The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday March 23, 2019 (NIV)

The Rights of Women to Inherit Land

36 The heads of the households whose families were descended from Gilead, son of Machir and grandson of Manasseh, (families of Joseph’s descendants) came and spoke to Moses and the leaders of the other Israelite households. ² They said, “Sir, the Lord commanded you to give the Israelites their land by drawing lots. The Lord also commanded you to give the land of our relative Zelophehad to his daughters. ³ Suppose they marry men from the other tribes of Israel. Their land will be taken away from that of our ancestors and added to the land of the tribe they marry into. Then we will have lost part of our land. ⁴ When the Israelites’ jubilee year comes, their land will be added to that of the tribe they married into. Then part of the land of our ancestors’ tribe will be gone.”

⁵ So Moses gave the Israelites a command from the Lord. “The tribe of Joseph’s descendants is right. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they want to, but only within a family of their ancestor’s tribe. ⁷ In this way no land of the Israelites will pass from one tribe to another. Every Israelite must keep the tribal land inherited from his ancestors. ⁸ A woman who inherits land in any of the tribes of Israel may marry a man from any family in her ancestor’s tribe. In this way every Israelite keeps the land inherited from his ancestors. ⁹ No land may pass from one tribe to another. Each Israelite tribe must keep the land it inherits.”

¹⁰ Zelophehad’s daughters did as the Lord commanded Moses. ¹¹ Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah married their cousins on their father’s side of the family. ¹² They married within the families of the descendants of Manasseh, son of Joseph. So their land stayed in the tribe of their father’s family.

¹³ These are the commands and rules the Lord gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab near the Jordan River across from Jericho.

Moses Speaks to the People 40 Years after Leaving Egypt

1 This is the speech Moses gave in the desert east of the Jordan River, on the plains, near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and near Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab. He spoke to all the Israelites. ² (It takes 11 days to go from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of Mount Seir.)

³ On the first day of the eleventh month in the fortieth year after they had left Egypt, Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them. ⁴ This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth and^[a] in Edrei. ⁵ The Israelites were east of the Jordan River in Moab when Moses began to review God’s teachings.

Moses Reminds Israel of the Events at Mount Horeb

This is what he said:

⁶ At Mount Horeb the Lord our God said to us, “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. ⁷ Break camp, and get ready! Go to the mountain region of the Amorites, and go to everyone living on the plains, in the mountains, in the foothills, in the Negev, on the whole Mediterranean coast (the land of the Canaanites), and into Lebanon as far as the Euphrates River. ⁸ I’m giving you this land. Enter, and take possession of the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to you, their descendants.”

⁹ At that time I said to you, “I’m not able to take care of you by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has made your population increase so that you are now as numerous as the stars in the sky. ¹¹ May the Lord God of your ancestors make you a thousand times more numerous, and may he bless you as he has promised. ¹² How can I take care of your problems, your troubles, and your disagreements all by myself? ¹³ From each of your tribes, choose some men who are wise, intelligent, and experienced, and I’ll appoint them to be your leaders.”

¹⁴ You agreed that this was a good idea.

¹⁵ So I took the heads of your tribes who were wise and experienced men and made them officers for each of your tribes. I put them in charge of groups of 1,000, or 100, or 50, or 10 people. ¹⁶ Also at that time I gave these instructions to your judges: “Hear the cases that your people bring. Judge each case fairly, no matter whether it is a dispute between two Israelites or a dispute between an Israelite and a non-Israelite. ¹⁷ Be impartial in your decisions. Listen to the least important people the same way you listen to the most important people. Never be afraid of anyone, since your decisions come from God. You may bring me any case that’s too hard for you, and I will hear it.” ¹⁸ So I told you how to handle these situations.

Moses Reminds Israel of the Events at Kadesh Barnea

¹⁹ So we left Mount Horeb, as the Lord our God had commanded. We traveled through all that vast and dangerous desert you saw on the way to the mountain region of the Amorites. At last we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ Then I said to you, “We have come to the mountain region of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ The Lord your God is giving you this land. Go ahead! Take possession of it, as the Lord God of your ancestors told you. Don’t be afraid or terrified.”

²² All of you came to me and said, “Let’s send men ahead of us to gather information about the land for us. Have them report to us about the route we should take and the cities we’ll come to.”

²³ It seemed like a good idea to me. So I chose 12 of your men, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They left and went into the mountains. When they came to the Eshcol Valley, they explored it. ²⁵ They took some of the region’s fruit with them and brought it back to us. They reported, “The land that the Lord our God is giving us is good.”

²⁶ But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to go. ²⁷ You complained in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us! That’s why he brought us out of Egypt. He wanted to hand us over to the Amorites so that they could destroy us! ²⁸ Where are we going anyway? Our own men have discouraged us by saying, ‘The people there are taller and stronger than we are. The cities are big with sky-high walls! We even saw the people of Anak there.’”

²⁹ Then I said to you, “Don’t tremble. Don’t be afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God, who is going ahead of you, will fight for you as you saw him fight for you in Egypt ³¹ and in the desert.” There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as parents carry their children. He carried you wherever you went until you came to this place.

³² In spite of this, you didn’t trust the Lord your God, ³³ who went ahead of you to find places for you to camp. He appeared in a column of fire at night and in a column of smoke during the day to show you which route to take.

³⁴ When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and took this oath: ³⁵ “Not one of these evil people will ever see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors, ³⁶ except Caleb, son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give the land that he set his feet on to him and his descendants, because he wholeheartedly followed the Lord.”

³⁷ The Lord became angry with me because of you. He said, “You won’t go there either. ³⁸ But your assistant Joshua, son of Nun, will go there. Encourage him, because he will help Israel take possession of the land. ³⁹ Although you thought the little children would be captured in war, your children, who are still too young to know the difference between good and evil, will enter that land. I will give it to them, and they will take possession of it. ⁴⁰ Turn around, go back into the desert, and follow the road that goes to the Red Sea.”

⁴¹ You responded, “We have sinned against the Lord. We’ll go and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us to do.” Each of you armed yourself for war, thinking you could easily invade the mountain region.

⁴² But the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t go and fight, because I won’t be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.’”

⁴³ I told you, but you wouldn’t listen. You defied the Lord’s command and invaded the mountain region. ⁴⁴ The Amorites who lived there came out and attacked you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They defeated you, chasing you from Seir all the way to Hormah. ⁴⁵ When you came back, you cried to the Lord, but the Lord didn’t listen to you or hear you. ⁴⁶ That’s why you stayed in Kadesh as long as you did.

²⁹ Levi held a large reception at his home for Jesus. A huge crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

³⁰ The Pharisees and their experts in Moses’ Teachings complained to Jesus’ disciples. They asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹ Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor; those who are sick do. ³² I’ve come to call sinners to change the way they think and act, not to call people who think they have God’s approval.”

Jesus Is Questioned about Fasting^(A)

³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples frequently fast and say prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But your disciples eat and drink.”

³⁴ Jesus asked them, “Can you force wedding guests to fast while the groom is still with them? ³⁵ The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. At that time they will fast.”

³⁶ He also used these illustrations: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new coat to patch an old coat. Otherwise, the new cloth will tear the old. Besides, the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ People don’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will make the skins burst. The wine will run out, and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸ Rather, new wine is to be poured into fresh skins.

³⁹ “No one who has been drinking old wine wants new wine. He says, ‘The old wine is better!’”

Jesus Has Authority over the Day of Worship^(B)

6 Once, on a day of rest—a holy day, Jesus was walking through some grainfields. His disciples were picking the heads of grain, removing the husks, and eating the grain.

² Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are your disciples doing something that is not right to do on the day of rest—a holy day?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his men were hungry? ⁴ Haven’t you read how he went into the house of God, ate the bread of the presence, and gave some of it to the men who were with him? He had no right to eat those loaves. Only the priests have that right.”

⁵ Then he added, “The Son of Man has authority over the day of rest—a holy day.”

Jesus Heals on the Day of Worship^(C)

⁶ On another day of rest—a holy day, Jesus went into a synagogue to teach. A man whose right hand was paralyzed was there. ⁷ The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely. They wanted to see whether he would heal the man on the day of rest—a holy day so that they could find a way to accuse him of doing something wrong.

⁸ But Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Get up, and stand in the center of the synagogue!” The man got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you—what is the right thing to do on a day of rest—a holy day: to do good or evil, to give a person his health or to destroy it?” ¹⁰ He looked around at all of them and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man did so, and his hand became normal again.

¹¹ The experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees were furious and began to discuss with each other what they could do to Jesus.