The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday January 31, 2017 (NIV)

¹⁴ “‘This day is to be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it as a perpetual ordinance from generation to generation. ¹⁵ You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day be sure to remove all the leaven from your houses, because any person who eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh will be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ Also, on the first day you’re to hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day you’re to hold a holy assembly. No work is to be done during those days, except for preparing what is to be eaten by each person.

¹⁷ “‘You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, since on this very day I brought your tribal divisions from the land of Egypt. You are to observe this day from generation to generation as a perpetual ordinance. ¹⁸ In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month, you are to eat unleavened bread. ¹⁹ For seven days leaven is not to be found in your houses. Indeed, any person who eats anything leavened, is to be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰ You are not to eat what is leavened. You are to eat unleavened bread in all your settlements.’”

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Choose sheep for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bundle of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. None of you is to go out of the doorway of his house until morning, ²³ because the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the doorway, and won’t allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. ²⁴ You are to observe this event as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you, just as he promised, you are to observe this ritual. ²⁶ And when your children say to you, ‘What does this ritual mean?’^{[a] 27} you are to say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelis in Egypt when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” Then the people bowed down and worshipped. ²⁸ The Israelis did this. Moses and Aaron did just what the Lord had commanded.

The Death of the Firstborn in Egypt

²⁹ And so at midnight the Lord struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. ³⁰ Pharaoh got up during the night, he, all his officials,^[b] and all the Egyptians, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, because there was not a house without someone dead in it. ³¹ Then he summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and told them: “Get up, go out from among my people, both you and the Israelis! Go, serve^[c] the Lord as you have said. ³² Take both your sheep and your cattle, just as you demanded^[d] and go! And bless me too!”

³³ The Egyptian officials^[e] urged the people to send them out of the land quickly, because they were saying, “We’ll all be dead!” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders. ³⁵ Meanwhile, the Israelis had done as Moses said;^[f] they had asked the Egyptians for objects of silver and objects of gold, and for clothes. ³⁶ The Lord had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they requested. As a result, they plundered the Egyptians.

The Exodus Begins

³⁷ About 600,000 Israeli men traveled from Rameses to Succoth on foot, not counting children. ³⁸ A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with a very large number of livestock, including sheep and cattle. ³⁹ They baked the dough that they brought out of Egypt into thin cakes of unleavened bread. It had not been leavened because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the time that the Israelis lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the tribal divisions of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴² That was for the Lord a night of vigil^[g] to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night belongs to the Lord, and is to be a vigil for all the Israelis from generation to generation.

Instructions for the Passover

⁴³ The Lord told Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover: No foreigner is to eat it, ⁴⁴ though any slave^[h] purchased with money may eat it after you have circumcised him. ⁴⁵ But no temporary resident or a hired servant is to eat it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in one house, and you are not to take any of the meat outside the house, nor are you to break any of its bones. ⁴⁷ The whole congregation of Israel is to observe it. ⁴⁸ If an alien who resides with you wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, every male in his household^[i] must be circumcised, and then he may come near to observe it. He is to be like a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person is to eat it. ⁴⁹ A single law exists for the native and the alien who resides among you.”

⁵⁰ All the Israelis did this. They did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ And on that very day, the Lord brought the Israelis out of the land of Egypt by their tribal divisions.

Consecration of the Firstborn

13 The Lord spoke to Moses, ² “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelis, both of humans and of animals, belongs to me.”

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

³ Then Moses told the people, “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, from the house of bondage, because the Lord brought you out from this place with a strong show of force.^[j] Moreover, nothing leavened is to be eaten. ⁴ Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. ⁵ When the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your ancestors to give you—a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ritual in this month. ⁶ You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord. ⁷ Unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days, and nothing leavened is to be seen among you, nor is leaven to be seen among you throughout your territory. ⁸ And you are to tell your child on that day, ‘This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹ It is to be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead,^[k] so that you may speak about the instruction^[l] of the Lord; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong show of force.^{[m] 10} You are to keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.”

The Redemption of the Firstborn

¹¹ “When the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite and gives it to you, just as he promised you and your ancestors, ¹² you are to dedicate to the Lord everything that first opens the womb. All the firstborn males^[n] of your livestock belong to the Lord. ¹³ You are to redeem every firstborn donkey^[o] with a lamb, and if you don’t redeem it, you are to break its neck. You are to redeem every firstborn^[p] among your sons. ¹⁴ Then when your child asks you in the future, ‘What is this?’, you are to say to him, ‘The Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage with a strong show of force.^{[q] 15} And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of humans to the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord every male that first opens the womb, but I redeem every firstborn of my sons. ¹⁶ It is to be a sign on your hand and an emblem^[r] on your forehead,^[s] because the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong show of force.’”^[t]

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men^(A)

²⁹ As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Jesus.^{[a] 30} When two blind men who were sitting by the roadside heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Have mercy on us, Lord,^[b] Son of David!” ³¹ When the crowd told them harshly to be silent, they shouted even louder, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

³² Jesus stopped and called them, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”

³³ They told him, “Lord, we want to be able to see!”^{[c] 34} Then Jesus, deeply moved with compassion, touched their eyes, and at once they could see again. So they followed him.

The King Enters Jerusalem^(B)

21 When they came near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples on ahead and ² told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them, and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, tell him, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and that person will send them at once.”

⁴ Now this happened to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet when he said,

⁶ So the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and put their coats on them, and he sat upon them. ⁸ Many people in the crowd spread their own coats on the road, while others began cutting down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. ⁹ Both the crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed him kept shouting,

¹⁰ When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was trembling with excitement. The people^[j] were asking, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, the man from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Confrontation in the Temple over Money^(C)

¹² Then Jesus went into the Temple,^[k] threw out everyone who was selling and buying in the Temple, and overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold doves. ¹³ He told them, “It is written, ‘My house is to be called a house of prayer,’^[l] but you are turning it into a hideout^[m] for bandits!”

¹⁴ Blind and lame people came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the high priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he had done and the children shouting in the Temple, “Hosanna^[n] to the Son of David,” they became furious ¹⁶ and asked him, “Do you hear what these people are saying?”

Jesus told them, “Yes! Haven’t you ever read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have created praise’?”^{[o] 17} Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree^(D)

¹⁸ In the morning, as Jesus^[p] was returning to the city, he became hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He told it, “May fruit never come from you again!” And immediately the fig tree dried up.

²⁰ When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked.

²¹ Jesus answered them, “I tell all of you^[q] with certainty, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you be able to do what has been done to the fig tree, but you will also say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. ²² You will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, if you believe.”

The Folly of Causing Strife