M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
29 Eternal One (continuing to Moses): When the seventh month comes around, its first day shall have a ritual marking its holiness, and you won’t do any work on it. Blow the trumpets, 2-5 and make a burnt offering out of the same animals (one male calf, a ram, and seven male lambs, all perfect yearlings—including the goat) as your sacrifice for a soothing aroma to Me; but use one, rather than two bull-calves. And follow the same procedure for the grain offering, using about six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for the bull, about four quarts for the ram, and about two quarts for each lamb. 6 This shouldn’t take the place of either the daily or the regular monthly offering of meat, grain, and wine. Rather, it is in addition to the regular one. I receive these as a pleasing aroma.
7 On the tenth day of that seventh month, you shall have a ritual marking its holiness. Celebrate it soberly, don’t do any work, 8-11 but make an offering just like the one on the first day (one male calf, a ram, and seven male lambs, all perfect yearlings—including the goat as a sin offering). Also follow the same procedure for the grain offering using about six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for the bull, about four quarts for the ram, and about two quarts for each lamb. This will cover all the evil you did in the last year with the burnt offering, grain offering, and drink offering.
12 Mid-month, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you shall observe another ritual marking that day’s holiness, and you won’t work. Celebrate for a full seven days a festival of Mine. 13 Prepare another burnt offering of animals that have no signs of injury or illness—thirteen bull calves, two rams, and fourteen yearling lambs. 14-16 Make your grain offerings as you always do for each of the animals offered; include the sin-offering goat. These, again, are in addition to the regular burnt offerings with their respective grain and drink offerings.
17 On the second day of that week-long festival in the middle of the seventh month, offer twelve bull calves, two rams, and fourteen male yearling lambs—all unblemished— 18 along with the grain offerings in amounts coordinating with each animal. 19 Include the goat as a sin offering, and don’t neglect the regular offerings of meat, grain, and wine.
| Offerings for Tishri, the seventh month | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Sacrifice and Grain Offerings | Bulls | Rams | Lambs | Goat (sin offering) | |
| 6 quarts | 4 quarts | 2 quarts | |||
| Trumpets | 1st | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Day of Atonement | 10th | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Festival of Ingathering | |||||
| Date | |||||
| first day | 15th | 13 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| second day | 16th | 12 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| third day | 17th | 11 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| fourth day | 18th | 10 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| fifth day | 19th | 9 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| sixth day | 20th | 8 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| seventh day | 21st | 7 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| solemn ritual | 22nd | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
20 On the third day, offer eleven bull calves plus the two rams, fourteen male lambs, 21 corresponding amounts of grain and drink offerings, 22 and the sin-offering male goat in addition to the usual offering. 23-34 On the fourth day, the number of young bulls that you offer should be ten; on the fifth, nine; on the sixth, eight; on the seventh, seven and on each of those days you shall also offer two rams and fourteen male lambs along the sin-offering male goat in addition to the usual offerings of burnt, grain, and drink. 35 On the eighth and final day, gather everyone together for a solemn ritual, and don’t do any work. 36-38 In addition to the regular gifts and the goat whose offering covers sins, offer the following by fire, sending a sweet smell to God: one bull, one ram, and seven perfect male yearling lambs. Mix up the grain offerings in proportion to each animal, and prepare the corresponding burnt, grain, and drink offerings.
39 These are the offerings you should give to Me when observing these particular festivals. They are not a substitute for the other required offerings—the ones accompanying certain promised vows; those you make freely; and the regular burnt, grain, and drink offerings; as well as your offerings of well-being.
40 Moses passed these instructions on to the Israelites just as the Eternal One told him to do.
Book Three
Many of the psalms in Book Three (Psalms 73–89) are attributed to Asaph. He was a Levite musician appointed by David to lead the worship that surrounded the covenant chest in the congregation tent (1 Chronicles 16:4–6). Asaph and his descendants continued this work through much of Israel’s history, specifically when Solomon dedicated the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12), when Josiah revived the worship of the Eternal One in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 35:15), and when Ezra and Nehemiah dedicated the wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:35).
The psalms attributed to Asaph were liturgical, that is, they were chanted or sung as a part of the regular worship of God in the temple by the priests, Levites, and perhaps other worshipers too. Whether songs of lament, requests for guidance, or pleas for mercy, these psalms were sung in the one place God would hear them best—at His temple—the nexus between heaven and earth.
Psalm 73
A song of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to His people, Israel,
to those with pure hearts.
2 Though I know this is true, I almost lost my footing;
yes, my steps were on slippery ground.
3 You see, there was a time when I envied arrogant men
and thought, “The wicked look pretty happy to me.”
4 For they seem to live carefree lives, free of suffering;
their bodies are strong and healthy.
5 They don’t know trouble as we do;
they are not plagued with problems as the rest of us are.
6 They’ve got pearls of pride strung around their necks;
they clothe their bodies with violence.
7 They have so much more than enough.
Their eyes bulge because they are so fat with possessions.
They have more than their hearts could have ever imagined.
8 There is nothing sacred, and no one is safe.
Vicious sarcasm drips from their lips;
they bully and threaten to crush their enemies.
9 They even mock God as if He were not above;
their arrogant tongues boast throughout the earth; they feel invincible.
10 Even God’s people turn and are carried away by them;
they watch and listen, yet find no fault in them.
11 You will hear them say, “How can the True God possibly know anyway? He’s not even here.
So how can the Most High have any knowledge of what happens here?”
12 Let me tell you what I know about the wicked:
they are comfortably at rest while their wealth is growing and growing.
13 Oh, let this not be me! It seems I have scrubbed my heart to keep it clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
And for what? Nothing.
14 For all day long, I am being punished,
each day awakening to stern chastisement.
15 If I had said to others these kinds of things about the plight of God’s good people,
then I know I would have betrayed the next generation.
16 Trying to solve this mystery on my own exhausted me;
I couldn’t bear to look at it any further.
17 So I took my questions to the True God,
and in His sanctuary I realized something so chilling and final: their lives have a deadly end.
18 Because You have certainly set the wicked upon a slippery slope,
You’ve set them up to slide to their destruction.
19 And they won’t see it coming. It will happen so fast:
first, a flash of terror, and then desolation.
20 It is like a dream from which someone awakes.
You will wake up, Lord, and loathe what has become of them.
21 You see, my heart overflowed with bitterness and cynicism;
I felt as if someone stabbed me in the back.
22 But I didn’t know the truth;
I have been acting like a stupid animal toward You.
23 But look at this: You are still holding my right hand;
You have been all along.
24 Even though I was angry and hard-hearted, You gave me good advice;
when it’s all over, You will receive me into Your glory.
25 For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven.
There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.
26 I admit how broken I am in body and spirit,
but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever.
27 It will happen: whoever shuns You will be silenced forever;
You will bring an end to all who refuse to be true to You.
28 But the closer I am to You, my God, the better because life with You is good.
O Lord, the Eternal, You keep me safe—
I will tell everyone what You have done.
Isaiah is given a vision of a frightening event. It comes roaring at him like a sandstorm blowing across the Negev. The vision is harsh and violent, but very real. The prophet describes this vision and the others like it as “burdens,” for it is hard to bear such bad news. This particular vision is given to the “sea of Wilderness” or Babylon; it is the second prophecy predicting Babylon’s punishment (chapters 13–14). He addresses a series of burdensome messages to other cities, nations, and peoples. What is common to all of these prophecies is that God is angry with these nations for the harsh way they treat His covenant people, and He will not just let it go. So God has decided to punish them, and He warns his prophet ahead of time what is about to happen. This message is welcome news to the Judeans who suffered beneath the cruel tyranny of these foreign powers. On the one hand, God used Judah’s enemies to accomplish His purpose. On the other, they have overstepped the limit.
21 A message about the Sea of Wilderness (Babylon):
From the desert, from a frightening land it comes
like a raging tempest, a sandstorm in the Negev.
2 A vision most harsh came to me:
The deceiver deceives,
and the abuser abuses.
Get up and go, Elam;
and Media, cut off supplies!
All groaning will cease; I’ve put an end to the sounds of misery.
3 My stomach sinks. My gut churns with pain.
As a woman in labor wrenches and writhes, I can hardly bear the news.
I cannot hear because I’m bent over with agony.
I cannot see because I’m deep in the fog of depression.
4 My heart skips a beat; my mind is buzzing, terribly unsettled.
Horror and trembling rattle the serenity of the evening I longed for.
5 Meanwhile, the ones who are in charge
are spreading out a feast, eating and drinking just like normal.
I want to say to them:
“Get up, officers.
Oil your shields, and be prepared!”
6 Because the Eternal has told me,
Eternal One: Get someone to keep an eye on things.
Have him report whatever he sees.
7 Tell him to watch closely for riders on teams of horses, donkeys, and camels.
If he sees them, put him on full alert.
8 Sentinel: I stand guard at the watchtower, Lord, day after day.
I never leave my post during the night.
9 Look! They’re coming just as you said: a chariot driver and a team of horses.
The driver tells me “Babylon is fallen!
Our oppressor has fallen and all their idols,
worthless imposters of the one True God, are shattered on the ground.”
10 O, my people, who have been threshed and winnowed like wheat,
I am telling you what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, Israel’s God, said.
11 A message about Duma:
Someone is calling me from Seir.
Edomite (to a sentinel): How much remains of this night?
How long until morning?
12 Sentinel: Morning is coming, you can be sure of it.
But night will quickly follow.
If you want to know, then check back later.
13 A message about Arabia:
Spend the night in the forests of Arabia, off the beaten path,
O caravans from Dedan.
14 Hey, people of Tema, bring them supplies,
water for the thirsty and food for the refugees.
15 They’re on the run, refugees tired of war,
trying to escape the edge of the sword, the bent bow,
And the imminent threat of battle.
Eternal One (to Isaiah): 16 Within a year—as a hired hand might count it—Kedar will be finished. All that made it so impressive will crumble. 17 As for its archers and mighty warriors, they will all but disappear.
It will happen because the Eternal, the God of Israel, said so.
2 Just as false prophets rose up in the past among God’s people, false teachers will rise up in the future among you. They will slip in with their destructive opinions, denying the very Master who bought their freedom and dooming themselves to destruction swiftly, 2 but not before they attract others by their unbridled and immoral behavior. Because of them and their ways, others will criticize and condemn the path of truth we walk as seedy and disreputable. 3 These false teachers will follow their greed and exploit you with their fabrications, but be assured that their judgment was pronounced long ago and their destruction does not sleep.
New Testament writers warn the church to watch out for false teachers. Peter faults them primarily for their immoral lifestyles rather than for doctrinal differences.
4 For God did not spare the heavenly beings who sinned, but He cast them into the dark pits[a] of hell[b] to be kept until the time of judgment; 5 and He did not spare the ancient world, but He sent a flood swirling over the ungodly (although He did save Noah, God’s herald for what is right, with seven other members of his family); 6 and God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ash as a lesson of what He will do with the ungodly in the days to come 7-8 (although again He did rescue Lot, a person who did what was right in God’s eyes and who was distressed by the immorality and the lawlessness of the society around him. Day after day, the sights and sounds of their lawlessness were like daggers into that good man’s soul). 9 If all this happened in the past, it shows clearly the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials and how to hold the wicked in punishment until the day of judgment.
Is God different in the New Testament from what He is in the First Testament? In the First Testament, God seems prone to judgment; but some feel God is more concerned about love in the New Testament. However, the central and most repeated affirmation about God’s character in the First Testament is that He is gracious and compassionate (Exodus 34:6–7). And the New Testament clearly does not ignore the idea of God’s judgment, as this text shows. His judgment will come, but it is delayed by God’s patient mercy.
10 And above all, it shows He will punish those who let the desires of their bodies rule them and who have no respect for authority. People like this are so bold and willful that they aren’t even afraid of offending heavenly beings, 11 although the heavenly messengers—in spite of the fact that they have greater strength and power—make no such accusations against these people before the Lord. 12 These people who speak ill of what they do not understand are no different from animals—without sense, operating only on their instincts, born to be captured and killed—and they will be destroyed just like those animals, 13 receiving the penalty for their evil acts. They waste their days in parties and carousing. As they feast with you, these stains and blemishes on your community are feasting on their deceptions.[c] 14 Their eyes are always looking for their next adulterous conquests; their appetites for sin cannot be satisfied. They seduce the unwary soul, and greed is the only lesson they have learned by heart. God’s curse lies upon them. 15 They have veered off the right road and gotten lost, following in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, the false prophet. Balaam loved the reward he could get by doing evil, 16 but he was rebuked for crossing the line into sin; his own speechless donkey scolded him in a human voice, an amazing miracle that reined in the prophet’s insanity.[d]
17 These people I’m talking about are nothing but dried-up springs, mists driven by fierce winds; the deepest darkness has been set aside for them. 18 They speak in loud voices empty and arrogant. They exploit the desires of the flesh, take advantage of sensual natures, to entangle people who have just escaped from those who live by deception. 19 They claim to offer them freedom, but they themselves are enslaved by corruption because whatever a person gives in to soon becomes his master. 20 Those who have been pulled out of the cesspool of worldly desires through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Anointed One, yet have found themselves mired in it again are worse off than they were before. 21 They would have been better off never knowing the way of righteousness than to have known it and then abandoned the sacred commandment they had previously received and dived back into the muck! 22 In their cases, the words from Proverbs hold true: “The dog goes back to his own vomit,”[e] and as the Greeks say, “The sow is washed to wallow in the mud.”
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.