Daily Bible CEV March 21 Scroll

A Rich Young Man
(Mark 10.17-31; Luke 18.18-30)

Matthew 19 ¹⁶A man came to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?"

¹⁷Jesus said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? Only God is good. If you want to have eternal life, you must obey his commandments."

¹⁸"Which ones?" the man asked.

Jesus answered, "Do not murder. Be faithful in marriage. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. ¹⁹Respect your father and mother. And love others as much as you love yourself." ²⁰The young man said, "I have obeyed all of these. What else must I do?"

²¹Jesus replied, "If you want to be perfect, go sell everything you own! Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and be my follower." ²²When the young man heard this, he was sad, because he was very rich.

²³Jesus said to his disciples, "It's terribly hard for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven! ²⁴In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God's kingdom."

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly surprised and asked, "How can anyone ever be saved?"

²⁶Jesus looked straight at them and said, "There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything."

²⁷Peter replied, "Remember, we have left everything to be your followers! What will we get?"

²⁸Jesus answered:

Yes, all of you have become my followers. And so in the future world, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, I promise that you will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹All who have given up home or brothers and sisters or father and mother or children or land for me will be given a hundred times as much. They will also have eternal life. ³⁰But many who are now first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

The Israelites Complain

Numbers 11 One day the Israelites started complaining about their troubles. The LORD heard them and became so angry that he destroyed the outer edges of their camp with fire.

²When the people begged Moses to help, he prayed, and the fire went out. ³They named the place "Burning," because in his anger the LORD had set their camp on fire.

The People Grumble about Being Hungry

⁴One day some worthless foreigners among the Israelites became greedy for food, and even the Israelites themselves began moaning, "We don't have any meat! ⁵In Egypt we could eat all the fish we wanted, and there were cucumbers, melons, onions, and garlic. ⁶But we're starving out here, and the only food we have is this manna."

⁷The manna was like small whitish seeds ^8-9and tasted like something baked with sweet olive oil. It appeared at night with the dew. In the morning the people would collect the manna, grind or crush it into flour, then boil it and make it into thin wafers.

¹⁰The Israelites stood around their tents complaining. Moses heard them and was upset that they had made the LORD angry. ¹¹He prayed:

I am your servant, LORD, so why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this? You've made me responsible for all these people, ¹²but they're not my children. You told me to nurse them along and to carry them to the land you promised their ancestors. ¹³They keep whining for meat, but where can I get meat for them? ¹⁴This job is too much for me. How can I take care of all these people by myself? ¹⁵If this is the way you're going to treat me, just kill me now and end my miserable life!

Seventy Leaders Are Chosen To Help Moses

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses:

Choose seventy of Israel's respected leaders and go with them to the sacred tent. ¹⁷While I am talking with you there, I will give them some of your authority, so they can share responsibility for my people. You will no longer have to care for them by yourself.

¹⁸As for the Israelites, I have heard them complaining about not having meat and about being better off in Egypt. So tell them to make themselves acceptable to me, because tomorrow they will have meat. ^19-20In fact, they will have meat day after day for a whole month--not just a few days, or even ten or twenty. They turned against me and wanted to return to Egypt. Now they will eat meat until they get sick of it.

²¹Moses replied, "At least six hundred thousand grown men are here with me. How can you say there will be enough meat to feed them and their families for a whole month? ²²Even if we butchered all of our sheep and cattle, or caught every fish in the sea, we wouldn't have enough to feed them."

²³The LORD answered, "I can do anything! Watch and you'll see my words come true."

²⁴Moses told the people what the LORD had said. Then he chose seventy respected leaders and went with them to the sacred tent. While the leaders stood in a circle around the tent, Moses went inside, ²⁵and the LORD spoke with him. Then the LORD took some authority from Moses and gave it to the seventy leaders. And when the LORD's Spirit took control of them, they started shouting like prophets. But they did it only this one time.

²⁶Eldad and Medad were two leaders who had not gone to the tent. But when the Spirit took control of them, they began shouting like prophets right there in camp. ²⁷A boy ran to Moses and told him about Eldad and Medad.

²⁸Joshua was there helping Moses, as he had done since he was young. And he said to Moses, "Sir, you must stop them!"

²⁹But Moses replied, "Are you concerned what this might do to me? I wish the LORD would give his Spirit to all his people so everyone could be a prophet." ³⁰Then Moses and the seventy leaders went back to camp.

The LORD Sends Quails

³¹Some time later the LORD sent a strong wind that blew quails in from the sea until Israel's camp was completely surrounded with birds, piled up about three feet high for miles in every direction. ³²The people picked up quails for two days--each person filled at least fifty bushels. Then they spread them out to dry. ³³But before the meat could be eaten, the LORD became angry and sent a disease through the camp.

³⁴After they had buried the people who had been so greedy for meat, they called the place "Graves for the Greedy."

³⁵Israel then broke camp and traveled to Hazeroth.

Miriam and Aaron Are Jealous of Moses

Numbers 12 ^1-3Although Moses was the most humble person in all the world, Miriam and Aaron started complaining, "Moses had no right to marry that woman from Ethiopia! Who does he think he is? The LORD has spoken to us, not just to him."

The LORD heard their complaint ⁴and told Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to come to the entrance of the sacred tent. ⁵There the LORD appeared in a cloud and told Aaron and Miriam to come closer. ⁶Then after commanding them to listen carefully, he said:

"I, the LORD, speak to prophets in visions and dreams.

⁷

But my servant Moses is the leader of my people.

⁸He sees me face to face, and everything I say to him

is perfectly clear.

You have no right to criticize my servant Moses."

⁹The LORD became angry at Aaron and Miriam. And after the LORD left ¹⁰and the cloud disappeared from over the sacred tent, Miriam's skin turned white with leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened to her, ¹¹he said to Moses, "Sir, please don't punish us for doing such a foolish thing. ¹²Don't let Miriam's flesh rot away like a child born dead!"

¹³Moses prayed, "LORD God, please heal her."

¹⁴But the LORD replied, "Miriam would be disgraced for seven days if her father had punished her by spitting in her face. So make her stay outside the camp for seven days, before coming back."

¹⁵The people of Israel did not move their camp until Miriam returned seven days later. ¹⁶Then they left Hazeroth and set up camp in the Paran Desert.

Ecclesiastes 8 Who is smart enough to explain everything?

Wisdom makes you cheerful and gives you a smile.

Obey the King

²If you promised God that you would be loyal to the king, I advise you to keep that promise. ³Don't quickly oppose the king or argue when he has already made up his mind. ⁴The king's word is law. No one can ask him, "Why are you doing this?" ⁵If you obey the king, you will stay out of trouble. So be smart and learn what to do and when to do it. ⁶Life is hard, but there is a time and a place for everything, ⁷though no one can tell the future. ⁸We cannot control the wind or determine the day of our death. There is no escape in time of war, and no one can hide behind evil. ⁹I noticed all this and thought seriously about what goes on in the world. Why does one person have the power to hurt another?

Who Can Understand the Ways of God?

¹⁰I saw the wicked buried with honor, but God's people had to leave the holy city and were forgotten. None of this makes sense. ¹¹When we see criminals commit crime after crime without being punished, it makes us want to start a life of crime. ¹²They commit hundreds of crimes and live to a ripe old age, in spite of the saying:

Everyone who lives right and respects God will prosper,

¹³but no one who sins and rejects God

will prosper or live very long.

¹⁴There is something else that doesn't make sense to me. Good citizens are treated as criminals, while criminals are honored as though they were good citizens. ¹⁵So I think we should get as much out of life as we possibly can. There is nothing better than to enjoy our food and drink and to have a good time. Then we can make it through this troublesome life that God has given us here on earth.

¹⁶Day and night I went without sleep, trying to understand what goes on in this world. ¹⁷I saw everything God does, and I realized that no one can really understand what happens. We may be very wise, but no matter how much we try or how much we claim to know, we cannot understand it all.

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