21 They will go into caves in the rocks
and into cracks in the cliffs
because of Yahweh’s terrifying presence
and the honor of his majesty
when he rises to terrify the earth.
22 Stop trusting people.
Their life is in their nostrils.
How can they be worth anything?
We Can Enter the Most Holy Place because of Christ’s Superior Work
10 Moses’ Teachings with their yearly cycle of sacrifices are only a shadow of the good things in the future. They aren’t an exact likeness of those things. They can never make those who worship perfect. 2 If these sacrifices could have made the worshipers perfect, the sacrifices would have stopped long ago. Those who worship would have been cleansed once and for all. Their consciences would have been free from sin. 3 Instead, this yearly cycle of sacrifices reminded people of their sins. 4 (The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.)
5 For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“‘You did not want sacrifices and offerings,
but you prepared a body for me.
6 You did not approve of burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.’
7 Then I said, ‘I have come!
(It is written about me in the scroll of the book.)
I have come to do what you want, my God.’”
8 In this passage Christ first said, “You did not want sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin. You did not approve of them.” (These are the sacrifices that Moses’ Teachings require people to offer.) 9 Then Christ says, “I have come to do what you want.” He did away with sacrifices in order to establish the obedience that God wants. 10 We have been set apart as holy because Yeshua Christ did what God wanted him to do by sacrificing his body once and for all.
11 Every day each priest performed his religious duty. He offered the same type of sacrifice again and again. Yet, these sacrifices could never take away sins. 12 However, this chief priest made one sacrifice for sins, and this sacrifice lasts forever. Then he received the highest position in heaven. 13 Since that time, he has been waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 With one sacrifice he accomplished the work of setting them apart for God forever.
15 The Holy Spirit tells us the same thing: 16 “This is the promise[a] that I will make to them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my teachings in their hearts and write them in their minds.’”
17 Then he adds, “I will no longer hold their sins and their disobedience against them.”
18 When sins are forgiven, there is no longer any need to sacrifice for sins.
19 Brothers and sisters, because of the blood of Yeshua we can now confidently go into the holy place. 20 Yeshua has opened a new and living way for us to go through the curtain. (The curtain is his own body.) 21 We have a superior priest in charge of God’s house. 22 We have been sprinkled with his blood to free us from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with clean water. So we must continue to come to him with a sincere heart and strong faith. 23 We must continue to hold firmly to our declaration of faith. The one who made the promise is faithful.
Encourage Each Other
24 We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things. 25 We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming.
26 If we go on sinning after we have learned the truth, no sacrifice can take away our sins. 27 All that is left is a terrifying wait for judgment and a raging fire that will consume God’s enemies. 28 If two or three witnesses accused someone of rejecting Moses’ Teachings, that person was shown no mercy as he was executed. 29 What do you think a person who shows no respect for the Son of God deserves? That person looks at the blood of the promise (the blood that made him holy) as no different from other people’s blood, and he insults the Spirit that God gave us out of his kindness.[b] He deserves a much worse punishment. 30 We know the God who said,
“I alone have the right to take revenge.
I will pay back.”
God also said,
“The Lord will judge his people.”
31 Falling into the hands of the living God is a terrifying thing.
32 Remember the past, when you first learned the truth. You endured a lot of hardship and pain. 33 At times you were publicly insulted and mistreated. At times you associated with people who were treated this way. 34 You suffered with prisoners. You were cheerful even though your possessions were stolen, since you know that you have a better and more permanent possession.[c]
35 So don’t lose your confidence. It will bring you a great reward. 36 You need endurance so that after you have done what God wants you to do, you can receive what he has promised.
37 “Yet, the one who is coming will come soon. He will not delay.
38 The person who has God’s approval will live by faith.
But if he turns back, I will not be pleased with him.”
39 We don’t belong with those who turn back and are destroyed. Instead, we belong with those who have faith and are saved.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.