To The Word – Day 37

₁The people began to complain to the LORD about their troubles. When the LORD heard them, he was angry and sent fire on the people. It burnt among them and destroyed one end of the camp. ₂The people cried out to Moses for help; he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. ₃So the place was named Taberah, because there the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

₄There were some foreigners travelling with the Israelites. They had a strong craving for meat, and even the Israelites themselves began to complain: “If only we could have some meat! ₅In Egypt we used to eat all the fish we wanted, and it cost us nothing. Remember the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic we had? ₆But now our strength is gone. There is nothing at all to eat — nothing but this manna day after day!”

₇(Manna was like small seeds, whitish yellow in colour. _8-9It fell on the camp at night along with the dew. The next morning the people would go round and gather it, grind it or pound it into flour, and then boil it and make it into flat cakes. It tasted like bread baked with olive oil.)

₁₀Moses heard all the people complaining as they stood about in groups at the entrances of their tents. He was distressed because the LORD was angry with them, ₁₁and he said to the LORD, “Why have you treated me so badly? Why are you displeased with me? Why have you given me the responsibility for all these people? ₁₂I didn't create them or bring them to birth! Why should you ask me to act like a nurse and carry them in my arms like babies all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? ₁₃Where could I get enough meat for all these people? They keep whining and asking for meat. ₁₄I can't be responsible for all these people by myself; it's too much for me! ₁₅If you are going to treat me like this, take pity on me and kill me, so that I won't have to endure your cruelty any longer.”

₁₆The LORD said to Moses, “Assemble seventy respected men who are recognized as leaders of the people, bring them to me at the Tent of my presence, and tell them to stand there beside you. ₁₇I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit I have given you and give it to them. Then they can help you to bear the responsibility for these people, and you will not have to bear it alone. ₁₈Now tell the people, ‘Purify yourselves for tomorrow; you will have meat to eat. The LORD has heard you whining and saying that you wished you had some meat and that you were better off in Egypt. Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. ₁₉You will have to eat it not just for one or two days, or five, or ten, or even twenty days, ₂₀but for a whole month, until it comes out of your ears, until you are sick of it. This will happen because you have rejected the LORD who is here among you and have complained to him that you should never have left Egypt.’ ”

₂₁Moses said to the LORD, “Here I am leading 600,000 people, and you say that you will give them enough meat for a month? ₂₂Could enough cattle and sheep be killed to satisfy them? Are all the fish in the sea enough for them?”

₂₃“Is there a limit to my power?” the LORD answered. “You will soon see whether what I have said will happen or not!”

₂₄So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He assembled seventy of the leaders and placed them round the Tent. ₂₅Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit he had given to Moses and gave it to the seventy leaders. When the spirit came on them, they began to shout like prophets, but not for long.

₂₆Two of the seventy leaders, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp and had not gone out to the Tent. There in the camp the spirit came on them, and they too began to shout like prophets. ₂₇A young man ran out to tell Moses what Eldad and Medad were doing.

₂₈Then Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' helper since he was a young man, spoke up and said to Moses, “Stop them, sir!”

₂₉Moses answered, “Are you concerned about my interests? I wish that the LORD would give his Spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!” ₃₀Then Moses and the seventy leaders of Israel went back to camp.

₃₁Suddenly the LORD sent a wind that brought quails from the sea, flying less than a metre above the ground. They settled on the camp and all round it for many kilometres in every direction. ₃₂So all that day, all night, and all the next day, the people worked catching quails; no one gathered less than a thousand kilogrammes. They spread them out to dry all round the camp. ₃₃While there was still plenty of meat for them to eat, the LORD became angry with the people and caused an epidemic to break out among them. ₃₄That place was named Kibroth Hattaavah (which means “Graves of Craving”), because there they buried the people who had craved meat.

₃₅From there the people moved to Hazeroth, where they made camp.

₁Moses had married a Cushite woman, and Miriam and Aaron criticized him for it. ₂They said, “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he also spoken through us?” The LORD heard what they said. ₃(Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth.)

₄Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “I want the three of you to come out to the Tent of my presence.” They went, ₅and the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance of the Tent, and called out, “Aaron! Miriam!” The two of them stepped forward, ₆and the LORD said, “Now hear what I have to say! When there are prophets among you, I reveal myself to them in visions and speak to them in dreams. ₇It is different when I speak with my servant Moses; I have put him in charge of all my people Israel. ₈So I speak to him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he has even seen my form! How dare you speak against my servant Moses?”

₉The LORD was angry with them; and so as he departed ₁₀and the cloud left the Tent, Miriam's skin was suddenly covered with a dreaded disease and turned as white as snow. When Aaron looked at her and saw that she was covered with the disease, ₁₁he said to Moses, “Please, sir, do not make us suffer this punishment for our foolish sin. ₁₂Don't let her become like something born dead with half its flesh eaten away.”

₁₃So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, heal her!”

₁₄The LORD answered, “If her father had spat in her face, she would have to bear her disgrace for seven days. So let her be shut out of the camp for a week, and after that she can be brought back in.” ₁₅Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought back in. ₁₆Then they left Hazeroth and set up camp in the wilderness of Paran.

₁The LORD said to Moses, ₂“Choose one of the leaders from each of the twelve tribes and send them as spies to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” _3-15Moses obeyed and from the wilderness of Paran he sent out leaders, as follows:

₁₆These are the spies Moses sent to explore the land. He changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.

₁₇When Moses sent them out, he said to them, “Go north from here into the southern part of the land of Canaan and then on into the hill country. ₁₈Find out what kind of country it is, how many people live there, and how strong they are. ₁₉Find out whether the land is good or bad and whether the people live in open towns or in fortified cities. ₂₀Find out whether the soil is fertile and whether the land is wooded. And be sure to bring back some of the fruit that grows there.” (It was the season when grapes were beginning to ripen.)

₂₁So the men went north and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin in the south all the way to Rehob, near Hamath Pass in the north. ₂₂They went first into the southern part of the land and came to Hebron, where the clans of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of a race of giants called the Anakim, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ₂₃They came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there they cut off a branch which had one bunch of grapes on it so heavy that it took two men to carry it on a pole between them. They also brought back some pomegranates and figs. ₂₄(That place was named the Valley of Eshcol because of the bunch of grapes the Israelites cut off there.)

₂₅After exploring the land for forty days, the spies returned ₂₆to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had brought. ₂₇They said to Moses, “We explored the land and found it to be rich and fertile; and here is some of its fruit. ₂₈But the people who live there are powerful, and their cities are very large and well fortified. Even worse, we saw the descendants of the giants there. ₂₉Amalekites live in the southern part of the land; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and Canaanites live by the Mediterranean Sea and along the River Jordan.”

₃₀Caleb silenced the people who were complaining against Moses, and said, “We should attack now and take the land; we are strong enough to conquer it.”

₃₁But the men who had gone with Caleb said, “No, we are not strong enough to attack them; the people there are more powerful than we are.” ₃₂So they spread a false report among the Israelites about the land they had explored. They said, “That land doesn't even produce enough to feed the people who live there. Everyone we saw was very tall, ₃₃and we even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that is how we must have looked to them.”

₁All night long the people cried out in distress. ₂They complained against Moses and Aaron, and said, “It would have been better to die in Egypt or even here in the wilderness! ₃Why is the LORD taking us into that land? We will be killed in battle, and our wives and children will be captured. Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt?” ₄So they said to one another, “Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!”

₅Then Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground in front of all the people. ₆And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the spies, tore their clothes in sorrow ₇and said to the people, “The land we explored is an excellent land. ₈If the LORD is pleased with us, he will take us there and give us that rich and fertile land. ₉Do not rebel against the LORD and don't be afraid of the people who live there. We will conquer them easily. The LORD is with us and has defeated the gods who protected them; so don't be afraid.” ₁₀The whole community was threatening to stone them to death, but suddenly the people saw the dazzling light of the LORD's presence appear over the tent.

₁₁The LORD said to Moses, “How much longer will these people reject me? How much longer will they refuse to trust in me, even though I have performed so many miracles among them? ₁₂I will send an epidemic and destroy them, but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are!”

₁₃But Moses said to the LORD, “You brought these people out of Egypt by your power. When the Egyptians hear what you have done to your people, ₁₄they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, LORD, are with us, that you are plainly seen when your cloud stops over us, and that you go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ₁₅Now if you kill all your people, the nations who have heard of your fame will say ₁₆that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them. ₁₇So now LORD, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said, ₁₈‘I, the LORD, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.’ ₁₉And now, LORD, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

₂₀The LORD answered, “I will forgive them, as you have asked. ₂₁But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth, ₂₂none of these people will live to enter that land. They have seen the dazzling light of my presence and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but they have tried my patience over and over again and have refused to obey me. ₂₃They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it. ₂₄But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land which he explored, and his descendants will possess the land ₂₅in whose valleys the Amalekites and the Canaanites now live. Turn back tomorrow and go into the wilderness in the direction of the Gulf of Aqaba.”

₂₆The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ₂₇“How much longer are these wicked people going to complain against me? I have heard enough of these complaints! ₂₈Now give them this answer: ‘I swear that as surely as I live, I will do to you just what you have asked. I, the LORD, have spoken. ₂₉You will die and your corpses will be scattered across this wilderness. Because you have complained against me, none of you over twenty years of age will enter that land. ₃₀I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua. ₃₁You said that your children would be captured, but I will bring them into the land that you rejected, and it will be their home. ₃₂You will die here in this wilderness. ₃₃Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last one of you dies. ₃₄You will suffer the consequences of your sin for forty years, one year for each of the forty days you spent exploring the land. You will know what it means to have me against you! ₃₅I swear that I will do this to you wicked people who have gathered together against me. Here in the wilderness every one of you will die. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

_36-37The men Moses had sent to explore the land brought back a false report which caused the people to complain against the LORD. And so the LORD struck them with a disease, and they died. ₃₈Of the twelve spies only Joshua and Caleb survived.

₃₉When Moses told the Israelites what the LORD had said, they mourned bitterly. ₄₀Early the next morning they started out to invade the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go to the place which the LORD told us about. We admit that we have sinned.”

₄₁But Moses said, “Then why are you disobeying the LORD now? You will not succeed! ₄₂Don't go. The LORD is not with you, and your enemies will defeat you. ₄₃When you face the Amalekites and the Canaanites, you will die in battle; the LORD will not be with you, because you have refused to follow him.”

₄₄Yet they still dared to go up into the hill country, even though neither the LORD's Covenant Box nor Moses left the camp. ₄₅Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived there attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hormah.

₁The LORD gave Moses ₂the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ₃A bull, a ram, a sheep, or a goat may be presented to the LORD as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow or as a freewill offering or as an offering at your regular religious festivals; the smell of these food offerings is pleasing to the LORD. _4-5Whoever presents a sheep or a goat as a burnt offering to the LORD is to bring with each animal a kilogramme of flour mixed with one litre of olive oil as a grain offering, together with one litre of wine. ₆When a ram is offered, two kilogrammes of flour mixed with 1.5 litres of olive oil are to be presented as a grain offering, ₇together with 1.5 litres of wine. The smell of these sacrifices is pleasing to the LORD. ₈When a bull is offered to the LORD as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow or as a fellowship offering, ₉a grain offering of three kilogrammes of flour mixed with two litres of olive oil is to be presented, ₁₀together with two litres of wine. The smell of this sacrifice is pleasing to the LORD.

₁₁That is what shall be offered with each bull, ram, sheep, or goat. ₁₂When more than one animal is offered, the accompanying offering is to be increased proportionately. ₁₃All native Israelites are to do this when they present a food offering, a smell pleasing to the LORD. ₁₄And if at any time foreigners living among you, whether on a temporary or a permanent basis, make a food offering, a smell that pleases the LORD, they are to observe the same regulations. ₁₅For all time to come, the same rules are binding on you and on the foreigners who live among you. You and they are alike in the LORD's sight; ₁₆the same laws and regulations apply to you and to them.

₁₇The LORD gave Moses ₁₈the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ₁₉When any food produced there is eaten, some of it is to be set aside as a special contribution to the LORD. ₂₀When you bake bread, the first loaf of the first bread made from the new corn is to be presented as a special contribution to the LORD. This is to be presented in the same way as the special contribution you make from the corn you thresh. ₂₁For all time to come, this special gift is to be given to the LORD from the bread you bake.

₂₂But suppose someone unintentionally fails to keep some of these regulations which the LORD has given Moses. ₂₃And suppose that in the future the community fails to do everything that the LORD commanded through Moses. ₂₄If the mistake was made because of the ignorance of the community, they are to offer a bull as a burnt offering, a smell that pleases the LORD, with the proper grain offering and wine offering. In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering. ₂₅The priest shall perform the ritual of purification for the community, and they will be forgiven, because the mistake was unintentional and they brought their sin offering as a food offering to the LORD. ₂₆The whole community of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven, because everyone was involved in the mistake.

₂₇If an individual sins unintentionally, he is to offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering. ₂₈At the altar the priest shall perform the ritual of purification to purify the person from his sin, and he will be forgiven. ₂₉The same regulation applies to all who unintentionally commit a sin, whether they are native Israelites or resident foreigners.

₃₀But any person who sins deliberately, whether he is a native or a foreigner, is guilty of treating the LORD with contempt, and he shall be put to death, ₃₁because he has rejected what the LORD said and has deliberately broken one of his commands. He is responsible for his own death.

₃₂Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath. ₃₃He was taken to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community, ₃₄and was put under guard, because it was not clear what should be done with him. ₃₅Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; the whole community is to stone him to death outside the camp.” ₃₆So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded.

₃₇The LORD commanded Moses ₃₈to say to the people of Israel: “Make tassels on the corners of your garments and put a blue cord on each tassel. You are to do this for all time to come. ₃₉The tassels will serve as reminders, and each time you see them you will remember all my commands and obey them; then you will not turn away from me and follow your own wishes and desires. ₄₀The tassels will remind you to keep all my commands, and you will belong completely to me. ₄₁I am the LORD your God; I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”

₁From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes —

₂To the church of God which is in Corinth, to all who are called to be God's holy people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

₃May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

₄I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus. ₅For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge. ₆The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you ₇that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ₈He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ₉God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

₁₀By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my brothers and sisters, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose. ₁₁For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you. ₁₂Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ”. ₁₃Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?

₁₄I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. ₁₅No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples. ₁₆(Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.) ₁₇Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.

₁₈For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power. ₁₉The scripture says:

₂₁For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe. ₂₂Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. ₂₃As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles; ₂₄but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ₂₅For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

₂₆Now remember what you were, my brothers and sisters, when God called you. From the human point of view few of you were wise or powerful or of high social standing. ₂₇God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful. ₂₈He chose what the world looks down on and despises, and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world thinks is important. ₂₉This means that no one can boast in God's presence. ₃₀But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free. ₃₁So then, as the scripture says, “Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done.”

₁When I came to you, my brothers and sisters, to preach God's secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning. ₂For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross. ₃So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear, ₄and my teaching and message were not delivered with skilful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's Spirit. ₅Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.

₆Yet I do proclaim a message of wisdom to those who are spiritually mature. But it is not the wisdom that belongs to this world or to the powers that rule this world — powers that are losing their power. ₇The wisdom I proclaim is God's hidden wisdom, which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made. ₈None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ₉However, as the scripture says:

₁₃So then, we do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit. ₁₄Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Such people really do not understand them; they are nonsense to them, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis. ₁₅Whoever has the Spirit, however, is able to judge the value of everything, but no one is able to judge him. ₁₆As the scripture says: