Numbers 12; Numbers 13; Numbers 14; Mark 5:21-43

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Numbers 12

1 Moses had married a Cushite woman, and Miriam and Aaron criticized him for it.

2 They 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.)

4 Suddenly 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,

5 and 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,

6 and 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.

7 It is different when I speak with my servant Moses; I have put him in charge of all my people Israel.

8 So 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?"

9 The Lord was angry with them; and so as he departed

10 and 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,

11 he said to Moses, "Please, sir, do not make us suffer this punishment for our foolish sin.

12 Don't let her become like something born dead with half its flesh eaten away."

13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, "O God, heal her!"

14 The Lord answered, "If her father had spit 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."

15 Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought back in.

16 Then they left Hazeroth and set up camp in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13

1 The 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 Moses obeyed and from the wilderness of Paran he sent out leaders, as follows:

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

17 When 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.

18 Find out what kind of country it is, how many people live there, and how strong they are.

19 Find out whether the land is good or bad and whether the people live in open towns or in fortified cities.

20 Find 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.)

21 So 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.

22 They 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.)

23 They came to Eshcol Valley, 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 Eshcol Valley because of the bunch of grapes the Israelites cut off there.)

25 After exploring the land for forty days, the spies returned

26 to 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.

27 They told Moses, "We explored the land and found it to be rich and fertile; and here is some of its fruit.

28 But 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.

29 Amalekites 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 Jordan River."

30 Caleb 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."

31 But 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."

32 So 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,

33 and 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."

Numbers 14

1 All night long the people cried out in distress.

2 They complained against Moses and Aaron, and said, "It would have been better to die in Egypt or even here in the wilderness!

3 Why 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?"

4 So they said to one another, "Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!"

5 Then Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground in front of all the people.

6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the spies, tore their clothes in sorrow

7 and said to the people, "The land we explored is an excellent land.

8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will take us there and give us that rich and fertile land.

9 Do 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."

10 The 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.

11 The 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?

12 I 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!"

13 But 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,

14 they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, Lord, are with us, that you appear in plain sight 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.

15 Now if you kill all your people, the nations who have heard of your fame will say

16 that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them.

17 So 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.'

19 And 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."

20 The Lord answered, "I will forgive them, as you have asked.

21 But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth,

22 none 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.

23 They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it.

24 But 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

25 in 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."

26 The 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!

28 Now 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.

29 You 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.

30 I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua.

31 You said that your children would be captured, but I will bring them into the land that you rejected, and it will be their home.

32 You will die here in this wilderness.

33 Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last one of you dies.

34 You 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!

35 I 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 The 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.

38 Of the twelve spies only Joshua and Caleb survived.

39 When Moses told the Israelites what the Lord had said, they mourned bitterly.

40 Early 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."

41 But Moses said, "Then why are you disobeying the Lord now? You will not succeed!

42 Don't go. The Lord is not with you, and your enemies will defeat you.

43 When 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."

44 Yet they still dared to go up into the hill country, even though neither the Lord's Covenant Box nor Moses left the camp.

45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived there attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hormah.

Mark 5:21-43

21 Jesus went back across to the other side of the lake. There at the lakeside a large crowd gathered around him.

22 Jairus, an official of the local synagogue, arrived, and when he saw Jesus, he threw himself down at his feet

23 and begged him earnestly, "My little daughter is very sick. Please come and place your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!"

24 Then Jesus started off with him. So many people were going along with Jesus that they were crowding him from every side.

25 There was a woman who had suffered terribly from severe bleeding for twelve years,

26 even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time.

27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came in the crowd behind him,

28 saying to herself, "If I just touch his clothes, I will get well."

29 She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble.

30 At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31 His disciples answered, "You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?"

32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.

33 The woman realized what had happened to her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at his feet, and told him the whole truth.

34 Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your trouble."

35 While Jesus was saying this, some messengers came from Jairus' house and told him, "Your daughter has died. Why bother the Teacher any longer?"

36 Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but told him, "Don't be afraid, only believe."

37 Then he did not let anyone else go on with him except Peter and James and his brother John.

38 They arrived at Jairus' house, where Jesus saw the confusion and heard all the loud crying and wailing.

39 He went in and said to them, "Why all this confusion? Why are you crying? The child is not dead - she is only sleeping!"

40 They started making fun of him, so he put them all out, took the child's father and mother and his three disciples, and went into the room where the child was lying.

41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ["Talitha, koum,"] which means, "Little girl, I tell you to get up!"

42 She got up at once and started walking around. (She was twelve years old.) When this happened, they were completely amazed.

43 But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone, and he said, "Give her something to eat."