The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday February 27, 2022 (NIV)

²² You shall keep all my regulations and all my ordinances and put them into practice, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out. ²³ You shall not walk according to the religious practices of the nation which I am casting out before you, for I was disgusted with them because they did all these things, ²⁴ so I said to you, “You will take possession of their land. I myself will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I, the Lord, am your God, who has distinguished you from the other peoples. ²⁵ You shall therefore distinguish the clean animal from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable with an animal or a bird or anything that crawls on the ground that I have distinguished by declaring what is unclean for you. ²⁶ You will be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have distinguished you from the other peoples so that you belong to me.”

²⁷ A man or a woman who is a medium or deals with the spirits of the dead must certainly be put to death. They must be stoned to death. Their blood is on them.

Protecting the Holiness of the Priests

21 The Lord told Moses to speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and tell them this:

No one shall make himself unclean for a dead person among his people, ² except for his closest relatives. He may do it for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, or his brother, ³ and also for his virgin sister, who is close to him because she does not have a husband—for her he may make himself unclean. ⁴ But he shall not make himself unclean for his relatives by marriage and so defile himself.

⁵ The priests shall not cut a bald patch on to their heads or cut off the edges of their beards or gash their bodies. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not defile the name of their God. Because they present offerings made by fire,^[a] the food of their God, they are to be set apart as holy.

⁷ They shall not marry a woman who has been a prostitute or is defiled. Neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for each priest is holy to his God. ⁸ So you shall treat him as holy. Since he presents the food of your God, he shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sets you apart as holy, am holy.

⁹ When the daughter of a man who is a priest defiles herself through prostitution, she is defiling her father. She shall be burned in fire.

¹⁰ The high priest, who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the holy garments, shall not dishevel his hair nor tear his garments. ¹¹ He shall not enter any place where there is a dead person. He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother. ¹² He shall not leave the sanctuary, so that he will not defile the sanctuary of his God, for the mark of consecration with the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.

¹³ The high priest shall marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ A widow or a divorcée or a woman defiled because of prostitution—these he shall not marry. Instead, he shall take a virgin from his own people as a wife, ¹⁵ so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord, who sets him apart as holy.

Disqualification From Priestly Service

¹⁶ The Lord told Moses ¹⁷ to tell Aaron this:

Any man from your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect may not approach to present the food of his God. ¹⁸ Indeed, any man who has a defect shall not approach—a man who is blind or lame, or who has a limb that is too short or too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has a crippled foot or a crippled hand, ²⁰ or who is deformed or abnormally small, or who has a growth in his eye, or a festering boil, or some other disfiguring skin condition,^[b] or a damaged testicle. ²¹ Any man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall not draw near to present the gifts of the Lord. He has a defect, so he shall not draw near to present the food of his God.

²² But he may eat the food of his God from the most holy things and from the holy things. ²³ Nevertheless, he shall not go in front of the veil and shall not approach the altar because he has a defect, so that he does not defile my holy things, for I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

Eating Holy Food

22 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to be very careful with the holy things of the people of Israel, which they consecrate to me, so that they may not defile my holy name. I am the Lord. ³ Tell them these things.”

In future generations, if any man among all your descendants, while he is in a state of uncleanness, approaches the holy things, which the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person is to be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord.

⁴ Any man of Aaron’s descendants who has an impure skin disease or a bodily discharge shall not eat any of the holy things until he is clean.

Any man who touches anything made unclean by a dead person, or any man from whom an emission of semen goes out, ⁵ or any man who touches any swarming creature that makes him unclean, or who touches any human being who makes him unclean, whatever his uncleanness might be— ⁶ that person who touches any of these things will be unclean until sunset and shall not eat any of the holy things unless he has washed his body with water. ⁷ When the sun has gone down, he will be clean. After that he may eat from the holy things, for it is his food. ⁸ But he shall not eat anything that has died naturally or been torn by wild animals, and so become unclean by it. I am the Lord.

⁹ Aaron’s descendants shall therefore keep watch for me, so that they do not become responsible for sin on account of uncleanness and die for it because they have defiled something holy. I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

¹⁰ No person who is not a member of a priest’s family may eat anything holy. No guest or employee of a priest may eat anything holy. ¹¹ But if a priest purchases anyone with his money, that person may eat from it, and those who are born into his household may eat from his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter has a husband who is not a priest, she may not eat any of the holy things that have been donated as an elevated offering. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced and she has no children and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No person who is not a member of a priest’s family may eat of it.

¹⁴ If anyone eats a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add one fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest.

¹⁵ The priests shall not defile the holy things that the Israelites donate as an elevated offering to the Lord ¹⁶ by letting other people eat them and so make that person incur the penalty of a restitution offering for the holy things, because I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

9 He said to them, “Amen I tell you: There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

The Transfiguration

² After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were alone by themselves. There he was transfigured in front of them. ³ His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. ⁴ And Elijah appeared to them together 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 tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶ He did not know what to say because they were terrified.

⁷ A cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.”

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

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰ They kept the matter to themselves, discussing with one another what this “rising from the dead” meant.

¹¹ They asked him, “Why do the experts in the law say that Elijah must come first?”

¹² He said to them, “Elijah does come first and restores all things. Why was it also written about the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be rejected? ¹³ But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it was written about him.”

Jesus Heals a Boy With a Demon

¹⁴ When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some experts in the law were arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as all the people in the crowd saw Jesus, they were very excited and ran to greet him. ¹⁶ He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”

¹⁷ One man from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. ¹⁸ Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”

¹⁹ “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied. “How long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me.”

²⁰ They brought the boy to Jesus. As soon as the spirit saw him, it threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

“From childhood,” he said. ²² “It has often 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 “If you can?”^[a] Jesus said to him. “All things are possible for the one who believes.”

²⁴ The child’s father immediately cried out and said with tears,^[b] “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit. “You mute and deaf spirit,” he said, “I command you to come out of him and never enter him again!”

²⁶ The spirit screamed, shook the boy violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many of them said, “He’s dead!” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him up, and he stood up.

²⁸ When Jesus went into a house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why were we not able to drive it out?”

²⁹ He said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out, except by prayer and fasting.”^[c]

Psalm 43

A Plea for Vindication

Refrain