Numbers 12, 13, Psalm 49, Isaiah 2, Hebrews 11

Numbers 12, 13,

1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.
 
2 "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this.
 
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
 
4 At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out.
 
5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,
 
6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.
 
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
 
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"
 
9 The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.
 
10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam-leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy;
 
11 and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.
 
12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away."
 
13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!"
 
14 The LORD replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back."
 
15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
 
16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.

1 The LORD said to Moses,
 
2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders."
 
3 So at the LORD's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
 
4 These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
 
5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
 
6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
 
7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
 
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
 
9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
 
10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
 
11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;
 
12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
 
13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
 
14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
 
15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.
 
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)
 
17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.
 
18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
 
19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified?
 
20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
 
21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath.
 
22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
 
23 When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.
 
24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there.
 
25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
 
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
 
27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.
 
28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
 
29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."
 
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
 
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."
 
32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.
 
33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Psalm 49,

1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world,
 
2 both low and high, rich and poor alike:
 
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding.
 
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:
 
5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me-
 
6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
 
7 No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him-
 
8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-
 
9 that he should live on forever and not see decay.
 
10 For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others.
 
11 Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.
 
12 But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.
 
13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Selah
 
14 Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.
 
15 But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. Selah
 
16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases;
 
17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him.
 
18 Though while he lived he counted himself blessed-and men praise you when you prosper-
 
19 he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life.
 
20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Isaiah 2,

1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
 
2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
 
3 Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
 
4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
 
5 Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
 
6 You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans.
 
7 Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.
 
8 Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
 
9 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled-do not forgive them.
 
10 Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty!
 
11 The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
 
12 The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled),
 
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan,
 
14 for all the towering mountains and all the high hills,
 
15 for every lofty tower and every fortified wall,
 
16 for every trading ship and every stately vessel.
 
17 The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
 
18 and the idols will totally disappear.
 
19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.
 
20 In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.
 
21 They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.
 
22 Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

Hebrews 11

1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
 
2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
 
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
 
4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
 
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
 
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
 
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
 
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
 
9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
 
10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
 
11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age-and Sarah herself was barren-was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.
 
12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
 
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
 
14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
 
15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
 
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
 
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,
 
18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."
 
19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
 
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
 
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
 
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.
 
23 By faith Moses" parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king"s edict.
 
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
 
25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
 
26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
 
27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
 
28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
 
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
 
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
 
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
 
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
 
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
 
34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
 
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
 
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
 
37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-
 
38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
 
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
 
40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.