M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Complaining in the Desert

11 Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the Lord burned against them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.^{(A) 2} But the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated.^{(B) 3} So that place was called Taberah,^[a] because the fire of the Lord burned against them.

⁴ The camp followers with them had a strong craving, and the Israelites also wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat!^{(C) 5} We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic,^{(D) 6} but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”^(E)

⁷ Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of gum resin.^{(F) 8} The people went around and gathered it, ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. ⁹ When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna would fall with it.^(G)

¹⁰ Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased.^{(H) 11} So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a wet nurse carries a nursing child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’?^{(I) 13} Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’^{(J) 14} I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.^{(K) 15} If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”^(L)

The Seventy Elders

¹⁶ So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting and have them take their place there with you.^{(M) 17} I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.^{(N) 18} And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.^{(O) 19} You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,^{(P) 20} but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” ²¹ But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! ²² Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?”^{(Q) 23} The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?^[b] Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”^(R)

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.^{(S) 25} Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.^(T)

²⁶ Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp.^{(U) 27} And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” ²⁸ And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men,^[c] said, “My lord Moses, stop them!”^{(V) 29} But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”^{(W) 30} And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

The Quails

³¹ Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, about two cubits deep on the ground.^{(X) 32} So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. ³³ But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.^{(Y) 34} So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah,^[d] because there they buried the people who had the craving.^{(Z) 35} From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth.^(AA)

Psalm 48

The Glory and Strength of Zion

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites.

1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.^(A)

The Wickedness of Judah

The Degenerate City

The Earthly and the Heavenly Sanctuaries

9 Now^[a] the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. ² For a tent^[b] was constructed, the first one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence;^[c] this is called the holy place.^{(A) 3} Behind the second curtain was a tent^[d] called the holy of holies.^{(B) 4} In it stood the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which there were a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;^{(C) 5} above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.^[e] Of these things we cannot speak now in detail.^(D)

⁶ These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the first tent^[f] to carry out their ritual duties, ⁷ but only the high priest goes into the second, and he but once a year and not without taking the blood that he offers for himself and for the sins committed unintentionally by the people.^{(E) 8} By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been disclosed as long as the first tent^[g] is still standing.^{(F) 9} This is a symbol^[h] of the present time, indicating that gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper^{(G) 10} but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time comes to set things right.^(H)

¹¹ But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,^[i] then through the greater and more perfect tent^[j] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation),^{(I) 12} he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.^{(J) 13} For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified,^{(K) 14} how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit^[k] offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^[l] conscience from dead works to worship the living God!^(L)

¹⁵ For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.^{[m](M) 16} Where a will^[n] is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷ For a will^[o] takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸ Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.^{(N) 19} For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats,^[p] with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,^{(O) 20} saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” ²¹ And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent^[q] and all the vessels used in worship.^{(P) 22} Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.^(Q)

Christ’s Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

²³ Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.^{(R) 25} Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.^{(S) 27} And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once and after that the judgment,^{(T) 28} so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.^(U)