The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday March 2, 2023 (NIV)

Leviticus 25:47-27:13

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

47 ‘Now if the financial means of a stranger or temporary resident among you become sufficient, and your fellow countryman becomes poor in comparison to him and sells himself to the stranger who is living among you or to the descendants of the stranger’s family, 48 then after he is sold he shall have the right of redemption. One of his relatives may redeem him: 49 either his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50 Then he [or his redeemer] shall calculate with his purchaser from the year when he sold himself to the purchaser to the Year of Jubilee, and the [original] price of his sale shall be adjusted according to the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be considered as that of a hired man. 51 If there are still many years [before the Year of Jubilee], in proportion to them he must refund [to the purchaser] part of the price of his sale for his redemption and release. 52 And if only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he shall so calculate it with him. He is to refund the proportionate amount for his release. 53 Like a man hired year by year he shall deal with him; he shall not rule over him with harshness in your sight. 54 Even if he is not redeemed during these years and under these provisions, then he shall go free in the Year of Jubilee, he and his children with him. 55 For the children of Israel are My servants; My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Blessings of Obedience

26 [a]‘You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you erect an image, a sacred pillar or an obelisk, nor shall you place any figured stone in your land so that you may bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and [obediently] do them, then I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield her produce and the trees of the field bear their fruit. And your threshing season will last until grape gathering and the grape gathering [time] will last until planting, and you will eat your bread and be filled and live securely in your land. I will also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down and there will be no one to make you afraid. I will also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight; your enemies will fall before you by the sword. For I will turn toward you [with favor and regard] and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish and confirm My covenant with you.(A) 10 You will eat the old supply of [abundant] produce, and clear out the old [to make room] for the new. 11 I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject nor separate itself from you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright [with heads held high as free men].

Penalties of Disobedience

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not [obediently] do all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul rejects My ordinances, so that you will not [obediently] do all My commandments, and in this way break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to languish also. And you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat what you plant. 17 I will set My face against you so that [b]you will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.(B) 18 If in spite of all this you still will not listen to Me and be obedient, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break your pride in your power, and I will make your sky like iron [giving no rain and blocking all prayers] and your ground like bronze [hard to plow and yielding no produce].(C) 20 Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

21 ‘If then, you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times in accordance with your sins. 22 I will let loose the [wild] animals of the field among you, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you so few in number that your roads will lie deserted and desolate.(D)

23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act [c]with hostility against Me, 24 then I also will act with hostility against you, and I will strike you seven times for your sins. 25 I will bring a sword on you that will execute vengeance for [breaking] the covenant; and when you gather together in your cities, I will send pestilence (virulent disease) among you, and you shall be handed over to the enemy.(E) 26 When I break your staff of bread [that is, cut off your supply of food], ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will ration your bread; and you will eat and not be satisfied.(F)

27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you will not [attentively] listen to Me but act with hostility against me, 28 then I will act with hostility against you in wrath, and I also will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.(G) 30 I will destroy your high places [devoted to idolatrous worship], and cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies upon the [crushed] bodies of your idols, and My soul will detest you [with deep and unutterable loathing].(H) 31 I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your sweet and soothing aromas [of offerings by fire].(I) 32 I will make the land desolate, and your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out the sword [of your enemies] after you; your land will become desolate and your cities will become ruins.(J)

34 ‘Then the land [of Israel] will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest, the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it.(K) 36 As for those who are left of you, I will bring despair (lack of courage, weakness) into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a scattered leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as if [running] from the sword, and will fall even when no one is chasing them. 37 They shall stumble over one another as if to escape from a sword when no one is chasing them; and you will have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you. 39 Those of you who are left will rot away because of their wickedness in the lands of your enemies; also because of the wickedness of their forefathers they will rot away like them.

40 ‘If they confess their wickedness and the wickedness of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they have committed against Me—and also in their acting with hostility toward Me— 41 I also was acting with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—then if their uncircumcised (sin-filled) hearts are humbled and they accept the punishment for their wickedness,(L) 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham, and remember the land.(M) 43 But the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment for their wickedness and make amends because they rejected My ordinances and their soul rejected My statutes. 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so despise them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.(N) 45 But I will, for their sake, [earnestly] remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

46 These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Valuations

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a [d]special vow [consecrating himself or a member of his family], he shall be valued according to your [established system of] valuation of people belonging to the Lord [that is, the priest accepts from the man making the vow a specified amount of money for the temple treasury in place of the actual person]. If your valuation is of a male between twenty and sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Or if the person is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. If the person is between five years and twenty years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels. But if the child is between one month and five years of age, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male and three shekels for the female. If the person is sixty years old and above, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female. But if the person is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.

‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the Lord, any such that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. 10 He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; but if he does exchange an animal for an animal, then both the original offering and its substitute shall be holy. 11 If it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall bring the animal before the priest, 12 and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; it shall be as you, the priest, value it. 13 But if he ever wishes to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.

Footnotes:

  1. Leviticus 26:1 Through Moses God explains clearly how He will bless the Israelites for their faithful obedience and repeatedly emphasizes that His blessings are contingent on Israel’s responsiveness. If the Israelites want God’s blessings, they must not take Him for granted.
  2. Leviticus 26:17 These verses specify the penalties for disobedience. The Scripture references indicate where the fulfillments of these prophecies are recorded. God keeps His word, whether a blessing or a judgment.
  3. Leviticus 26:23 Lit contrary to and so throughout the chapter.
  4. Leviticus 27:2 Or explicit. A man could consecrate (dedicate) himself to the Lord or he could consecrate another family member, his house, his property, his animals, his field, or other possession. The priest set an established value on the person, animal, or property and the man paid the set amount instead of transferring ownership. Consecrating someone or something to the Lord was not the same as “devoting” or “setting apart” something to the Lord (see vv 21, 28).
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Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

Mark 10:32-52

Jesus’ Sufferings Foretold

32 Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were perplexed [at what Jesus had said], and those who were following were alarmed and afraid. And again He took the twelve [disciples] aside and began telling them what was going to happen to Him, 33 saying, “Listen very carefully: we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and hand Him over to the Gentiles (Romans). 34 They will mock and ridicule Him and spit on Him, and whip (scourge) Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise [from the dead].”

35 James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.”(A) 36 And He replied to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 37 They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit [with You], one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory [Your majesty and splendor in Your kingdom].” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism [of suffering and death] with which I am baptized?” 39 And they replied to Him, “We are able.” Jesus told them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. 40 But to sit on My right or left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared [by My Father].”

41 Hearing this, the [other] ten became indignant with James and John. 42 Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their powerful men exercise authority over them [tyrannizing them]. 43 But this is not how it is among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first and most important among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a [a]ransom for many.”

Bartimaeus Receives His Sight

46 Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road [as was his custom].(B) 47 When Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and say, “Jesus, [b]Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, telling him, “Take courage, get up! He is calling for you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni (my Master), let me regain my sight.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith [and confident trust in My power] has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road.(C)

Footnotes:

  1. Mark 10:45 I.e. to die so that believers may be freed from the power of sin and death.
  2. Mark 10:47 A common Messianic title recognizing the Messiah as a descendant of David.
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Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

Psalm 45

A Song Celebrating the King’s Marriage.

To the Chief Musician; set to the [tune of] “Lilies.” A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. A Song of Love.

45 [a]My heart overflows with a good theme;
I address my psalm to the King.
My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.

You are fairer than the sons of men;
Graciousness is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.


Strap Your sword on Your thigh, O mighty One,
In Your splendor and Your majesty!

And in Your majesty ride on triumphantly
For the cause of truth and humility and righteousness;
Let Your right hand guide You to awesome things.

Your arrows are sharp;
The peoples (nations) fall under You;
Your arrows pierce the hearts of the King’s enemies.


[b]Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness (virtue, morality, justice) and hated wickedness;
Therefore God, your God, has anointed You
Above Your companions with the oil of jubilation.(A)

All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia;
From ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

Kings’ daughters are among Your noble ladies;
At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

10 
Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear [to my instruction]:
Forget your people and your father’s house;
11 
Then the King will desire your beauty;
Because He is your Lord, bow down and honor Him.
12 
The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;
The rich among the people will seek your favor.

13 
Glorious is the King’s daughter within [the palace];
Her robe is interwoven with gold.(B)
14 
She will be brought to the King in embroidered garments;
The virgins, her companions who follow her,
Will be brought to You.
15 
With gladness and rejoicing will they be led;
They will enter into the King’s palace.

16 
In place of your fathers will be [c]your sons;
You shall make princes in all the land.
17 
I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore the peoples will praise and give You thanks forever and ever.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 45:1 Jesus spoke of what was written of Him “in the Psalms” (see Luke 24:44). This is one such Messianic psalm; however, the capitalization indicating the deity is provided with the understanding that the chapter is written against the background of an ordinary royal wedding with anonymous participants. The New Testament reference to this psalm is in Heb 1:8, 9, where vv 6, 7 is quoted and applied to Christ. The preceding verses could also be applied to Christ, as well as most of the following verses referring to the King. However, v 16 can only apply to a mortal king (see note there).
  2. Psalm 45:6 This verse has mystified many commentators since God is distinguished from the King in vv 2 and 7, and various translations have been proposed to make the Hebrew rendered “O God” something other than a reference to the deity of the King. But the writer of Hebrews clearly understood it this way.
  3. Psalm 45:16 Unlike the other references to the King, this verse cannot be applied prophetically to Christ because He had no children. But it is not unusual for a prophecy to have more than one fulfillment (typically in the near future of the prophecy and another in the distant future), and by analogy there is no reason why this psalm cannot refer both to an ordinary king and to the future Messianic King.
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Proverbs 10:22

22 
The blessing of the Lord brings [true] riches,
And He adds no sorrow to it [for it comes as a blessing from God].

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