M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

17 (vii) The whole community of the people of Isra’el left the Seen Desert, traveling in stages, as Adonai had ordered, and camped at Refidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. ² The people quarreled with Moshe, demanding, “Give us water to drink!” But Moshe replied, “Why pick a fight with me? Why are you testing Adonai?” ³ However, the people were thirsty for water there and grumbled against Moshe, “For what did you bring us up from Egypt? To kill us, our children and our livestock with thirst?”

⁴ Moshe cried out to Adonai, “What am I to do with these people? They’re ready to stone me!” ⁵ Adonai answered Moshe, “Go on ahead of the people, and bring with you the leaders of Isra’el. Take your staff in your hand, the one you used to strike the river; and go. ⁶ I will stand in front of you there on the rock in Horev. You are to strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so the people can drink.” Moshe did this in the sight of the leaders of Isra’el. ⁷ The place was named Massah [testing] and M’rivah [quarreling] because of the quarreling of the people of Isra’el and because they tested Adonai by asking, “Is Adonai with us or not?”

⁸ Then ‘Amalek came and fought with Isra’el at Refidim. ⁹ Moshe said to Y’hoshua, “Choose men for us, go out, and fight with ‘Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with God’s staff in my hand.” ¹⁰ Y’hoshua did as Moshe had told him and fought with ‘Amalek. Then Moshe, Aharon and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ When Moshe raised his hand, Isra’el prevailed; but when he let it down, ‘Amalek prevailed. ¹² However, Moshe’s hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aharon and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other; so that his hands stayed steady until sunset. ¹³ Thus Y’hoshua defeated ‘Amalek, putting their people to the sword.

(Maftir) ¹⁴ Adonai said to Moshe, “Write this in a book to be remembered, and tell it to Y’hoshua: I will completely blot out any memory of ‘Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ Moshe built an altar, called it Adonai Nissi [Adonai is my banner/miracle], ¹⁶ and said, “Because their hand was against the throne of Yah, Adonai will fight ‘Amalek generation after generation.”

Haftarah B’shallach: Shof’tim (Judges) 4:4–5:31 (A); 5:1–31 (S)

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah B’shallach: Luke 2:22–24; Yochanan (John) 6:25–35; 19:31–37; 1 Corinthians 10:1–13; 2 Corinthians 8:1–15; Revelation 15:1–4

20 One day, as Yeshua was teaching the people at the Temple, making known the Good News, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers, along with the elders, came up to him ² and said, “Tell us, what s’mikhah do you have that authorizes you to do these things? Who gave you this s’mikhah?” ³ He answered, “I too will ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴ the immersion of Yochanan — was it from Heaven or from a human source?” ⁵ They discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From Heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From a human source,’ all the people will stone us, because they’re convinced that Yochanan was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it came from.” ⁸ Yeshua said to them, “Then I won’t tell you by what s’mikhah I do these things.”

⁹ Next Yeshua told the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to tenant-farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to receive his share of the crop from the vineyard; but the tenants beat him up and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant; they beat him too, insulted him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹² He sent yet a third; this one they wounded and threw out.

¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What am I to do? I will send my son, whom I love; maybe they will respect him.’ ¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir; let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours!’ ¹⁵ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and put an end to those tenants and give the vineyard to others!” When the people heard this, they said, “Heaven forbid!” ¹⁷ But Yeshua looked searchingly at them and said, “Then what is this which is written in the Tanakh,

¹⁸ Whoever falls on that stone will be broken in pieces; but if it falls on him, he will be crushed to powder!”

¹⁹ The Torah-teachers and the head cohanim would have seized him at that very moment, because they knew that he had aimed this parable at them, but they were afraid of the people.

²⁰ So they kept a close watch on the situation. They sent spies who hypocritically represented themselves as righteous, so that they might seize hold of something Yeshua said, as an excuse to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. ²¹ They put to him this sh’eilah: “Rabbi, we know that you speak and teach straightforwardly, showing no partiality but really teaching what God’s way is. ²² Does Torah permit us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?” ²³ But he, spotting their craftiness, said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius! Whose name and picture does it have?” “The Emperor’s,” they replied. ²⁵ “Then,” he said to them, “give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give God what belongs to God!” ²⁶ They were unable to trap him by anything he said publicly; indeed, amazed at his answer, they fell silent.

²⁷ Some Tz’dukim, who say there is no resurrection, came to Yeshua ²⁸ and put to him a sh’eilah: “Rabbi, Moshe wrote for us that if a man dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife and have children to preserve the man’s family line.^{[b] 29} Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless, ³⁰ then the second ³¹ and third took her, and likewise all seven, but they all died without leaving children. ³² Lastly, the woman also died. ³³ In the Resurrection, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”

³⁴ Yeshua said to them, “In this age, men and women marry; ³⁵ but those judged worthy of the age to come, and of resurrection from the dead, do not get married, ³⁶ because they can no longer die. Being children of the Resurrection, they are like angels; indeed, they are children of God.

³⁷ “But even Moshe showed that the dead are raised; for in the passage about the bush, he calls Adonai ‘the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov.’^{[c] 38} Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living — to him all are alive.”

³⁹ Some of the Torah-teachers answered, “Well spoken, Rabbi.” ⁴⁰ For they no longer dared put to him a sh’eilah. ⁴¹ But he said to them, “How is it that people say the Messiah is David’s son?” ⁴² For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

⁴⁴ David thus calls him ‘Lord.’ So how can he be David’s son?”

⁴⁵ Within the hearing of all the people, Yeshua said to his talmidim, ⁴⁶ “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers that like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, the kind that like to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets, ⁴⁷ the kind that swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”

5 We know that when the tent which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven. ² For in this tent, our earthly body, we groan with desire to have around us the home from heaven that will be ours. ³ With this around us we will not be found naked. ⁴ Yes, while we are in this body, we groan with the sense of being oppressed: it is not so much that we want to take something off, but rather to put something on over it; so that what must die may be swallowed up by the Life. ⁵ Moreover, it is God who has prepared us for this very thing, and as a pledge he has given us his Spirit.

⁶ So we are always confident — we know that so long as we are at home in the body, we are away from our home with the Lord; ⁷ for we live by trust, not by what we see. ⁸ We are confident, then, and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and come to our home with the Lord.

⁹ Therefore, whether at home or away from home, we try our utmost to please him; ¹⁰ for we must all appear before the Messiah’s court of judgment, where everyone will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body.

¹¹ So it is with the fear of the Lord before us that we try to persuade people. Moreover, God knows us as we really are; and I hope that in your consciences you too know us as we really are. ¹² We are not recommending ourselves to you again but giving you a reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about a person’s appearance rather than his inner qualities. ¹³ If we are insane, it is for God’s sake; and if we are sane, it is for your sake. ¹⁴ For the Messiah’s love has hold of us, because we are convinced that one man died on behalf of all mankind (which implies that all mankind was already dead), ¹⁵ and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer for themselves but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised. ¹⁶ So from now on, we do not look at anyone from a worldly viewpoint. Even if we once regarded the Messiah from a worldly viewpoint, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation — the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new! ¹⁸ And it is all from God, who through the Messiah has reconciled us to himself and has given us the work of that reconciliation, ¹⁹ which is that God in the Messiah was reconciling mankind to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore we are ambassadors of the Messiah; in effect, God is making his appeal through us. What we do is appeal on behalf of the Messiah, “Be reconciled to God! ²¹ God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”