Numbers 11, Psalm 48, Isaiah 1, Hebrews 10

Numbers 11,

1 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.
 
2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down.
 
3 So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the LORD had burned among them.
 
4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat!
 
5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
 
6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"
 
7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.
 
8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.
 
9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
 
10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.
 
11 He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?
 
12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers?
 
13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!'
 
14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.
 
15 If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now-if I have found favor in your eyes-and do not let me face my own ruin."
 
16 The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you.
 
17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.
 
18 "Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!" Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.
 
19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,
 
20 but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-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, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!'
 
22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?"
 
23 The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."
 
24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the Tent.
 
25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.
 
26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.
 
27 A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."
 
28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them!"
 
29 But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"
 
30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
 
31 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction.
 
32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp.
 
33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.
 
34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
 
35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.

Psalm 48,

1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
 
2 It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
 
3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
 
4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
 
5 they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.
 
6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.
 
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.
 
8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever. Selah
 
9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
 
10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness.
 
11 Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.
 
12 Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers,
 
13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.
 
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

Isaiah 1,

1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
 
2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
 
3 The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."
 
4 Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.
 
5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.
 
6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness-only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.
 
7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
 
8 The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege.
 
9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
 
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
 
11 "The multitude of your sacrifices-what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
 
12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
 
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
 
14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
 
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood;
 
16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong,
 
17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
 
18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
 
19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;
 
20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
 
21 See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her-but now murderers!
 
22 Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.
 
23 Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them.
 
24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: "Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself on my enemies.
 
25 I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.
 
26 I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City."
 
27 Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.
 
28 But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
 
29 "You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.
 
30 You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.
 
31 The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire."

Hebrews 10

1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
 
2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
 
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
 
4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
 
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
 
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
 
7 Then I said, 'Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God.' "
 
8 First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made).
 
9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.
 
10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
 
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
 
12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
 
13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool,
 
14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
 
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
 
16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."
 
17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
 
18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
 
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
 
20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
 
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
 
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
 
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
 
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
 
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
 
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
 
27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
 
28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
 
29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
 
30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."
 
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
 
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.
 
33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
 
34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
 
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
 
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
 
37 For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay.
 
38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."
 
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.