M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Tabernacle Oil and Bread
24 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil from crushed olives for the light, in order to keep the lamp burning regularly.(A) 3 Aaron is to tend it continually from evening until morning before the Lord outside the curtain(B) of the testimony(C) in the tent of meeting. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations. 4 He must continually tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand in the Lord’s presence.(D)
5 “Take fine flour and bake it into twelve loaves;(E) each loaf is to be made with four quarts.[a] 6 Arrange them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table(F) before the Lord. 7 Place pure frankincense(G) near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion(H) for the bread and a food offering(I) to the Lord. 8 The bread is to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a permanent covenant(J) obligation on the part of the Israelites. 9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, for it is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the Lord; this is a permanent rule.”
A Case of Blasphemy
10 Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father was[b] among the Israelites. A fight broke out in the camp between the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man. 11 Her son cursed and blasphemed the Name,(K) and they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, a daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.(L)) 12 They put him in custody(M) until the Lord’s decision(N) could be made clear to them.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 14 “Bring the one who has cursed to the outside of the camp and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole community stone him.(O) 15 And tell the Israelites: If anyone curses his God, he will bear the consequences of his sin. 16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death;(P) the whole community is to stone him. If he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death, whether the resident alien or the native.
17 “If a man kills anyone, he must be put to death.(Q) 18 Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, life for life. 19 If any man inflicts a permanent injury on his neighbor, whatever he has done is to be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever injury he inflicted on the person, the same is to be inflicted on him.(R) 21 Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, but whoever kills a person is to be put to death.(S) 22 You are to have the same law for the resident alien and the native, because I am the Lord your God.”
23 After Moses spoke to the Israelites, they brought the one who had cursed to the outside of the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Psalm 31
A Plea for Protection
For the choir director. A psalm of David.
1 Lord, I seek refuge in you;
let me never be disgraced.(A)
Save me by your righteousness.
2 Listen closely to me; rescue me quickly.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a mountain fortress to save me.(B)
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;(C)
you lead and guide me
for your name’s sake.(D)
4 You will free me from the net
that is secretly set for me,
for you are my refuge.(E)
5 Into your hand I entrust my spirit;(F)
you have redeemed me,[a] Lord, God of truth.(G)
6 I[b] hate those who are devoted to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.(H)
7 I will rejoice and be glad in your faithful love
because you have seen my affliction.
You know the troubles of my soul(I)
8 and have not handed me over to the enemy.(J)
You have set my feet in a spacious place.(K)
9 Be gracious to me, Lord,
because I am in distress;(L)
my eyes are worn out from frustration—
my whole being[c] as well.(M)
10 Indeed, my life is consumed with grief
and my years with groaning;(N)
my strength has failed
because of my iniquity,[d]
and my bones waste away.(O)
11 I am ridiculed by all my adversaries
and even by my neighbors.
I am dreaded by my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street run from me.(P)
12 I am forgotten: gone from memory
like a dead person—like broken pottery.(Q)
13 I have heard the gossip of many;
terror is on every side.(R)
When they conspired against me,
they plotted to take my life.(S)
14 But I trust in you, Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”(T)
15 The course of my life is in your power;(U)
rescue me from the power of my enemies
and from my persecutors.(V)
16 Make your face shine on your servant;(W)
save me by your faithful love.(X)
17 Lord, do not let me be disgraced when I call on you.(Y)
Let the wicked be disgraced;
let them be quiet[e][f] in Sheol.(Z)
18 Let lying lips(AA)
that arrogantly speak against the righteous
in proud contempt be silenced.(AB)
19 How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you.
In the presence of everyone[g] you have acted
for those who take refuge in you.(AC)
20 You hide them in the protection of your presence;(AD)
you conceal them in a shelter
from human schemes,
from quarrelsome tongues.(AE)
21 Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his faithful love to me
in a city under siege.(AF)
22 In my alarm I said,
“I am cut off from your sight.”(AG)
But you heard the sound of my pleading
when I cried to you for help.(AH)
Wise Sayings
7 A good name is better than fine perfume,(A)
and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.(B)
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
since that is the end of all mankind,
and the living should take it to heart.(C)
3 Grief is better than laughter,
for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.(D)
4 The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.
5 It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person
than to listen to the song of fools,(E)
6 for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot,(F)
so is the laughter of the fool.
This too is futile.
7 Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool,(G)
and a bribe corrupts the mind.(H)
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.(I)
9 Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry,
for anger abides in the heart of fools.(J)
10 Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?”(K)
since it is not wise of you to ask this.
11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance
and an advantage to those who see the sun,
12 because wisdom is protection as silver is protection;
but the advantage of knowledge
is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.(L)
13 Consider the work of God,(M)
for who can straighten out
what he has made crooked?(N)
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful,(O) but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other,(P) so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.
Avoiding Extremes
15 In my futile life[a] I have seen everything:(Q) someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness,(R) and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.(S) 16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise.(T) Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?(U) 18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.
19 Wisdom makes the wise person stronger
than ten rulers of a city.(V)
20 There is certainly no one righteous on the earth
who does good and never sins.(W)
21 Don’t pay attention[b] to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,(X) 22 for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.
What the Teacher Found
23 I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me. 24 What exists is beyond reach and very deep.(Y) Who can discover it? 25 I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom(Z) and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness. 26 And I find more bitter than death(AA) the woman who is a trap:(AB) her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. 27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, 28 which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.(AC) 29 Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright,(AD) but they pursued many schemes.”
Difficult Times Ahead
3 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days.(A) 2 For people will be lovers of self,(B) lovers of money,(C) boastful, proud,(D) demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,(E) 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers,(F) without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,(G) 4 traitors,(H) reckless,(I) conceited,(J) lovers of pleasure(K) rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power.(L) Avoid these people.(M)
6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions,(N) 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.(O) 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres(P) resisted Moses,(Q) so these also resist the truth. They are men who are corrupt in mind(R) and worthless(S) in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be clear to all, as was the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres.
Struggles in the Christian Life
10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose,(T) faith, patience, love,(U) and endurance, 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings(V) that came to me in Antioch,(W) Iconium,(X) and Lystra.(Y) What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all. 12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.(Z) 13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving(AA) and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you,(AB) 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,(AC) which are able to give you wisdom for salvation(AD) through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God[a](AE) and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.(AF)
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