The One Year Bible TLB (41 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The Lord will not let a good man starve to death, nor will he let the wicked man’s riches continue forever.
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Lazy men are soon poor; hard workers get rich.
February 19And the Lord said to Moses,
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“Tell the people of Israel that anyone bringing a thanksgiving offering to the Lord must bring it personally with his own hands.
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He shall bring the offering of the fat and breast, which is to be presented to the Lord by waving it before the altar.
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Then the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar, but the breast shall belong to Aaron and his sons,
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while the right thigh shall be given to the officiating priest.
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For I have designated the breast and thigh as donations from the people of Israel to the sons of Aaron. Aaron and his sons must always be given this portion of the sacrifice.
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This is their pay! It is to be set apart from the burnt offerings, and given to all who have been appointed to minister to the Lord as priests—to Aaron and to his sons.
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For on the day the Lord anointed them, he commanded that the people of Israel give these portions to them; it is their right forever throughout all their generations.”
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These were the instructions concerning the burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, and guilt offering, and concerning the consecration offering and the peace offering;
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these instructions were given to Moses by the Lord on Mount Sinai, to be passed on to the people of Israel so that they would know how to offer their sacrifices to God in the Sinai Desert.
8:
1-3
The Lord said to Moses, “Now bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tabernacle, together with their garments, the anointing oil, the young bull for the sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of bread made without yeast; and summon all Israel to a meeting there.”
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So all the people assembled,
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and Moses said to them, “What I am now going to do has been commanded by Jehovah.”
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Then he took Aaron and his sons and washed them with water,
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and he clothed Aaron with the special coat, sash, robe, and the ephod-jacket with its beautifully woven belt.
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Then he put on him the chestpiece and deposited the Urim and the Thummim
*
inside its pouch;
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and placed on Aaron’s head the turban with the sacred gold plate at its front—the holy crown—as the Lord had commanded Moses.
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Then Moses took the anointing oil and sprinkled it upon the Tabernacle itself and on each item in it, sanctifying them.
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When he came to the altar he sprinkled it seven times, and also sprinkled the utensils of the altar and the washbasin and its pedestal, to sanctify them.
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Then he poured the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, thus setting him apart for his work.
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Next Moses placed the robes on Aaron’s sons, with the belts and caps, as the Lord had commanded him.
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Then he took the young bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon its head
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as Moses killed it. He smeared some of the blood with his finger upon the four horns of the altar and upon the altar itself, to sanctify it, and poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar; thus he sanctified the altar, making atonement for it. He took all the fat covering the entrails, the fatty mass above the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and burned them all on the altar.
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The carcass of the young bull, with its hide and dung, was burned outside the camp, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
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Then he presented to the Lord the ram for the burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon its head,
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and Moses killed it and sprinkled the blood back and forth upon the altar.
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Next he quartered the ram and burned the pieces, the head and the fat.
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He then washed the insides and the legs with water, and burned them upon the altar, so that the entire ram was consumed before the Lord; it was a burnt offering that pleased the Lord very much, for Jehovah’s directions to Moses were followed in every detail.
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Then Moses presented the other ram, the ram of consecration; Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon its head.
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Moses killed it and took some of its blood and smeared it upon the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and the thumb of his right hand and upon the big toe of his right foot.
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Next he smeared some of the blood upon Aaron’s sons—upon the lobes of their right ears, upon their right thumbs, and upon the big toes of their right feet. The rest of the blood he sprinkled back and forth upon the altar.
*
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Then he took the fat, the tail, the fat upon the inner organs, the gall bladder, the two kidneys with their fat, and the right shoulder,
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and placed on top of these one unleavened wafer, one wafer spread with olive oil, and a slice of bread, all taken from the basket that had been placed there before the Lord.
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All this was placed in the hands of Aaron and his sons to present to the Lord by a gesture of waving them before the altar.
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Moses then took it all back from them and burned it upon the altar, along with the burnt offering
*
to the Lord; and Jehovah was pleased by the offering.
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Now Moses took the breast and presented it to the Lord by waving it before the altar; this was Moses’ portion of the ram of consecration, just as the Lord had instructed him.
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Next he took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that had been sprinkled upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron and upon his clothes and upon his sons and upon their clothes, thus consecrating to the Lord’s use Aaron and his sons and their clothes.
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Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the meat at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and eat it along with the bread that is in the basket of consecration, just as I instructed you to do.
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Anything left of the meat and bread must be burned.”
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Next he told them not to leave the Tabernacle entrance for seven days, after which time their consecration would be completed—for it takes seven days.
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Then Moses stated again that all he had done that day had been commanded by the Lord in order to make atonement for them.
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And again he warned Aaron and his sons to stay at the entrance of the Tabernacle day and night for seven days. “If you leave,” he told them, “you will die—this is what the Lord has said.”
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So Aaron and his sons did all that the Lord had commanded Moses.
9:
1
On the eighth day of the consecration ceremonies, Moses summoned Aaron and Aaron’s sons and the elders of Israel,
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and told Aaron to take a bull calf from the herd for a sin offering, and a ram without bodily defect for a burnt offering, and to offer them before the Lord.
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“And tell the people of Israel,” Moses instructed, “to select a male goat for their sin offering, also a yearling calf and a yearling lamb, all without bodily defect, for their burnt offering.
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In addition, the people are to bring to the Lord a peace offering sacrifice—an ox and a ram, and a grain offering—flour mingled with olive oil. For today,” Moses said, “Jehovah will appear to them.”
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So they brought all these things to the entrance of the Tabernacle, as Moses had commanded, and the people came and stood there before the Lord.
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Moses told them, “When you have followed the Lord’s instructions, his glory will appear to you.”
Now his [Jesus’] mother and brothers arrived at the crowded house where he was teaching, and they sent word for him to come out and talk with them. “Your mother and brothers are outside and want to see you,” he was told.
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He replied,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
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Looking at those around him he said,
“These are my mother and brothers!
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Anyone who does God’s will is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.”
4:
1
Once again an immense crowd gathered around him on the beach as he was teaching, so he got into a boat and sat down and talked from there.
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His usual method of teaching was to tell the people stories. One of them went like this:
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“Listen! A farmer decided to sow some grain. As he scattered it across his field,
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some of it fell on a path, and the birds came and picked it off the hard ground and ate it.
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Some fell on thin soil with underlying rock. It grew up quickly enough, but soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil.
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Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and crowded the young plants so that they produced no grain.
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But some of the seeds fell into good soil and yielded thirty times as much as he had planted—some of it even sixty or a hundred times as much!
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If you have ears, listen!”
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Afterwards, when he was alone with the Twelve and with his other disciples, they asked him, “What does your story mean?”
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He replied,
“You are permitted to know some truths about the Kingdom of God that are hidden to those outside the Kingdom:
‘Though they see and hear, they will not understand or turn to God, or be forgiven for their sins.’
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But if you can’t understand
this
simple illustration, what will you do about all the others I am going to tell?
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“The farmer I talked about is anyone who brings God’s message to others, trying to plant good seed within their lives.
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The hard pathway, where some of the seed fell, represents the hard hearts of some of those who hear God’s message; Satan comes at once to try to make them forget it.
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The rocky soil represents the hearts of those who hear the message with joy,
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but, like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep, and though at first they get along fine, as soon as persecution begins, they wilt.
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“The thorny ground represents the hearts of people who listen to the Good News and receive it,
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but all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced.
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“But the good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God’s message and produce a plentiful harvest for God—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as was planted in their hearts.”
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Then he asked them,
“When someone lights a lamp, does he put a box over it to shut out the light? Of course not! The light couldn’t be seen or used. A lamp is placed on a stand to shine and be useful.
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“All that is now hidden will someday come to light.
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If you have ears, listen!
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And be sure to put into practice what you hear. The more you do this, the more you will understand what I tell you.
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To him who has shall be given; from him who has not shall be taken away even what he has.”
The Lord is laughing at those who plot against the godly, for he knows their judgment day is coming.
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Evil men take aim to slay the poor; they are ready to butcher those who do right.
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But their swords will be plunged into their own hearts, and all their weapons will be broken.
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It is better to have little and be godly than to own an evil man’s wealth;
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for the strength of evil men shall be broken, but the Lord takes care of those he has forgiven.
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Day by day the Lord observes the good deeds done by godly men,
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and gives them eternal rewards.
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He cares for them when times are hard; even in famine, they will have enough.
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But evil men shall perish. These enemies of God will wither like grass and disappear like smoke.
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Evil men borrow and “cannot pay it back”! But the good man returns what he owes with some extra besides.
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Those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by him shall die.
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The steps of good men are directed by the Lord. He delights in each step they take.
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If they fall, it isn’t fatal, for the Lord holds them with his hand.
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I have been young and now I am old. And in all my years I have never seen the Lord forsake a man who loves him; nor have I seen the children of the godly go hungry.
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Instead, the godly are able to be generous with their gifts and loans to others, and their children are a blessing.
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So if you want an eternal home, leave your evil, low-down ways and live good lives.
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For the Lord loves justice and fairness; he will never abandon his people. They will be kept safe forever; but all who love wickedness shall perish.