The One Year Bible TLB (26 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy fellow. Learn from their ways and be wise!
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For though they have no king to make them work,
8
yet they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
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But you—all you do is sleep. When will you wake up?
10
“Let me sleep a little longer!” Sure, just a little more!
11
And as you sleep, poverty creeps upon you like a robber and destroys you; want attacks you in full armor.
January 31“You shall celebrate this event each year (this is a permanent law) to remind you of this fatal night.
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The celebration shall last seven days. For that entire period you are to eat only bread made without yeast. Anyone who disobeys this rule at any time during the seven days of the celebration shall be excommunicated from Israel.
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On the first day of the celebration, and again on the seventh day, there will be special religious services for the entire congregation, and no work of any kind may be done on those days except the preparation of food.
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“This annual ‘Celebration with Unleavened Bread’ will cause you always to remember today as the day when I brought you out of the land of Egypt; so it is a law that you must celebrate this day annually, generation after generation.
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Only bread without yeast may be eaten from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month.
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For these seven days there must be no trace of yeast in your homes; during that time anyone who eats anything that has yeast in it shall be excommunicated from the congregation of Israel. These same rules apply to foreigners who are living among you just as much as to those born in the land.
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Again I repeat, during those days you must not eat anything made with yeast; serve only yeastless bread.”
21
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and get lambs from your flocks, a lamb for one or more families depending upon the number of persons in the families, and kill the lamb so that God will pass over you and not destroy you.
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Drain the lamb’s blood into a basin, and then take a cluster of hyssop branches and dip them into the lamb’s blood, and strike the hyssop against the lintel above the door and against the two side panels, so that there will be blood upon them, and none of you shall go outside all night.
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“For Jehovah will pass through the land and kill the Egyptians; but when he sees the blood upon the panel at the top of the door and on the two side pieces, he will pass over
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that home and not permit the Destroyer to enter and kill your firstborn.
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And remember, this is a permanent law for you and your posterity.
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And when you come into the land that the Lord will give you, just as he promised, and when you are celebrating the Passover,
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and your children ask, ‘What does all this mean? What is this ceremony about?’
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you will reply, ‘It is the celebration of Jehovah’s passing over us, for he passed over the homes of the people of Israel, though he killed the Egyptians; he passed over our houses and did not come in to destroy us.’” And all the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28
So the people of Israel did as Moses and Aaron had commanded.
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And that night, at midnight, Jehovah killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s oldest son to the oldest son of the captive in the dungeon; also all the firstborn of the cattle.
30
Then Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt got up in the night; and there was bitter crying throughout all the land of Egypt, for there was not a house where someone had not died.
31
And Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Leave us; please go away, all of you; go and serve Jehovah as you said.
32
Take your flocks and herds and be gone; and oh, give me a blessing as you go.”
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33
And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people of Israel, to get them out of the land as quickly as possible. For they said, “We are as good as dead.”
34
The Israelis took with them their bread dough without yeast, and bound their kneading troughs into their spare clothes, and carried them on their shoulders.
35
And the people of Israel did as Moses said and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.
36
And the Lord gave the Israelis favor with the Egyptians, so that they gave them whatever they wanted. And the Egyptians were practically stripped of everything they owned!
37
That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth; there were six hundred thousand of them, besides all the women and children, going on foot.
38
People of various sorts
*
went with them; and there were flocks and herds—a vast exodus of cattle.
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When they stopped to eat, they baked bread from the yeastless dough they had brought along. It was yeastless because the people were pushed out of Egypt and didn’t have time to wait for bread to rise to take with them on the trip.
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The sons of Jacob and their descendants had lived in Egypt 430 years, and it was on the last day of the 430th year that all of Jehovah’s people left the land.
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This night was selected by the Lord to bring his people out from the land of Egypt; so the same night was selected as the date of the annual celebration of God’s deliverance.
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Then Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the rules concerning the observance of the Passover. No foreigners shall eat the lamb,
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but any slave who has been purchased may eat it if he has been circumcised.
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A hired servant or a visiting foreigner may not eat of it.
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You shall, all of you who eat each lamb, eat it together in one house, and not carry it outside; and you shall not break any of its bones.
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All the congregation of Israel shall observe this memorial at the same time.
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“As to foreigners, if they are living with you and want to observe the Passover with you, let all the males be circumcised, and then they may come and celebrate with you—then they shall be just as though they had been born among you; but no uncircumcised person shall ever eat the lamb.
49
The same law applies to those born in Israel and to foreigners living among you.”
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So the people of Israel followed all of Jehovah’s instructions to Moses and Aaron.
51
That very day the Lord brought out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, wave after wave of them crossing the border.
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13:
1-2
The Lord instructed Moses, “Dedicate to me all of the firstborn sons
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of Israel, and every firstborn male animal; they are mine!”
3
Then Moses said to the people, “This is a day to remember forever—the day of leaving Egypt and your slavery; for the Lord has brought you out with mighty miracles. Now remember, during the annual celebration of this event you are to use no yeast; don’t even have any in your homes.
4-5
Celebrate this day of your exodus, at the end of March
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each year, when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land he promised your fathers, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’
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For seven days you shall eat only bread without yeast, and there must be no yeast in your homes or anywhere within the borders of your land! Then, on the seventh day, a great feast to the Lord shall be held.
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“During those celebration days each year you must explain to your children why you are celebrating—it is a celebration of what the Lord did for you when you left Egypt.
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This annual memorial week will brand you as his own unique people, just as though he had branded his mark of ownership upon your hands or your forehead.
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“So celebrate the event annually in late March.
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And remember, when the Lord brings you into the land he promised to your ancestors long ago, where the Canaanites are now living,
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all firstborn sons and firstborn male animals belong to the Lord, and you shall give them to him.
13
A firstborn donkey may be purchased back from the Lord in exchange for a lamb or baby goat; but if you decide not to trade, the donkey shall be killed. However, you
must
buy back your firstborn sons.
14
“And in the future, when your children ask you, ‘What is this all about?’ you shall tell them, ‘With mighty miracles Jehovah brought us out of Egypt from our slavery.
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Pharaoh wouldn’t let us go, so Jehovah killed all the firstborn males throughout the land of Egypt, both of men and animals; that is why we now give all the firstborn males to the Lord—except that all the eldest sons are always bought back.’
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Again I say, this celebration shall identify you as God’s people, just as much as if his brand of ownership were placed upon your foreheads. It is a reminder that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with great power.”
As Jesus and the disciples left the city of Jericho, a vast crowd surged along behind.
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Two blind men were sitting beside the road, and when they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, “Sir, King David’s Son, have mercy on us!”
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The crowd told them to be quiet, but they only yelled the louder.
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When Jesus came to the place where they were, he stopped in the road and called,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
“Sir,” they said, “we want to see!”
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Jesus was moved with pity for them and touched their eyes. And instantly they could see, and followed him.
21:
1
As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, and were near the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of them into the village ahead.
2
“Just as you enter,”
he said,
“you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them here.
3
If anyone asks you what you are doing, just say, ‘The Master needs them,’ and there will be no trouble.”
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This was done to fulfill the ancient prophecy,
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“Tell Jerusalem her King is coming to her, riding humbly on a donkey’s colt!”
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The two disciples did as Jesus said,
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and brought the animals to him and threw their garments over the colt
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for him to ride on.
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And some in the crowd threw down their coats along the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them out before him.
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Then the crowds surged on ahead and pressed along behind, shouting, “God bless King David’s Son!” . . . “God’s Man is here!”
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. . . “Bless him, Lord!” . . . “Praise God in highest heaven!”
10
The entire city of Jerusalem was stirred as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked.
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And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth up in Galilee.”
12
Jesus went into the Temple, drove out the merchants, and knocked over the money changers’ tables and the stalls of those selling doves.
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“The Scriptures say my Temple is a place of prayer,”
he declared,
“but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
14
And now the blind and crippled came to him, and he healed them there in the Temple.
15
But when the chief priests and other Jewish leaders saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the little children in the Temple shouting, “God bless the Son of David,” they were disturbed and indignant and asked him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
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“Yes,”
Jesus replied.
“Didn’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘Even little babies shall praise him!’”
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Then he returned to Bethany, where he stayed overnight.
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In the morning, as he was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry
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and noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it,
“Never bear fruit again!”
And soon
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the fig tree withered up.
20
The disciples were utterly amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”
21
Then Jesus told them,
“Truly, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this Mount of Olives, ‘Move over into the ocean,’ and it will.
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You can get anything
—anything
you ask for in prayer—if you believe.”