Through the Bible – Day 43

₁The LORD told Moses ₂to say to the community of Israel:

I have chosen certain times for you to come together and worship me.

₃You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me. No matter where you live, you must rest on the Sabbath and come together for worship. This law will never change.

_4-5Passover is another time when you must come together to worship me, and it must be celebrated on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month of each year.

₆The Festival of Thin Bread begins on the fifteenth day of that same month; it lasts seven days, and during this time you must honour me by eating bread made without yeast. ₇On the first day of this festival you must rest from your work and come together for worship. ₈Each day of this festival you must offer sacrifices. Then on the final day you must once again rest from your work and come together for worship.

₉The LORD told Moses ₁₀to say to the community of Israel:

After you enter the land I am giving you, the first bundle of wheat from each crop must be given to me. So bring it to a priest ₁₁on the day after the Sabbath. He will lift it up in dedication to me, and I will accept you. ₁₂You must also offer a sacrifice to please me. So bring the priest a one-year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it ₁₃and two kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil. Then he will place these on the bronze altar and send them up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. Together with these, you must bring a litre of wine as a drink offering. ₁₄I am your God, and I forbid you to eat any new grain or anything made from it until you have brought these offerings. This law will never change.

₁₅Seven weeks after you offer this bundle of grain, each family must bring another offering of new grain. ₁₆Do this exactly fifty days later, which is the day following the seventh Sabbath. ₁₇Bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up in dedication to me. Each loaf is to be made with yeast and with two kilogrammes of the finest flour from the first part of your harvest.

₁₈At this same time, the entire community of Israel must bring seven lambs that are a year old, a young bull, and two rams. These animals must have nothing wrong with them, and they must be offered as a sacrifice to please me. You must also offer the proper grain and wine sacrifices with each animal. ₁₉Offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin, and two rams a year old as a sacrifice to ask my blessing. ₂₀The priest will lift up the rams together with the bread in dedication to me. These offerings are holy and are my gift to the priest. ₂₁This is a day of celebration and worship, a time of rest from your work. You and your descendants must obey this law.

₂₂When you harvest your grain, always leave some of it standing around the edges of your fields and don't pick up what falls on the ground. Leave it for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the LORD your God!

₂₃The LORD told Moses _24-25to say to the people of Israel:

The first day of the seventh month must be a day of complete rest. Then at the sound of the trumpets, you will come together to worship and to offer sacrifices on the altar.

₂₆The LORD God said to Moses:

₂₇The tenth day of the seventh month is the Great Day of Forgiveness. It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burnt. ₂₈No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. ₂₉I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. _30-31None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! ₃₂This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.

₃₃The LORD told Moses ₃₄to say to the community of Israel:

Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honour of me. ₃₅No one is to do any work on the first day of the festival—it is a time when everyone must come together for worship. ₃₆For seven days, sacrifices must be offered on the altar. The eighth day is also to be a day of complete rest, as well as a time of offering sacrifices on the altar and of coming together for worship.

₃₇I have chosen these festivals as times when my people must come together for worship and when animals, grain, and wine are to be offered on the proper days. ₃₈These festivals must be celebrated in addition to the Sabbaths and the times when you offer special gifts or sacrifices to keep a promise or as a voluntary offering.

₃₉Remember to begin the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the seventh month after you have harvested your crops. Celebrate this festival for seven days in honour of me and don't do any work on the first day or on the day following the festival. ₄₀Pick the best fruit from your trees and cut leafy branches to use during the time of this joyous celebration in my honour. ₄₁I command you and all your descendants to celebrate this festival during the seventh month of each year. ₄₂For seven days every Israelite must live in a shelter, ₄₃so future generations will know that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

₄₄This is how Moses instructed the people of Israel to celebrate the LORD's festivals.

₁The LORD told Moses ₂to say to the community of Israel:

You must supply the purest olive oil for the lamps in the sacred tent, so they will keep burning. _3-4Aaron will set up the gold lampstand in the holy place of the sacred tent. Then he will light the seven lamps that must be kept burning there in my presence, every night from now on. This law will never change.

₅Use your finest flour to bake twelve loaves of bread about two kilogrammes each, ₆then take them into the sacred tent and lay them on the gold table in two rows of six loaves. ₇Beside each row put some pure incense that will be sent up by fire in place of the bread as an offering to me. ₈Aaron must lay fresh loaves on the table each Sabbath, and priests in all generations must continue this practice as part of Israel's agreement with me. ₉This bread will always belong to Aaron and his family; it is very holy because it was offered to me, and it must be eaten in a holy place.

_10-11Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan, had married an Egyptian, and they had a son. One day their son got into a fight with an Israelite man in camp and cursed the name of the LORD. So the young man was dragged off to Moses, ₁₂who had him guarded while everyone waited for the LORD to tell them what to do.

₁₃Finally, the LORD said to Moses:

₂₃When Moses finished speaking, the people did what the LORD had told Moses, and they stoned to death the man who had cursed the LORD.

₄₆Then Jesus said, “Those people will be punished for ever. But the ones who pleased God will have eternal life.”

₁When Jesus had finished teaching, he told his disciples, ₂“You know that two days from now will be Passover. That is when the Son of Man will be handed over to his enemies and nailed to a cross.”

₃At that time the chief priests and the nation's leaders were meeting at the home of Caiaphas the high priest. ₄They secretly planned to have Jesus arrested and put to death. ₅But they said, “We must not do it during Passover, because the people will riot.”