The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday March 1, 2017 (NIV)

Duties in the Tent of Meeting^(A)

24 Yahweh spoke to Moses, ² “Command the Israelites to bring you pure, virgin olive oil for the lamp stand so that the lamps won’t go out. ³ In the tent of meeting, outside the canopy where the words of my promise are, Aaron must keep the lamps lit in Yahweh’s presence from evening until morning. It is a permanent law for generations to come. ⁴ Aaron must keep the lamps on the pure gold lamp stand lit in Yahweh’s presence.

⁵ “Also take flour and bake twelve rings of bread. Each ring will contain four quarts of flour. ⁶ Put them in two stacks of six each on the gold table in Yahweh’s presence. ⁷ Lay pure incense on top of each stack. The incense on the bread will be a reminder, an offering by fire to Yahweh. ⁸ Every day of worship a priest must arrange the bread in Yahweh’s presence. It is a continual reminder of my promise^[a] to the Israelites. ⁹ The bread will belong to Aaron and his sons. They will eat it in a holy place. It is very holy, set apart from Yahweh’s offering by fire. This is a permanent law.”

The Man Who Cursed the Lord’s Name

¹⁰ A man, whose mother was Shelomith (daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan in Israel) and whose father was from Egypt, got into a quarrel with an Israelite in the camp. ¹¹ The Israelite woman’s son began cursing Ha-shem and treating it with contempt. So they brought him to Moses.^{[b] 12} They kept him in custody until Yahweh told them what to do.

¹³ Yahweh spoke to Moses, ¹⁴ “The man who cursed my name must be taken outside the camp. All who heard him curse my name must lay their hands on his head. Then the whole congregation must stone him to death.

¹⁵ “Also tell the Israelites: Those who treat their Elohim with contempt will be punished for their sin. ¹⁶ But those who curse Yahweh’s name must be put to death. The whole congregation must stone them to death. It makes no difference whether they are Israelites or foreigners. Whoever curses Ha-shem must die.

¹⁷ “Whoever kills another person must be put to death. ¹⁸ Whoever kills an animal must replace it, life for life. ¹⁹ Whoever injures a neighbor must receive the same injury in return— ²⁰ a broken bone for a broken bone, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Whoever injures another person must receive the same injury in return. ²¹ Whoever kills an animal must replace it. Whoever kills a person must be put to death. ²² The same rule applies to every one of you. It makes no difference whether you are a foreigner or an Israelite, because I am Yahweh your Elohim.”

²³ Moses spoke to the people of Israel. So the man who had cursed Yahweh’s name was taken outside the camp. There they stoned him to death. The Israelites did as Yahweh commanded Moses.

The Year to Honor the Lord

25 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, ² “Tell the Israelites: When you come into the land I’m giving you, the land will celebrate a year to honor Yahweh. ³ Then, for six years you may plant crops in your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather what they produce. ⁴ However, the seventh year will be a festival year for the land. It will be a year to honor Yahweh. Don’t plant crops in your fields or prune your vineyards. ⁵ Don’t harvest what grows by itself or harvest grapes from your vines. That year will be a festival for the land. ⁶ Whatever the land produces during that year is for all of you to eat—for you, your male and female slaves, your hired workers, foreigners among you, ⁷ your animals and the wild animals in your land. Everything the land produces will be yours to eat.

The Jubilee for the Land

⁸ “Count seven of these years seven times for a total of 49 years. ⁹ On the tenth day of the seventh month, the special day for the payment for sin, sound rams’ horns throughout the country. ¹⁰ Set apart the fiftieth year as holy, and proclaim liberty to everyone living in the land. This is your jubilee year. Every slave will be freed in order to return to his property and to his family. ¹¹ That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Don’t plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land. ¹² The jubilee year will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces.

¹³ “In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property. ¹⁴ If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, don’t take advantage of him. ¹⁵ When you buy property from your neighbor, take into account the number of years since the jubilee. Your neighbor must sell it to you taking into account the number of crops until the next jubilee. ¹⁶ If there are still many years until the jubilee, you will pay more for it. If there are only a few years until the jubilee, you will pay less for it because he is selling you only the number of crops. ¹⁷ Never take advantage of each other. Fear your Elohim, because I am Yahweh your Elohim.

¹⁸ “Obey my laws, and carefully follow my rules. Then you will live securely in the land. ¹⁹ The land will give you its products, and you will eat all you want and live there securely. ²⁰ You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or bring in our crops?’ ²¹ I will give you my blessing in the sixth year so that the land will produce enough for three years. ²² You will plant again in the eighth year but live on what the land already produced. You will eat it, even in the ninth year, until the land produces more.

²³ “Land must never be sold permanently, because the land is mine. To me you are strangers without permanent homes. ²⁴ People must always have the right to buy their property back. ²⁵ If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his property, then the one who can assume responsibility, his nearest relative, must buy back what he sold. ²⁶ If a man doesn’t have anyone to buy it back for him, but if he prospers and earns enough to buy it back himself, ²⁷ he must count the years from its sale. Then he will pay what is left to the man to whom he sold it, and it will be his property again. ²⁸ However, if he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again.

²⁹ “If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. ³⁰ If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. ³¹ However, houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee.

³² “The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. ³³ If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released, because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. ³⁴ But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their permanent property.

The Jubilee for the People

³⁵ “If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. ³⁶ Don’t collect interest or make any profit from him. Fear your Elohim by respecting other Israelites’ lives. ³⁷ Never collect any kind of interest on your money or on the food you give them. ³⁸ I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your Elohim.

³⁹ “If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, don’t work him like a slave. ⁴⁰ He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. ⁴¹ Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors. ⁴² They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves. ⁴³ Do not treat them harshly. Fear your Elohim.

⁴⁴ “You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. ⁴⁵ You may also buy them from the foreigners living among you and from their families born in your country. They will be your property. ⁴⁶ You may acquire them for yourselves and for your descendants as permanent property. You may work them as slaves. However, do not treat the Israelites harshly. They are your relatives.

Jesus Blesses Children^(A)

¹³ Some people brought little children to Yeshua to have him hold them. But the disciples told the people not to do that.

¹⁴ When Yeshua saw this, he became irritated. He told them, “Don’t stop the children from coming to me. Children like these are part of the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ I can guarantee this truth: Whoever doesn’t receive the kingdom of God as a little child receives it will never enter it.”

¹⁶ Yeshua put his arms around the children and blessed them by placing his hands on them.

Eternal Life in the Kingdom^(B)

¹⁷ As Yeshua was coming out to the road, a man came running to him and knelt in front of him. He asked Yeshua, “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ Yeshua said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: Never murder. Never commit adultery. Never steal. Never give false testimony. Never cheat. Honor your father and mother.”

²⁰ The man replied, “Teacher, I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was a boy.”

²¹ Yeshua looked at him and loved him. He told him, “You’re still missing one thing. Sell everything you have. Give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then follow me!”

²² When the man heard that, he looked unhappy and went away sad, because he owned a lot of property.

²³ Yeshua looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for rich people to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ The disciples were stunned by his words. But Yeshua said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ This amazed his disciples more than ever. They asked each other, “Who, then, can be saved?”

²⁷ Yeshua looked at them and said, “It’s impossible for people to save themselves, but it’s not impossible for God to save them. Everything is possible for God.”

²⁸ Then Peter spoke up, “We’ve given up everything to follow you.”

²⁹ Yeshua said, “I can guarantee this truth: Anyone who gave up his home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or fields because of me and the Good News ³⁰ will certainly receive a hundred times as much here in this life. They will certainly receive homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, along with persecutions. But in the world to come they will receive eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”