M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
This night is still remembered by Jewish people each year during the festival called Passover. The exodus—God’s liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt—is one of the most important events in all Scripture. For over 400 years, God’s covenant people lived as outsiders in Egypt. For as long as that last generation could remember, they had been slaves living embittered lives under a cruel regime. But God heard their cries and acted finally and decisively to rescue them. Now it is time to go home, to a land they have never seen, a land of promise and prosperity. They return not as slaves but as free people, a powerful force for God in the world. The exodus leaves a permanent mark on the people of Israel. It is celebrated in song, recorded in Scripture, and commemorated in a festival; the prophets even see a day when a new exodus is coming.
13 Eternal One (to Moses): 1-2 Set apart all of the firstborn and dedicate them to Me. The first male offspring—both human and animal—that opens the womb among the people of Israel belongs to me.
Moses (to the people): 3 Remember this day, the day when you departed from Egypt and left behind lives of slavery. For the strong hand of the Eternal has freed you from Pharaoh and his Egypt. In observing this day, be careful not to eat any food containing yeast. 4 You are leaving today in the month of Abib. 5 When He leads you into the land which He promised your ancestors He would give to you—a wide, open space flowing with milk and honey, a land currently inhabited by the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Amorites, and Jebusites—I want you to observe the following festival during this month: 6 For seven days, you are to eat only bread made without yeast. On the seventh day, celebrate a feast in honor of the Eternal. 7 Remember the directive: only bread made without yeast can be eaten during the seven festival days. Don’t keep any bread with yeast around; in fact, get rid of all yeast anywhere in your territory during those days. 8 You are to explain to your children on that day, “We observe this feast because of what the Eternal did for me when I came out of Egypt.” 9 This festival will be a sign to you—like a mark stamped on the back of your hand or a reminder written across your forehead—so that the Eternal’s instruction will never be far from your lips. For He led you out of Egypt with a strong hand. 10 Observe what I have decreed at the designated time every year.
11 The Eternal will lead you into the land He promised you and your ancestors—the land where the Canaanites are now living. 12 You are to dedicate to Him every offspring that opens the womb—your firstborn sons and the firstborn male of all your livestock—for they belong to Him. 13 You may redeem every firstborn of a donkey by sacrificing a lamb in its place. If you choose not to redeem it, then you must break its neck. But you must redeem all of your firstborn sons and not sacrifice them.
14 There will come a time when your children ask you, “What is this thing we are doing?” You will say, “With a strong hand the Eternal led us out of Egypt and freed us from lives of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh’s heart was as hard as stone, and he refused to release us, the Eternal killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt (both humans and animals). That is why I sacrifice the firstborn male of all our livestock to Him, but then I redeem every firstborn son by sacrificing a substitute.”
16 These practices will be like a mark stamped on the back of your hand and a reminder written across your forehead, a constant reminder that the Eternal led us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
17 After Pharaoh sent the people out, God did not take them by the coastal road that runs through the land of the Philistines, even though that was the nearest and easiest route. Instead, God said, “For if they see battle with those contentious Philistines, they might regret their decision and then return to Egypt.” 18 So God chose a different, longer path that led the community of His people through the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites marched out of the land of Egypt like an army ready for battle.
19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath, “God will certainly come and rescue you. Carry my bones with you when you leave this place.”[a]
20 The people of Israel departed from Succoth and set up camp in Etham at the edge of the desert. 21 The Eternal went on ahead to guide them during the day in a cloud shaped like a pillar; at night He appeared to them in a fire shaped like a pillar to light their way. So they were able to travel by day and by night. 22 The Eternal did not remove the cloud pillar or the fire pillar; by day and by night it continued to go ahead of the people.
The parable ends. Jesus never reveals how it came out. Did the older brother join the party and reconcile with his younger, wayward brother? Or did he stay outside, fuming over the seeming injustice of his father’s extravagant love? The story remains unresolved because it is, in fact, an invitation—an invitation to the Pharisees and other opponents of Jesus to join Him in welcoming sinners and other outsiders into the joyful party of the Kingdom.
16 Here’s a parable He told the disciples:
Jesus: Once there was a rich and powerful man who had an asset manager. One day, the man received word that his asset manager was squandering his assets.
2 The rich man brought in the asset manager and said, “You’ve been accused of wrongdoing. I want a full and accurate accounting of all your financial transactions because you are really close to being fired.”
3 The manager said to himself, “Oh, no! Now what am I going to do? I’m going to lose my job here, and I’m too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg. 4 I have an idea. This plan will mean that I have a lot of hospitable friends when I get fired.”
5 So the asset manager set up appointments with each person who owed his master money. He said to the first debtor, “How much do you owe my boss?” 6 The debtor replied, “A hundred barrels[a] of oil.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your bill by half. Just write 50 on this contract.” 7 Then he said to the second debtor, “How much do you owe?” This fellow said, “A hundred bales[b] of wheat.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your debt by 20 percent. Just write down 80 bales on this contract.”
8 When the manager’s boss realized what he had done, he congratulated him for at least being clever. That’s how it is: those attuned to this evil age are more clever in dealing with their affairs than the enlightened are in dealing with their affairs!
9 Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually money will be useless to you—but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination.
10 If you’re faithful in small-scale matters, you’ll be faithful with far bigger responsibilities. If you’re crooked in small responsibilities, you’ll be no different in bigger things. 11 If you can’t even handle a small thing like money, who’s going to entrust you with spiritual riches that really matter? 12 If you don’t manage well someone else’s assets that are entrusted to you, who’s going to give over to you important spiritual and personal relationships to manage?
13 Imagine you’re a servant and you have two masters giving you orders. What are you going to do when they have conflicting demands? You can’t serve both, so you’ll either hate the first and love the second, or you’ll faithfully serve the first and despise the second. One master is God and the other is money. You can’t serve them both.
14 The Pharisees overheard all this, and they started mocking Jesus because they really loved money.
Jesus (to the Pharisees): 15 You’ve made your choice. Your ambition is to look good in front of other people, not God. But God sees through to your hearts. He values things differently from you. The goals you and your peers are reaching for God detests.
16 The law and the prophets had their role until the coming of John the Baptist. Since John’s arrival, the good news of the kingdom of God has been taught while people are clamoring to enter it. 17 That’s not to say that God’s rules for living are useless. The stars in the sky and the earth beneath your feet will pass away before one letter of God’s rules for living become worthless.
18 Take God’s rules regarding marriage for example. If a man divorces his wife and marries somebody else, then it’s still adultery because that man has broken his vow to God. And if a man marries a woman divorced from her husband, he’s committing adultery for the same reason.
19 There was this rich man who had everything—purple clothing of fine quality and high fashion, gourmet meals every day, and a large house. 20 Just outside his front gate lay this poor homeless fellow named Lazarus. Lazarus was covered in ugly skin lesions. 21 He was so hungry he wished he could scavenge scraps from the rich man’s trash. Dogs would come and lick the sores on his skin. 22 The poor fellow died and was carried on the arms of the heavenly messengers to the embrace of Abraham. Then the rich fellow died and was buried 23 and found himself in the place of the dead. In his torment, he looked up, and off in the distance he saw Abraham, with Lazarus in his embrace.
24 He shouted out, “Father Abraham! Please show me mercy! Would you send that beggar Lazarus to dip his fingertip in water and cool my tongue? These flames are hot, and I’m in agony!”
25 But Abraham said, “Son, you seem to be forgetting something: your life was full to overflowing with comforts and pleasures, and the life of Lazarus was just as full with suffering and pain. So now is his time of comfort, and now is your time of agony. 26 Besides, a great canyon separates you and us. Nobody can cross over from our side to yours, or from your side to ours.”
27 “Please, Father Abraham, I beg you,” the formerly rich man continued, “send Lazarus to my father’s house. 28 I have five brothers there, and they’re on the same path I was on. If Lazarus warns them, they’ll choose another path and won’t end up here in torment.”
29 But Abraham said, “Why send Lazarus? They already have the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets to instruct them. Let your brothers hear them.”
30 “No, Father Abraham,” he said, “they’re already ignoring the law and the prophets. But if someone came back from the dead, then they’d listen for sure; then they’d change their way of life.”
31 Abraham answered, “If they’re not listening to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be convinced even if someone comes back from the dead.”
31 Job: I have made a sacred pledge with my eyes.
How then could I stare at a young woman with desire?
2 And what share has God set aside for us from above?
What is the heritage we can expect from the lofty God, the Highest One?[a]
3 Has it not been made clear these many years?
Is there not supposed to be punishment poured out on the wicked
and disaster on those wrongdoers?
4 Does God not see the paths of my choosing;
does He not count every single step I take?
In this speech, Job is actually recording his deposition; he is calling God to come answer the charges he is laying out. Using a rigid format, Job explains away eight areas of potential sin in his life. So certain is Job that he is innocent of wickedness, he actually pronounces curses upon himself if the all-knowing God finds him guilty of any of the sins. This ethereal courtroom procedure would be like any human going to a court to explain how he did not violate the law of the land and prefacing his testimony with a proposed sentence of the death penalty if the judgment goes against him. Job will soon learn that it is never appropriate to assume he knows more about justice than God, the very author of justice.
Job: 5 If I have walked alongside lies
or if my feet have rushed toward deception,
6 Then let God weigh me on a truly balanced set of scales.
He will know and see my integrity.
7 If my steps have veered off God’s prescribed path
or if my heart has followed any of the evil my eyes have seen
or if my hands are soiled,
8 Then let me sow, but then let another one eat the produce!
Let my sprouts be pulled up by their roots!
9 If my heart has been seduced by another woman
or if I have waited by a friend’s door for a liaison with his wife,
10 Then let my wife be taken by another,
to grind his grain or do whatever he pleases,
And let other men kneel down over her
11 because adultery is such a lewd, scandalous act,
an offense punishable by the court,
12 For it is a fire that burns until the destruction is complete.
Had I done it, it would have undone all that I had gained.
13 If I have refused justice to my servants—either male or female—
when they have had cause for dispute with me,
14 Then what ought I do when God stands to judge me?
How will I answer when He calls me to account for my actions?
15 Did not God, who made me in my mother’s womb, make my servants as well?
Is He not the same One who made us each in our own mother’s womb?
16 If I have stood between the poor and the object of their desire,
if I have caused a widow to lose her love of life,
17 If I have eaten my food alone
and not shared it with the hungry orphan
18 (Indeed, from as far back as I can remember, I have cared for them all—
from my youth, been a father to the orphan;
from my own birth, cared for the widow),
19 If I have idly watched anyone die from exposure simply due to a lack of clothing
or seen the poor without any kind of covering,
20 If ever people in such conditions did not physically bless and thank me
for warming them up with the fleeces of my own sheep,
21 If I ever used my civic strength to condemn the fatherless
simply because I knew I had allies in the courts;
22 Then let my arm be pulled from its socket!
Let my forearm be snapped off at the elbow for raising it against the orphan!
23 See, I have always dreaded the kind of disaster wrought by God;
I was never able to withstand His majesty.
24 If I have put my confidence in my stash of gold,
if I have trusted in a metal so well-refined,
25 If I have exulted in my immense wealth
(for I had accumulated so much),
26 If I saw the sun in its radiant glory
or the moon sliding across the sky in its splendor,
27 If such sights secretly seduced my heart
and made my hand throw kisses to the false gods of sun and moon,
28 Then these things, too, would have been punishable offenses
because they would have shown me untrue to the God above.
29 Have I gloated at my enemy’s downfall
or been excited when he encountered evil?
30 No. I have not permitted my mouth to sin
by uttering a curse against his very life.
31 Have my guests ever left my dwelling saying,
“Anyone still hungry? Who didn’t get enough to eat?”
32 Have I ever left the foreigner to sleep outside?
No. My door was always open to the traveler.
33 If I have covered my sin as people do
or attempted to hide my wrongdoing in the recesses of my heart
34 (Because of my fear of the opinions of the crowd
or my fright at the disdain of my family)
And kept silent hiding indoors away from all possible discovery of flaws;
35 (if only someone were listening!)
Now, here to these oaths, these curses,
I make my signature!
Let the Highest One answer me!
Let my adversary put his case in writing!
36 If He does, I would place it on my shoulder for all to see;
I would put it on my head and wear it like a crown.
37 I would offer Him an account of the steps I’ve taken along my life’s path
and approach Him directly like a prince.
38 If my land cries out against me,
if my furrows gather together to weep over my mistreatment of them,
39 If I have eaten the fruit of the land
without payment to those who tend it
or exasperated the lives of its tenants, the farmers, in pursuit of greater harvest, or in poor management of them;
40 Then let thistles grow instead of wheat
and stinkweed instead of barley.
This concludes the words of Job.
1 Paul, an emissary[a] of Jesus the Anointed pressed into service by the will of God, and our brother Timothy to God’s church that gathers in Corinth and all the saints in the region of Achaia.
2 May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, surround you.
3 All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. 4 He consoles us as we endure the pain and hardship of life so that we may draw from His comfort and share it with others in their own struggles. 5 For even as His suffering continues to flood over us, through the Anointed we experience the wealth of His comfort just the same. 6 If we are afflicted with such trouble and pain, then know it is so that you might ultimately experience comfort and salvation. If we experience comfort, it is to encourage you so that you can hold up while you endure the same sufferings we all share. 7 Remember that our hope for you stands firm, unshaken and unshakable. That’s because we know that as you share in our sufferings, so you will also share in our comfort.
8 My brothers and sisters, we have to tell you that when we were in Asia the troubles we faced were nearly more than we could handle. The burdens we bore nearly crushed us. Our strength dwindled to nothing. For a while, we weren’t sure we would make it through the whole ordeal. 9 We thought we would have to serve out our death sentences right then and there. As a result, we realized that we could no longer rely on ourselves and that we must trust solely in God, who possesses the power to raise the dead. 10 Miraculously God Himself delivered us from the cold hands of death. We again place our hope in Him alone, and we know He will deliver us. 11 Join us in this work. Lend us a hand through prayer so that many will give thanks for the gift that comes to us when God answers the prayers of so many.
Some believe that prosperity and comfort are the markers of a faithful Christian; in order to believe that, you have to ignore completely the life and writings of Paul, the emissary. It is only when you suffer that you can meet God as your comforter. In these letters, and often in our own lives, it is when we seem to have come to the end of ourselves that we see and experience the fullness of God in entirely new ways. This is not to say that any of us should or would seek out the kind of suffering Paul experienced; we do not long to be imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked, or hunted by authorities. But when our dark days come, we should be ready to learn, grow, and experience the fullness of God in the midst of our troubles.
12 We are proud of the fact that we have lived before the world and especially before you with clear consciences, living holy lives mixed with genuine sincerity before God. We have not relied on any human wisdom but on the grace and favor of God. 13 We are not writing to you in anything resembling codes or riddles; we only write those lessons you are ready to read and understand. I hope you will study them, value them, and truly understand them until the end. 14 You have already begun to grasp what we mean in part; but on the day when our Lord Jesus returns, we will be as proud of you as you are of us.
15-16 In this spirit of trust and confidence, I was intending to come your way first on my current journey. So that you might have a double dose of this grace and assurance, my plan was to visit you on my way to Macedonia and return to you again on the journey back so that you could assist me on the trip to Judea. 17 But since this didn’t happen, was I just being indecisive? Were my plans made in the flesh rather than by God’s Spirit? How can I say “yes” and “no” in the same breath? 18 Because our God is always faithful to His promises, our word to you was not both “yes” and “no”—“Yes, I’ll come,” and then, “No, I’ve changed my mind.” 19 For the Son of God—Jesus the Anointed whom we (Silvanus,[b] Timothy, and I) have preached to you—was not both “yes” and then “no.” With Him the answer is always “yes.” 20 In Jesus we hear a resounding “yes” to all of God’s many promises. This is the reason we say “Amen” to and through Jesus when giving glory to God. 21 Remember that God has established our relationship with you in the Anointed One, and He has anointed and commissioned us for this special mission. 22 He has marked us with His seal and placed His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, a down payment of the things to come.
23 If I were in court today, I’d call God as a witness to my soul. Here’s the truth: I decided not to come back to Corinth in order to spare you further pain and sorrow. 24 It’s not that we want to coerce you in any matter of faith; we are coworkers called to increase your joy because you have stood firm in faith.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.