The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday February 27, 2018 (NIV)

²² You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My decrees and do them, so that the land to where I am bringing you will not vomit you out. ²³ You shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. ²⁴ But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from other peoples.

²⁵ You shall therefore make distinction between the clean animal from the unclean, and the unclean fowl from the clean, and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that crawls on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. ²⁶ You shall be holy unto Me; for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from other peoples, that you should be Mine.

²⁷ A man or woman who speaks to spirits as a medium or necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.

Rules for Priestly Conduct

21 Then the Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ² but for his closest relatives, that is, for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³ and his virgin sister (who is near him because she has not had a husband), for her he may be made unclean. ⁴ And he shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people because of the dead and so defile himself.

⁵ They shall not make bald areas on their heads, nor shall they shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. ⁶ They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the food of their God. Therefore they shall be holy.

⁷ They shall not take a wife who is a whore or has been defiled, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband, for he is holy unto his God. ⁸ You shall sanctify him, for he offers the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.

⁹ The daughter of any priest, if she defiles herself by being a whore, she also defiles her father. She shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰ He who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his clothes; ¹¹ nor shall he approach any dead body, nor make himself unclean, even for his father or his mother; ¹² nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, so as not to defile the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord.

¹³ He shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴ A widow, or a divorced woman, or a defiled woman, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take for a wife a virgin of his own people, ¹⁵ so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.

¹⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁷ Speak to Aaron, saying: None of your offspring in their generations who has any blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. ¹⁸ For whoever has a blemish, he shall not approach, whether a blind or lame man, or one who has a physical flaw on his face or a limb that is too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scabs, or is a eunuch. ²¹ No man who has a blemish from the offspring of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the food offerings of the Lord made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²² He shall eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy. ²³ Only he shall not go in through the veil or come to the altar, because he has a blemish, so that he does not defile My sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

²⁴ Moses spoke this to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

Holy Offerings

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to Aaron and to his sons that they should be very respectful with the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not defile My holy name with those things which the people have consecrated to Me: I am the Lord.

³ Say to them: Whoever from your offspring through your generations approaches the holy things, which the children of Israel have dedicated to the Lord, while he has uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from My presence: I am the Lord.

⁴ If a man of the offspring of Aaron is a leper or has a discharge, he shall not eat of the holy offerings until he is clean. And whoever touches anything that is unclean by contact with the dead or a man who had an emission of semen, ⁵ or whoever touches any crawling thing whereby he may be made unclean, or a man from whom he may receive uncleanness, whatever uncleanness he has, ⁶ the person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy things unless he washes his body with water. ⁷ When the sun goes down, he shall be clean, and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his food. ⁸ That which dies of itself or is torn by animals he shall not eat, becoming unclean by it: I am the Lord.

⁹ They shall therefore keep My ordinance, lest they bear sin from it and therefore die if they defile it: I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹⁰ There shall be no outsider^[a] who eats of a holy thing, whether a foreign guest of the priest or a hired servant, he shall not eat of a holy offering. ¹¹ But if a priest buys a person with his money, the person acquired shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house shall eat of his food. ¹² If the priest’s daughter marries an outsider, she may not eat of an offering of the holy things. ¹³ But if the priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child and has returned to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; but no outsider may eat of it.

¹⁴ If a man eats the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall add a fifth of the value to it and shall give the holy thing to the priest. ¹⁵ They shall not defile the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶ and cause them to suffer and to bear the iniquity of guilt when they eat their holy things, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

9 And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

The Transfiguration^(A)

² After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain, alone by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. ³ His garments became shiny, extremely white as snow, such as no launderer on earth could whiten them. ⁴ And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses. And they were talking with Jesus.

⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three sanctuaries: one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶ For he did not know what to say, because they were very afraid.

⁷ Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.”

⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus only.

⁹ As they came down the mountain, He warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰ They kept that statement to themselves, questioning each other what the rising from the dead meant.

¹¹ And they asked Him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come?”

¹² He answered, “Elijah indeed comes first to restore all things. Yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? ¹³ But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”

The Healing of a Boy With an Unclean Spirit^(B)

¹⁴ When He came to His other disciples, He saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes disputing with them. ¹⁵ Immediately when all the people saw Him, they were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.

¹⁶ He asked the scribes, “What are you debating with them?”

¹⁷ One in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. ¹⁸ Wherever it takes hold on him, it dashes him to the ground. And he foams at the mouth and gnashes with his teeth and becomes rigid. And I told Your disciples so that they would cast it out, but they could not.”

¹⁹ He answered, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”

²⁰ So they brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit dashed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ He asked his father, “How long has it been since it came to him?”

He said, “From childhood. ²² Often it has thrown him into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

²³ Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more.”

²⁶ The spirit cried out and convulsed him greatly. But it came out of him, and he was as dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

²⁸ When He had entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁹ He said to them, “This kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting.”

Psalm 43