The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday March 7, 2017 (NIV)

Placing the Lamps

8 ^(A)The Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell Aaron that when he puts the seven lamps on the lampstand, he should place them so that the light shines toward the front.” ³ Aaron obeyed and placed the lamps facing the front of the lampstand. ⁴ From top to bottom the lampstand was made of hammered gold, according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses.

The Purification and Dedication of the Levites

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ⁶ “Separate the Levites from the rest of the people of Israel and purify them ⁷ in the following way: sprinkle them with the water of purification and have them shave their whole bodies and have them wash their clothes. Then they will be ritually clean. ⁸ Then they are to take a young bull and the required grain offering of flour mixed with olive oil; and you are to take another bull for the sin offering. ⁹ Then assemble the whole community of Israel and have the Levites stand in front of the Tent of my presence. ¹⁰ The people of Israel are to place their hands on the heads of the Levites, ¹¹ and then Aaron shall dedicate the Levites to me as a special gift from the Israelites, so that they may do my work. ¹² The Levites shall then put their hands on the heads of the two bulls; one is to be offered as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, in order to perform the ritual of purification for the Levites.

¹³ “Dedicate the Levites as a special gift to me, and put Aaron and his sons in charge of them. ¹⁴ Separate the Levites in this way from the rest of the Israelites, so that they will belong to me. ¹⁵ After you have purified and dedicated the Levites, they will be qualified to work in the Tent. ¹⁶ I have claimed them in the place of all the first-born sons of the Israelites, and they belong to me alone. ^17 (B)When I killed all the first-born in Egypt, I consecrated as my own the oldest son of each Israelite family and the first-born of every animal. ¹⁸ I am now taking the Levites instead of all the first-born of the Israelites, ¹⁹ and I assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons, as a gift from the Israelites, to work in the Tent for the people of Israel and to protect the Israelites from the disaster that would strike them if they came too near the Holy Place.”

²⁰ So Moses, Aaron, and all the people of Israel dedicated the Levites, as the Lord commanded Moses. ²¹ The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron dedicated them as a special gift to the Lord. He also performed the ritual of purification for them. ²² The people did everything the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites. And so the Levites were qualified to work in the Tent under Aaron and his sons.

²³ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ “From the age of twenty-five each Levite shall perform his duties in the Tent of my presence, ²⁵ and at the age of fifty he shall retire. ²⁶ After that, he may help his fellow Levites in performing their duties in the Tent, but he must not perform any service by himself. This is how you are to regulate the duties of the Levites.”

The Second Passover

9 ^(C)The Lord spoke to Moses in the Sinai Desert in the first month of the second year after the people of Israel had left Egypt. He said, ^2-3 “On the fourteenth day of this month, beginning at sunset, the people of Israel are to observe the Passover according to all the rules and regulations for it.” ⁴ So Moses told the people to observe the Passover, ⁵ and on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month they did so in the Sinai Desert. The people did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁶ But there were some people who were ritually unclean because they had touched a corpse, and they were not able to keep the Passover on that day. They went to Moses and Aaron ⁷ and said, “We are unclean because we have touched a corpse, but why should we be excluded from presenting the Lord's offering with the rest of the Israelites?”

⁸ Moses answered, “Wait until I receive instructions from the Lord.”

⁹ The Lord told Moses ¹⁰ to say to the people of Israel, “When any of you or your descendants are unclean from touching a corpse or are far away on a journey, but still want to keep the Passover, ¹¹ you are permitted to observe it one month later instead, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the second month. Celebrate it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ^12 (D)Do not leave any of the food until the following morning and do not break any of the animal's bones. Observe the Passover according to all the regulations. ¹³ But if any of you are ritually clean and not away on a journey and do not observe the Passover, you shall no longer be considered my people, because you did not present the offering to me at the appointed time. You must suffer the consequences of your sin.

¹⁴ “If foreigners living among you want to keep the Passover, they must observe it according to all the rules and regulations. The same law applies to everyone, whether native or foreigner.”

The Fiery Cloud^(E)

^15-16 On the day the Tent of the Lord's presence was set up, a cloud came and covered it. At night the cloud looked like fire. ¹⁷ Whenever the cloud lifted, the people of Israel broke camp, and they set up camp again in the place where the cloud came down. ¹⁸ The people broke camp at the command of the Lord, and at his command they set up camp. As long as the cloud stayed over the Tent, they stayed in the same camp. ¹⁹ When the cloud stayed over the Tent for a long time, they obeyed the Lord and did not move on. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud remained over the Tent for only a few days; in any case, they remained in camp or moved, according to the command of the Lord. ²¹ Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning, and they moved on as soon as the cloud lifted. Whenever the cloud lifted, they moved on. ²² Whether it was two days, a month, a year, or longer, as long as the cloud remained over the Tent, they did not move on; but when it lifted, they moved. ²³ They set up camp and broke camp in obedience to the commands which the Lord gave through Moses.

The Awful Horror^(A)

^14 (B)“You will see ‘The Awful Horror’ standing in the place where he should not be.” (Note to the reader: understand what this means!) “Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills. ^15 (C)Someone who is on the roof of a house must not lose time by going down into the house to get anything to take along. ¹⁶ Someone who is in the field must not go back to the house for a cloak. ¹⁷ How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies! ¹⁸ Pray to God that these things will not happen in the winter! ^19 (D)For the trouble of those days will be far worse than any the world has ever known from the very beginning when God created the world until the present time. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. ²⁰ But the Lord has reduced the number of those days; if he had not, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, he has reduced those days.

²¹ “Then, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’—do not believe it. ²² For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will perform miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible. ²³ Be on your guard! I have told you everything ahead of time.

The Coming of the Son of Man^(E)

^24 (F)“In the days after that time of trouble the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, ^25 (G)the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. ^26 (H)Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ He will send the angels out to the four corners of the earth to gather God's chosen people from one end of the world to the other.

The Lesson of the Fig Tree^(I)

²⁸ “Let the fig tree teach you a lesson. When its branches become green and tender and it starts putting out leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to begin.^{[a] 30} Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

No One Knows the Day or Hour^(J)

^32 (K)“No one knows, however, when that day or hour will come—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; only the Father knows. ³³ Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come. ^34 (L)It will be like a man who goes away from home on a trip and leaves his servants in charge, after giving to each one his own work to do and after telling the doorkeeper to keep watch. ³⁵ Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming—it might be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or at sunrise. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. ³⁷ What I say to you, then, I say to all: Watch!”

True Worship^[a]

²⁹ The Lord protects honest people, but destroys those who do wrong.

³⁰ Righteous people will always have security, but the wicked will not survive in the land.