M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

13 (vii) Adonai said to Moshe, ² “Set aside for me all the firstborn. Whatever is first from the womb among the people of Isra’el, both of humans and of animals, belongs to me.” ³ Moshe said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you left Egypt, the abode of slavery; because Adonai, by the strength of his hand, has brought you out of this place. Do not eat hametz. ⁴ You are leaving today, in the month of Aviv. ⁵ When Adonai brings you into the land of the Kena‘ani, Hitti, Emori, Hivi and Y’vusi, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this ceremony in this month. ⁶ For seven days you are to eat matzah, and the seventh day is to be a festival for Adonai. ⁷ Matzah is to be eaten throughout the seven days; neither hametz nor leavening agents are to be seen with you throughout your territory. ⁸ On that day you are to tell your son, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I left Egypt.’

⁹ “Moreover, it will serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes, so that Adonai’s Torah may be on your lips; because with a strong hand Adonai brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰ Therefore you are to observe this regulation at its proper time, year after year. ¹¹ When Adonai brings you into the land of the Kena‘ani, as he swore to you and your ancestors, and gives it to you, ¹² you are to set apart for Adonai everything that is first from the womb. Every firstborn male animal will belong to Adonai. ¹³ Every firstborn from a donkey, you are to redeem with a lamb; but if you choose not to redeem it, you must break its neck. But from people, you are to redeem every firstborn son. (Maftir) ¹⁴ When, at some future time, your son asks you, ‘What is this?’ then say to him, ‘With a strong hand Adonai brought us out of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh was unwilling to let us go, Adonai killed all the firstborn males in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of humans and the firstborn of animals. This is why I sacrifice to Adonai any male that is first from the womb of an animal, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ This will serve as a sign on your hand and at the front of a headband around your forehead that with a strong hand Adonai brought us out of Egypt.”

Haftarah Bo: Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 46:13–28

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Bo: Luke 2:22–24; Yochanan (John) 19:31–37; Acts 13:16 –17; Revelation 8:6–9:12; 16:1–21

Parashah 16: B’shallach (After he had let go) 13:17–17:16

¹⁷ After Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not guide them to the highway that goes through the land of the P’lishtim, because it was close by — God thought that the people, upon seeing war, might change their minds and return to Egypt. ¹⁸ Rather, God led the people by a roundabout route, through the desert by the Sea of Suf. The people of Isra’el went up from the land of Egypt fully armed.

¹⁹ Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him, for Yosef had made the people of Isra’el swear an oath when he said, “God will certainly remember you; and you are to carry my bones up with you, away from here.”

²⁰ They traveled from Sukkot and set up camp in Etam, at the edge of the desert. ²¹ Adonai went ahead of them in a column of cloud during the daytime to lead them on their way, and at night in a column of fire to give them light; thus they could travel both by day and by night. ²² Neither the column of cloud by day nor the column of fire at night went away from in front of the people.

16 Speaking to the talmidim, Yeshua said: “There was a wealthy man who employed a general manager. Charges were brought to him that his manager was squandering his resources. ² So he summoned him and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in your accounts, for you can no longer be manager.’

³ “‘What am I to do?’ said the manager to himself. ‘My boss is firing me, I’m not strong enough to dig ditches, and I’m ashamed to go begging. ⁴ Aha! I know what I’ll do — something that will make people welcome me into their homes after I’ve lost my job here!’

⁵ “So, after making appointments with each of his employer’s debtors, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my boss?’ ⁶ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. ‘Take your note back,’ he told him. ‘Now, quickly! Sit down and write one for four hundred!’ ⁷ To the next he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your note back and write one for eight hundred.’

⁸ “And the employer of this dishonest manager applauded him for acting so shrewdly! For the worldly have more sekhel than those who have received the light — in dealing with their own kind of people!

⁹ “Now what I say to you is this: use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when it gives out, you may be welcomed into the eternal home. ¹⁰ Someone who is trustworthy in a small matter is also trustworthy in large ones, and someone who is dishonest in a small matter is also dishonest in large ones. ¹¹ So if you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who is going to trust you with the real thing? ¹² And if you haven’t been trustworthy with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what ought to belong to you? ¹³ No servant can be slave to two masters, for he will either hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be loyal to the first. You can’t be a slave to both God and money.”

¹⁴ The P’rushim heard all this, and since they were money-lovers, they ridiculed him. ¹⁵ He said to them, “You people make yourselves look righteous to others, but God knows your hearts; what people regard highly is an abomination before God! ¹⁶ Up to the time of Yochanan there were the Torah and the Prophets. Since then the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is pushing to get in. ¹⁷ But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the Torah to become void. ¹⁸ Every man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and a man who marries a woman divorced by her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹ “Once there was a rich man who used to dress in the most expensive clothing and spent his days in magnificent luxury. ²⁰ At his gate had been laid a beggar named El‘azar who was covered with sores. ²¹ He would have been glad to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table; but instead, even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²² In time the beggar died and was carried away by the angels to Avraham’s side; the rich man also died and was buried.

²³ “In Sh’ol, where he was in torment, the rich man looked up and saw Avraham far away with El‘azar at his side. ²⁴ He called out, ‘Father Avraham, take pity on me, and send El‘azar just to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, because I’m in agony in this fire!’ ²⁵ However, Avraham said, ‘Son, remember that when you were alive, you got the good things while he got the bad; but now he gets his consolation here, while you are the one in agony. ²⁶ Yet that isn’t all: between you and us a deep rift has been established, so that those who would like to pass from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ where I have five brothers, to warn them; so that they may be spared having to come to this place of torment too.’ ²⁹ But Avraham said, ‘They have Moshe and the Prophets; they should listen to them.’ ³⁰ However, he said, ‘No, father Avraham, they need more. If someone from the dead goes to them, they’ll repent!’ ³¹ But he replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moshe and the Prophets, they won’t be convinced even if someone rises from the dead!’”

1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy

To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, along with all God’s people throughout Achaia:

² Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

³ Praised be God, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, compassionate Father, God of all encouragement and comfort; ⁴ who encourages us in all our trials, so that we can encourage others in whatever trials they may be undergoing with the encouragement we ourselves have received from God.

⁵ For just as the Messiah’s sufferings overflow into us, so through the Messiah our encouragement also overflows. ⁶ So if we undergo trials, it is for your encouragement and deliverance; and if we are encouraged, that should encourage you when you have to endure sufferings like those we are experiencing. ⁷ Moreover, our hope for you remains staunch, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you will also share in the encouragement.

⁸ For, brothers, we want you to know about the trials we have undergone in the province of Asia. The burden laid on us was so far beyond what we could bear that we even despaired of living through it. ⁹ In our hearts we felt we were under sentence of death. However, this was to get us to rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead! ¹⁰ He rescued us from such deadly peril, and he will rescue us again! The one in whom we have placed our hope will indeed continue to rescue us. ¹¹ And you must add your help by praying for us; for the more people there are praying, the more people there will be to give thanks when their prayer for us is answered.

¹² For we take pride in this: that our conscience assures us that in our dealings with the world, and especially with you, we have conducted ourselves with frankness and godly pureness of motive — not by worldly wisdom but by God-given grace. ¹³ There are no hidden meanings in our letters other than what you can read and understand; and my hope is that you will understand fully, ¹⁴ as indeed you have already understood us in part; so that on the Day of our Lord Yeshua you can be as proud of us as we are of you.

¹⁵ So sure was I of this that I had planned to come and see you, so that you might have the benefit of a second visit. ¹⁶ I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, visit you again on my way back from Macedonia, and then have you send me on my way to Y’hudah.

¹⁷ Did I make these plans lightly? Or do I make plans the way a worldly man does, ready to say, “Yes, yes,” and “No, no,” in the same breath? ¹⁸ As surely as God is trustworthy, we don’t say “Yes” when we mean “No.” ¹⁹ For the Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, who was proclaimed among you through us — that is, through me and Sila and Timothy — was not a yes-and-no man; on the contrary, with him it is always “Yes!” ²⁰ For however many promises God has made, they all find their “Yes” in connection with him; that is why it is through him that we say the “Amen” when we give glory to God. ²¹ Moreover, it is God who sets both us and you in firm union with the Messiah; he has anointed us, ²² put his seal on us, and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee for the future.

²³ I call God to witness — he knows what my life is like — that the reason I held back from coming to Corinth was out of consideration for you! ²⁴ We are not trying to dictate how you must live out your trust in the Messiah, for in your trust you are standing firm. Rather, we are working with you for your own happiness.