The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday February 13, 2018 (NIV)

Gifts for the Lord

²⁰ Moses finished speaking, and everyone left. ²¹ Then those who wanted to bring gifts to the Lord, brought them to be used for the sacred tent, the worship services, and the priestly clothes. ²² Men and women came willingly and gave all kinds of gold jewelry such as pins, earrings, rings, and necklaces. ²³ Everyone brought their blue, purple, and red wool, their fine linen, and their cloth made of goat hair, as well as their ram skins dyed red and their fine leather. ²⁴ Anyone who had silver or bronze or acacia wood brought it as a gift to the Lord.

²⁵ The women who were good at weaving cloth brought the blue, purple, and red wool and the fine linen they had made. ²⁶ And the women who knew how to make cloth from goat hair were glad to do so.

²⁷ The leaders brought different kinds of jewels to be sewn on the special clothes and the breastpiece for the high priest. ²⁸ They also brought sweet-smelling spices to be mixed with the incense and olive oil that were for the lamps and for ordaining the priests. ²⁹ Moses had told the people what the Lord wanted them to do, and many of them decided to bring their gifts.

Bezalel and Oholiab

³⁰ Moses said to the people of Israel:

36 The Lord has given to Bezalel, Oholiab, and others the skills needed for building a place of worship, and they will follow the Lord’s instructions.

² Then Moses brought together these workers who were eager to work, ³ and he gave them the money that the people of Israel had donated for building the place of worship. In fact, so much money was being given each morning, ⁴ that finally everyone stopped working ⁵ and said, “Moses, there is already more money than we need for what the Lord has assigned us to do.” ⁶ So Moses sent word for the people to stop giving, and they did. ⁷ But there was already more than enough to do what needed to be done.

The Curtains and Coverings for the Sacred Tent

^8-9 The skilled workers got together to make the sacred tent and its linen curtains woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. Each of the ten panels was fourteen yards long and two yards wide, ¹⁰ and they were sewn together to make two curtains with five panels each. ^11-13 Then fifty loops of blue cloth were put along one of the wider sides of each curtain, and the two curtains were fastened together at the loops with fifty gold hooks.

^14-15 As the material for the tent, goat hair was used to weave eleven sections fifteen yards by two yards each. ¹⁶ These eleven sections were joined to make two panels, one with five and the other with six sections. ¹⁷ Fifty loops were put along one of the wider sides of each panel, ¹⁸ and the two panels were fastened at the loops with fifty bronze hooks. ¹⁹ Two other coverings were made—one with fine leather and the other with ram skins dyed red.

The Framework for the Sacred Tent

²⁰ Acacia wood was used to build the framework for the walls of the sacred tent. ²¹ Each frame was fifteen feet high and twenty-seven inches wide ^22-26 with two wooden pegs near the bottom. Then two silver stands were placed under each frame with sockets for the pegs, so they could be joined together. Twenty of these frames were used along the south side and twenty more along the north. ²⁷ Six frames were used for the back wall along the west side ^28-29 with two more at the southwest and northwest corners. These corner frames were joined from top to bottom. ³⁰ Altogether, along the back wall there were eight frames with two silver stands under each of them.

^31-33 Five crossbars were made for each of the wooden frames, with the center crossbar running the full length of the wall. ³⁴ The frames and crossbars were covered with gold, and gold rings were attached to the frames to run the crossbars through.

The Inside Curtain for the Sacred Tent

³⁵ They made the inside curtain^[c] of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with figures of winged creatures. ³⁶ They also made four acacia wood posts and covered them with gold. Then gold rings were fastened to the posts, which were set on silver stands.

³⁷ For the entrance to the tent, they used a curtain of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool and embroidered with fancy needlework. ³⁸ They made five posts, covered them completely with gold, and set them each on a gold-covered bronze stand. Finally, they attached hooks for the curtain.

³² On the way they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross.

³³ They came to a place named Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.”^{[a] 34} There they gave Jesus some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain. But when Jesus tasted what it was, he refused to drink it.

³⁵ The soldiers nailed Jesus to a cross and gambled to see who would get his clothes. ³⁶ Then they sat down to guard him. ³⁷ Above his head they put a sign that told why he was nailed there. It read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” ³⁸ The soldiers also nailed two criminals on crosses, one to the right of Jesus and the other to his left.

³⁹ People who passed by said terrible things about Jesus. They shook their heads and ⁴⁰ shouted, “So you’re the one who claimed you could tear down the temple and build it again in three days! If you are God’s Son, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

⁴¹ The chief priests, the leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses also made fun of Jesus. They said, ⁴² “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the king of Israel, he should come down from the cross! Then we will believe him. ⁴³ He trusted God, so let God save him, if he wants to. He even said he was God’s Son.” ⁴⁴ The two criminals also said cruel things to Jesus.

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵ At noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until three o’clock. ⁴⁶ Then about that time Jesus shouted, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”^[b] which means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”

⁴⁷ Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, “He’s calling for Elijah.”^{[c] 48} One of them at once ran and grabbed a sponge. He soaked it in wine, then put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus.

⁴⁹ Others said, “Wait! Let’s see if Elijah will come^[d] and save him.” ⁵⁰ Once again Jesus shouted, and then he died.

⁵¹ At once the curtain in the temple^[e] was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and rocks split apart. ⁵² Graves opened, and many of God’s people were raised to life. ⁵³ Then after Jesus had risen to life, they came out of their graves and went into the holy city, where they were seen by many people.

⁵⁴ The officer and the soldiers guarding Jesus felt the earthquake and saw everything else that happened. They were frightened and said, “This man really was God’s Son!”

⁵⁵ Many women had come with Jesus from Galilee to be of help to him, and they were there, looking on at a distance. ⁵⁶ Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of James and John^[f] were some of these women.

Jesus Is Buried

⁵⁷ That evening a rich disciple named Joseph from the town of Arimathea ⁵⁸ went and asked for Jesus' body. Pilate gave orders for it to be given to Joseph, ⁵⁹ who took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. ⁶⁰ Then Joseph put the body in his own tomb that had been cut into solid rock^[g] and had never been used. He rolled a big stone against the entrance to the tomb and went away.

⁶¹ All this time Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting across from the tomb.

⁶² On the next day, which was a Sabbath, the chief priests and the Pharisees went together to Pilate. ⁶³ They said, “Sir, we remember what that liar said while he was still alive. He claimed that in three days he would come back from death. ⁶⁴ So please order the tomb to be carefully guarded for three days. If you don’t, his disciples may come and steal his body. They will tell the people that he has been raised to life, and this last lie will be worse than the first one.”^[h]

⁶⁵ Pilate said to them, “All right, take some of your soldiers and guard the tomb as well as you know how.” ⁶⁶ So they sealed it tight and placed soldiers there to guard it.

(Written by David when he pretended to be crazy in front of Abimelech, so that Abimelech would send him away, and David could leave.)

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