M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

15 Then Moshe and the people of Isra’el sang this song to Adonai:

²⁰ Also Miryam the prophet, sister of Aharon, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing, ²¹ as Miryam sang to them:

²² Moshe led Isra’el onward from the Sea of Suf. They went out into the Shur Desert; but after traveling three days in the desert, they had found no water. ²³ They arrived at Marah but couldn’t drink the water there, because it was bitter. This is why they called it Marah [bitterness]. ²⁴ The people grumbled against Moshe and asked, “What are we to drink?” ²⁵ Moshe cried to Adonai; and Adonai showed him a certain piece of wood, which, when he threw it into the water, made the water taste good. There Adonai made laws and rules of life for them, and there he tested them. ²⁶ He said, “If you will listen intently to the voice of Adonai your God, do what he considers right, pay attention to his mitzvot and observe his laws, I will not afflict you with any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians; because I am Adonai your healer.”

(A: v, S: iv) ²⁷ They came to Eilim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and camped there by the water.

18 Then Yeshua told his talmidim a parable, in order to impress on them that they must always keep praying and not lose heart. ² “In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected other people. ³ There was also in that town a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me a judgment against the man who is trying to ruin me.’ ⁴ For a long time he refused; but after awhile, he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God, and I don’t respect other people; ⁵ but because this widow is such a nudnik, I will see to it that she gets justice — otherwise, she’ll keep coming and pestering me till she wears me out!’”

⁶ Then the Lord commented, “Notice what this corrupt judge says. ⁷ Now won’t God grant justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Is he delaying long over them? ⁸ I tell you that he will judge in their favor, and quickly! But when the Son of Man comes, will he find this trust on the earth at all?”

⁹ Also, to some who were relying on their own righteousness and looking down on everyone else, he told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Parush and the other a tax-collector. ¹¹ The Parush stood and prayed to himself, ‘O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, immoral, or like this tax-collector! ¹² I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on my entire income, . . . ’ ¹³ But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God! Have mercy on me, sinner that I am!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his home right with God rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹⁵ People brought him babies to touch; but when the talmidim saw the people doing this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ However, Yeshua called the children to him and said, “Let the children come to me, and stop hindering them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷ Yes! I tell you that whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it at all!”

¹⁸ One of the leaders asked him, “Good rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?” ¹⁹ Yeshua said to him, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good but God! ²⁰ You know the mitzvot — ‘Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony, honor your father and mother, . . .’”^{[a] 21} He replied, “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” ²² On hearing this Yeshua said to him, “There is one thing you still lack. Sell whatever you have, distribute the proceeds to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me!” ²³ But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.

²⁴ Yeshua looked at him and said, “How hard it is for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ It’s easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!” ²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ He said, “What is impossible humanly is possible with God.”

²⁸ Kefa said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” ²⁹ Yeshua answered them, “Yes! I tell you that everyone who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ will receive many times as much in the ‘olam hazeh, and in the ‘olam haba eternal life.”

³¹ Then, taking the Twelve, Yeshua said to them, “We are now going up to Yerushalayim, where everything written through the prophets about the Son of Man will come true. ³² For he will be handed over to the Goyim and be ridiculed, insulted and spat upon. ³³ Then, after they have beaten him, they will kill him. But on the third day he will rise.” ³⁴ However, they understood none of this; its meaning had been hidden from them, and they had no idea what he was talking about.

³⁵ As Yeshua approached Yericho, a blind man was sitting by the road, begging. ³⁶ When he heard the crowd going past, he asked what it was all about; ³⁷ and they told him, “Yeshua from Natzeret is passing by.” ³⁸ He called out, “Yeshua! Son of David! Have pity on me!” ³⁹ Those in front scolded him in order to get him to shut up, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David! Have pity on me!” ⁴⁰ Yeshua stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he had come, Yeshua asked him, ⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Lord, let me be able to see.” ⁴² Yeshua said to him, “See again! your trust has healed you!” ⁴³ Instantly he received his sight and began following him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they too praised God.

3 Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation either to you or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³ You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah placed in our care, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.

⁴ Such is the confidence we have through the Messiah toward God. ⁵ It is not that we are competent in ourselves to count anything as having come from us; on the contrary, our competence is from God. ⁶ He has even made us competent to be workers serving a New Covenant, the essence of which is not a written text but the Spirit. For the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if that which worked death, by means of a written text engraved on stone tablets, came with glory — such glory that the people of Isra’el could not stand to look at Moshe’s face because of its brightness, even though that brightness was already fading away — ⁸ won’t the working of the Spirit be accompanied by even greater glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in what worked to declare people guilty, how much more must the glory abound in what works to declare people innocent! ¹⁰ In fact, by comparison with this greater glory, what was made glorious before has no glory now. ¹¹ For if there was glory in what faded away, how much more glory must there be in what lasts.

¹² Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open — ¹³ unlike Moshe, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Isra’el would not see the fading brightness come to an end.

¹⁴ What is more, their minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away. ¹⁵ Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. ¹⁶ “But,” says the Torah, “whenever someone turns to Adonai, the veil is taken away.”^{[a] 17} Now, “Adonai” in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of Adonai is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.