Matthew 19:16-30; Numbers 11; Numbers 12; Ecclesiastes 8

Matthew 19:16-30

16 Just then someone came up and asked Him, "Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?"

17 "Why do you ask Me about what is good?" He said to him. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

18 "Which ones?" he asked Him. Jesus answered, Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness;

19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

20 "I have kept all these," the young man told Him. "What do I still lack?"

21 "If you want to be perfect," Jesus said to him, "go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me."

22 When the young man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "I assure you: It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven!

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, "Then who can be saved?"

26 But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

27 Then Peter responded to Him, "Look, we have left everything and followed You. So what will there be for us?"

28 Jesus said to them, "I assure you: In the Messianic Age, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

29 And everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters, father or mother, children, or fields because of My name will receive 100 times more and will inherit eternal life.

30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Numbers 11

1 Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and the fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down.

3 So that place was named Taberah, because the Lord's fire had blazed among them.

4 Contemptible people among them had a strong craving [for other food]. The Israelites cried again and said, "Who will feed us meat?

5 We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

6 But now our appetite is gone; there's nothing to look at but this manna!"

7 The manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium.

8 The people walked around and gathered [it]. They ground [it] on a pair of grinding stones or crushed [it] in a mortar, then boiled [it] in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil.

9 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

10 Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry; Moses was also provoked.

11 So Moses asked the Lord, "Why have You brought such trouble on Your servant? Why are You angry with me, and why do You burden me with all these people?

12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so You should tell me, 'Carry them at your breast, as a nursing woman carries a baby,' to the land that You swore to [give] their fathers?

13 Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me: 'Give us meat to eat!'

14 "I can't carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me.

15 If You are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now. If You are pleased with me, don't let me see my misery [any more]."

16 The Lord answered Moses, "Bring Me 70 men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you.

17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put [the Spirit] on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

18 "Tell the people: Purify yourselves [in readiness] for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: 'Who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.' The Lord will give you meat and you will eat.

19 You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days,

20 but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you-because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and cried to Him: 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?' "

21 But Moses replied, "I'm in the middle of a people with 600,000 foot soldiers, yet You say, 'I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.'

22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?"

23 The Lord answered Moses, "Is the Lord's power limited? You will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you."

24 Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He brought 70 men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

25 Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed [the Spirit] on the 70 elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they never did it again.

26 Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad; the Spirit rested on them-they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent-and they prophesied in the camp.

27 A young man ran and reported to Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."

28 Joshua son of Nun, assistant to Moses since his youth, responded, "Moses, my lord, stop them!"

29 But Moses asked him, "Are you jealous on my account? If only all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord would place His Spirit on them."

30 Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

31 A wind sent by the Lord came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped [them] at the camp all around, three feet off the ground, about a day's journey in every direction.

32 The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail-the one who took the least gathered 33 bushels-and they spread them out all around the camp.

33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord's anger burned against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague.

34 So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved [the meat].

35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth and remained there.

Numbers 12

1 Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman).

2 They said, "Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does He not also speak through us?" And the Lord heard [it].

3 Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." So the three of them went out.

5 Then the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward,

6 He said: "Listen to what I say: If there is a prophet among you from the Lord, I make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.

7 Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My household.

8 I speak with him directly, openly, and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. So why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?"

9 The Lord's anger burned against them, and He left.

10 As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam's [skin] suddenly became diseased, as [white] as snow. When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased

11 and said to Moses, "My lord, please don't hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed.

12 Please don't let her be like a dead [baby] whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb."

13 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, "God, please heal her!"

14 The Lord answered Moses, "If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn't she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in."

15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in.

16 After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Ecclesiastes 8

1 Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

2 Keep the king's command. Concerning an oath by God,

3 do not be in a hurry. Leave his presence, and don't persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants.

4 For the king's word is authoritative, and who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

5 The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure.

6 For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though man's troubles are heavy on him.

7 Yet no one knows what will happen, because who can tell him what will happen?

8 No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.

9 All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

10 In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did so. This too is futile.

11 Because the sentence against a criminal act is not carried out quickly, therefore the heart of people is filled [with the desire] to commit crime.

12 Although a sinner commits crime a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before Him.

13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

15 So I commended enjoyment, because there is nothing better for man under the sun except to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the years of his days that God gives him under the sun.

16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one's eyes do not close in sleep day or night),

17 I observed all the work of God [and concluded] that man is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a man labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if the wise man claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.