Through the Bible – Day 55

Bible text(s)

Numbers 28

Regular daily sacrifices

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

Offer sacrifices to me at the appointed times of worship, so that I will smell the smoke and be pleased.

3Each day offer two rams a year old as sacrifices to please me. The animals must have nothing wrong with them; 4one will be sacrificed in the morning, and the other in the evening. 5Along with each of them, one kilogramme of your finest flour mixed with a litre of olive oil must be offered as a grain sacrifice. 6This sacrifice to please me was first offered on Mount Sinai. 7Finally, along with each of these two sacrifices, a litre of wine must be poured on the altar as a drink offering. 8The second ram will be sacrificed that evening, along with the other offerings, just like the one sacrificed that morning. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices will please me.

The sacrifice on the Sabbath

The LORD said:

9-10On the Sabbath, in addition to the regular daily sacrifices, you must sacrifice two rams a year old to please me. These rams must have nothing wrong with them, and they will be sacrificed with a drink offering and two kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil.

The sacrifices on the first day of the month

The LORD said:

11On the first day of each month, bring to the altar two bulls, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me. 12Three kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with each bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilogrammes of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, 13and one kilogramme of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices will please me.

14-15Offer two litres of wine as a drink offering with each bull, one and a half litres with the ram, and one litre with each of the young rams.

Finally, you must offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin.

These sacrifices are to be offered on the first day of each month, in addition to the regular daily sacrifices.

The LORD said:

16Celebrate Passover in honour of me on the fourteenth day of the first month of each year. 17The following day will begin the Festival of Thin Bread, which will last for a week. During this time you must honour me by eating bread made without yeast.

18On the first day of this festival, you must rest from your work and come together for worship. 19Bring to the altar two bulls, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. And then offer these as sacrifices to please me. 20Three kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with each bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilogrammes of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, 21and one kilogramme of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. 22Also offer a goat as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. 23-24All of these are to be offered in addition to the regular daily sacrifices, and the smoke from them will please me. 25Then on the last day of the festival, you must once again rest from work and come together for worship.

The LORD said:

26On the first day of the Harvest Festival, you must rest from your work, come together for worship, and bring a sacrifice of new grain. 27Offer two young bulls, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old as sacrifices to please me. 28Three kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with each bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilogrammes of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, 29and one kilogramme of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. 30Also offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin. 31The animals must have nothing wrong with them and are to be sacrificed along with the regular daily sacrifices.

Numbers 29

The sacrifices at the Festival of Trumpets

(Leviticus 23.23-25)
The LORD said:

1On the first day of the seventh month, you must rest from your work and come together to celebrate at the sound of the trumpets. 2Bring to the altar one bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. And then offer these as sacrifices to please me. 3Three kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with the bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilogrammes of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, 4and one kilogramme of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. 5You must also offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin. 6These sacrifices will be made in addition to the regular daily sacrifices and the sacrifices for the first day of the month. The smoke from these sacrifices will please me.

The sacrifices on the Great Day of Forgiveness

(Leviticus 23.26-32)
The LORD said:

7The tenth day of the seventh month is the Great Day of Forgiveness. On that day you must rest from all work and come together for worship. Show sorrow for your sins by going without food, 8and bring to the altar one young bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me. 9Three kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with the bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilogrammes of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, 10and one kilogramme of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. 11A goat must also be sacrificed for the sins of the people. You will offer these sacrifices in addition to the sacrifice to ask forgiveness and the regular daily sacrifices.

The sacrifices during the Festival of Shelters

(Leviticus 23.33-44)
The LORD said:

12Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honour of me.

13On the first day, you must rest from your work and come together for worship. Bring to the altar thirteen bulls, two full-grown rams, and fourteen rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me. 14Three kilogrammes of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with each bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilogrammes of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the rams, 15and one kilogramme of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. 16You must also offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin. These are to be offered in addition to the regular daily sacrifices.

17-34For the next six days of the festival, you will sacrifice one less bull than the day before, so that on the seventh day, seven bulls will be sacrificed. The other sacrifices and offerings must remain the same for each of these days.

35On the eighth day, you must once again rest from your work and come together for worship. 36Bring to the altar one bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me. 37You must also offer the proper grain sacrifices and drink offerings of wine with each animal. 38And offer a goat as the sacrifice to ask forgiveness for the people. These sacrifices are made in addition to the regular daily sacrifices.

39You must offer all these sacrifices to me at the appointed times of worship, together with any offerings that are voluntarily given or given because of a promise.

40Moses told the people of Israel everything the LORD had told him about the sacrifices.

Numbers 30

Making promises to the LORD

1The LORD told Moses to say to Israel's tribal leaders:

2When one of you men makes a promise to the LORD, you must keep your word.

3Suppose a young woman who is still living with her parents makes a promise to the LORD. 4If her father hears about it and says nothing, she must keep her promise. 5But if he hears about it and objects, then she no longer has to keep her promise. The LORD will forgive her, because her father did not agree with the promise.

6-7Suppose a woman makes a promise to the LORD and then gets married. If her husband later hears about the promise but says nothing, she must do what she said, whether she meant it or not. 8But if her husband hears about the promise and objects, she no longer has to keep it, and the LORD will forgive her.

9Widows and divorced women must keep every promise they make to the LORD.

10Suppose a married woman makes a promise to the LORD. 11If her husband hears about the promise and says nothing, she must do what she said. 12But if he hears about the promise and does object, she no longer has to keep it. The LORD will forgive her, because her husband would not allow her to keep the promise. 13Her husband has the final say about any promises she makes to the LORD. 14If her husband hears about a promise and says nothing about it for a whole day, she must do what she said—since he did not object, the promise must be kept. 15But if he waits until the next day to stop her from keeping her promise, he is the one who must be punished.

16These are the laws that the LORD gave Moses about husbands and wives, and about young daughters who still live at home.

Numbers 28:1-30:16CEVOpen in Bible reader

Mark 4

A story about a farmer

1The next time Jesus taught beside Lake Galilee, a big crowd gathered. It was so large that he had to sit in a boat out on the lake, while the people stood on the shore. 2He used stories to teach them many things, and this is part of what he taught:

3Now listen! A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. 4While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. 5Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn't very deep. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have enough roots. 7Some other seeds fell where thorn bushes grew up and choked out the plants. So they did not produce any grain. 8But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants grew and produced thirty or sixty or even a hundred times as much as was scattered.

9Then Jesus said, “If you have ears, pay attention.”

Why Jesus used stories

10When Jesus was alone with the twelve apostles and some others, they asked him about these stories. 11He answered:

I have explained the secret about God's kingdom to you, but for others I can use only stories. 12The reason is,

“These people will look

and look, but never see.

They will listen and listen,

but never understand.

If they did,

they would turn to God,

and he would forgive them.”

Jesus explains the story about the farmer

13Jesus told them:

If you don't understand this story, you won't understand any others. 14What the farmer is spreading is really the message about the kingdom. 15The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message. But Satan soon comes and snatches it away from them. 16The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it straight away. 17But they don't have any roots, and they don't last very long. As soon as life gets hard or the message gets them in trouble, they give up.

18The seeds that fell among the thorn bushes are also people who hear the message. 19But they start worrying about the needs of this life. They are fooled by the desire to get rich and to have all kinds of other things. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything. 20The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and welcome the message. They produce thirty or sixty or even a hundred times as much as was planted.

Mark 4:1-20CEVOpen in Bible reader
Canadian Bible Societyv.4.26.9
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