The One Year Bible TLB (57 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The Lord hates cheating and delights in honesty.
2
Proud men end in shame, but the meek become wise.
3
A good man is guided by his honesty; the evil man is destroyed by his dishonesty.
March 10Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they carried on all night.
2
Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron.
“We wish we had died in Egypt,” they wailed, “or even here in the wilderness,
3
rather than be taken into this country ahead of us. Jehovah will kill us there, and our wives and little ones will become slaves. Let’s get out of here and return to Egypt!”
4
The idea swept the camp. “Let’s elect a leader to take us back to Egypt!” they shouted.
5
Then Moses and Aaron fell face downward on the ground before the people of Israel.
6
Two of the spies, Joshua (the son of Nun), and Caleb (the son of Jephunneh), ripped their clothing
7
and said to all the people, “It is a wonderful country ahead,
8
and the Lord loves us. He will bring us safely into the land and give it to us. It is
very
fertile, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’!
9
Oh, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land. For they are but bread for us to eat! The Lord is with us and he has removed his protection from them! Don’t be afraid of them!”
10-11
But the only response of the people was to talk of stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared, and the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise me? Will they
never
believe me, even after all the miracles I have done among them?
12
I will disinherit them and destroy them with a plague, and I will make you into a nation far greater and mightier than they are!”
13
“But what will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?” Moses pleaded with the Lord. “They know full well the power you displayed in rescuing your people.
14
They have told this to the inhabitants of this land, who are well aware that you are with Israel and that you talk with her face-to-face. They see the pillar of cloud and fire standing above us, and they know that you lead and protect us day and night.
15
Now if you kill all your people, the nations that have heard your fame will say,
16
‘The Lord had to kill them because he wasn’t able to take care of them in the wilderness. He wasn’t strong enough to bring them into the land he swore he would give them.’
17-18
“Oh, please, show the great power of your patience
*
by forgiving our sins and showing us your steadfast love. Forgive us, even though you have said that you don’t let sin go unpunished, and that you punish the father’s fault in the children to the third and fourth generation.
19
Oh, I plead with you, pardon the sins of this people because of your magnificent, steadfast love, just as you have forgiven them all the time from when we left Egypt until now.”
20-21
Then the Lord said, “All right, I will pardon them as you have requested. But I vow by my own name that just as it is true that all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,
22
so it is true that not one of the men who has seen my glory and the miracles I did both in Egypt and in the wilderness—and ten times refused to trust me and obey me—
23
shall even see the land I promised to this people’s ancestors.
24
But my servant Caleb is a different kind of man—he has obeyed me fully. I will bring him into the land he entered as a spy, and his descendants shall have their full share in it.
25
But now, since the people of Israel are so afraid of the Amalekites and the Canaanites living in the valleys, tomorrow you must turn back into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.”
26-27
Then the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, “How long will this wicked nation complain about me? For I have heard all that they have been saying.
28
Tell them, ‘The Lord vows to do to you what you feared:
29
You will all die here in this wilderness! Not a single one of you twenty years old and older, who has complained against me,
30
shall enter the Promised Land. Only Caleb (son of Jephunneh) and Joshua (son of Nun) are permitted to enter it.
31
“‘You said your children would become slaves of the people of the land. Well, instead I will bring
them
safely into the land and they shall inherit what you have despised.
32
But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
33
You must wander in the desert like nomads for forty years. In this way you will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the desert.
34-35
“‘Since the spies were in the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, bearing the burden of your sins. I will teach you what it means to reject me. I, Jehovah, have spoken. Every one of you who has conspired against me shall die here in this wilderness.’”
36-38
Then the ten spies who had incited the rebellion against Jehovah by striking fear into the hearts of the people were struck dead before the Lord. Of all the spies, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive.
39
What sorrow there was throughout the camp when Moses reported God’s words to the people!
40
They were up early the next morning and started toward the Promised Land.
“Here we are!” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to go on into the land the Lord has promised us.”
41
But Moses said, “It’s too late. Now you are disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness.
42
Don’t go ahead with your plan or you will be crushed by your enemies, for the Lord is not with you.
43
Don’t you remember? The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there! You have deserted the Lord, and now he will desert you.”
44
But they went ahead into the hill country, despite the fact that neither the Ark nor Moses left the camp.
45
Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in the hills came down and attacked them and chased them to Hormah.
15:
1-2
The Lord told Moses to give these instructions to the people of Israel: “When your children finally live in the land I am going to give them,
3-4
and they want to please the Lord with a burnt offering or any other offering by fire, their sacrifice must be an animal from their flocks of sheep and goats, or from their herds of cattle. Each sacrifice—whether an ordinary one, or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or a freewill offering, or a special sacrifice at any of the annual festivals—must be accompanied by a grain offering. If a lamb is being sacrificed, use three quarts of fine flour mixed with three pints of oil,
5
accompanied by three pints of wine for a drink offering.
6
“If the sacrifice is a ram, use six quarts of fine flour mixed with four pints of oil,
7
and four pints of wine for a drink offering. This will be a sacrifice that is a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.
8-9
“If the sacrifice is a young bull, then the grain offering accompanying it must consist of nine quarts of fine flour mixed with three quarts of oil,
10
plus three quarts of wine for the drink offering. This shall be offered by fire as a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.
11-12
“These are the instructions for what is to accompany each sacrificial bull, ram, lamb, or young goat.
13-14
These instructions apply both to native-born Israelis and to foreigners living among you who want to please the Lord with sacrifices offered by fire;
15-16
for there is the same law for all, native-born or foreigner, and this shall be true forever from generation to generation; all are the same before the Lord.
*
Yes, one law for all!”
Jesus was led to the high priest’s home where all of the chief priests and other Jewish leaders soon gathered.
54
Peter followed far behind and then slipped inside the gates of the high priest’s residence and crouched beside a fire among the servants.
55
Inside, the chief priests and the whole Jewish Supreme Court were trying to find something against Jesus that would be sufficient to condemn him to death. But their efforts were in vain.
56
Many false witnesses volunteered, but they contradicted each other.
57
Finally some men stood up to lie about him and said,
58
“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands and in three days I will build another, made without human hands!’”
59
But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!
60
Then the high priest stood up before the Court and asked Jesus, “Do you refuse to answer this charge? What do you have to say for yourself?”
61
To this Jesus made no reply.
Then the high priest asked him. “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?”
62
Jesus said,
“I am, and you will see me
*
sitting at the right hand of God, and returning to earth in the clouds of heaven.”
63-64
Then the high priest tore at his clothes and said, “What more do we need? Why wait for witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” And the vote for the death sentence was unanimous.
65
Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and began to hammer his face with their fists.
“Who hit you that time, you prophet?” they jeered. And even the bailiffs were using their fists on him as they led him away.
66-67
Meanwhile Peter was below in the courtyard. One of the maids who worked for the high priest noticed Peter warming himself at the fire.
She looked at him closely and then announced,
“You
were with Jesus, the Nazarene.”
68
Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he said, and walked over to the edge of the courtyard.
Just then, a rooster crowed.
*
69
The maid saw him standing there and began telling the others, “There he is! There’s that disciple of Jesus!”
70
Peter denied it again.
A little later others standing around the fire began saying to Peter, “You are, too, one of them, for you are from Galilee!”
71
He began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know this fellow you are talking about,” he said.
72
And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Suddenly Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he began to cry.
Only a fool would say to himself, “There is no God.” And why does he say it?
*
Because of his wicked heart, his dark and evil deeds. His life is corroded with sin.
2
God looks down from heaven, searching among all mankind to see if there is a single one who does right and really seeks for God.
3
But all have turned their backs on him; they are filthy with sin—corrupt and rotten through and through. Not one is good, not one!
4
How can this be? Can’t they understand anything? For they devour my people like bread and refuse to come to God.
5
But soon unheard-of terror will fall on them. God will scatter the bones of these, your enemies. They are doomed, for God has rejected them.
6
Oh, that God would come from Zion now and save Israel! Only when the Lord himself restores them can they ever be really happy again.
Your riches won’t help you on Judgment Day; only righteousness counts then.
March 11The Lord also said to Moses at this time, “Instruct the people of Israel that when they arrive in the land that I am going to give them,
19-21
they must present to the Lord a sample of each year’s new crops by making a loaf, using coarse flour from the first grain that is cut each year. This loaf must be waved back and forth before the altar in a gesture of offering to the Lord. It is an annual offering from your threshing floor and must be observed from generation to generation.
22
“If by mistake you or future generations fail to carry out all of these regulations that the Lord has given you over the years through Moses,
23-24
then when the people realize their error, they must offer one young bull for a burnt offering. It will be a pleasant odor before the Lord, and must be offered along with the usual grain offering and drink offering, and one male goat for a sin offering.
25
And the priest shall make atonement for all of the people of Israel and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have corrected it with their sacrifice made by fire before the Lord, and by their sin offering.
26
All the people shall be forgiven, including the foreigners living among them, for the entire population is involved in such error and forgiveness.
27
“If the error is made by a single individual, then he shall sacrifice a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering,
28
and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven.
29
This same law applies to individual foreigners who are living among you.
30
“But anyone who deliberately makes the ‘mistake,’ whether he is a native Israeli or a foreigner, is blaspheming Jehovah, and shall be cut off from among his people.
31
For he has despised the commandment of the Lord and deliberately failed to obey his law; he must be executed
*
and die in his sin.”
32
One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, one of them was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
33
He was arrested and taken before Moses and Aaron and the other judges.
*
34
They jailed him until they could find out the Lord’s mind concerning him.
35
Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die—all the people shall stone him to death outside the camp.”
36
So they took him outside the camp and killed him as the Lord had commanded.
37-38
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to make tassels for the hems of their clothes (this is a permanent regulation from generation to generation) and to attach the tassels to their clothes with a blue cord.
39
The purpose of this regulation is to remind you, whenever you notice the tassels, of the commandments of the Lord, and that you are to obey his laws instead of following your own desires and going your own ways, as you used to do in serving other gods.
40
It will remind you to be holy to your God.
41
For I am Jehovah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; yes, I am the Lord, your God.”
16:
1
One day Korah (son of Izhar, grandson of Kohath, and a descendant of Levi) conspired with Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab) and On (the son of Peleth), all three from the tribe of Reuben,
2
to incite a rebellion against Moses. Two hundred and fifty popular leaders, all members of the Assembly, were involved.
3
They went to Moses and Aaron and said, “We have had enough of your presumption; you are no better than anyone else; everyone in Israel has been chosen of the Lord, and he is with all of us. What right do you have to put yourselves forward, claiming that we must obey you, and acting as though you were greater than anyone else among all these people of the Lord?”
4
When Moses heard what they were saying he fell face downward to the ground.
5
Then he said to Korah and to those who were with him, “In the morning the Lord will show you who are his, and who is holy, and whom he has chosen as his priest.
6-7
Do this: You, Korah, and all those with you, take censers tomorrow and light them, and put incense upon them before the Lord, and we will find out whom the Lord has chosen.
*
You are the presumptuous ones, you sons of Levi.”
8-9
Then Moses spoke again to Korah: “Does it seem a small thing to you that the God of Israel has chosen you from among all the people of Israel to be near to himself as you work in the Tabernacle of Jehovah, and to stand before the people to minister to them?
10
Is it nothing to you that he has given this task to only you Levites? And now are you demanding the priesthood also?
11-12
That is what you are really after! That is why you are revolting against Jehovah. And what has Aaron done, that you are dissatisfied with him?” Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab), but they refused to come.
13
“Is it a small thing,” they mimicked,
*
“that you brought us out of lovely Egypt to kill us here in this terrible wilderness, and that now you want to make yourself our king?
14
What’s more, you haven’t brought us into the wonderful country you promised, nor given us fields and vineyards. Whom are you trying to fool? We refuse to come.”
15
Then Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, “Do not accept their sacrifices! I have never stolen so much as a donkey from them and have not hurt one of them.”
16
And Moses said to Korah, “Come here tomorrow before the Lord with all your friends; Aaron will be here too.
17
Be sure to bring your censers with incense on them; a censer for each man, 250 in all; and Aaron will also be here with his.”
18
So they did. They came with their censers and lit them and placed the incense on them, and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle with Moses and Aaron.
19
Meanwhile, Korah had stirred up the entire nation against Moses and Aaron, and they all assembled to watch. Then the glory of Jehovah appeared to all the people,
20
and Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron,
21
“Get away from these people so that I may instantly destroy them.”
22
But Moses and Aaron fell face downward to the ground before the Lord. “O God, the God of all mankind,” they pleaded, “must you be angry with all the people when one man sins?”
23-24
And the Lord said to Moses, “Then tell the people to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25
So Moses rushed over to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, followed closely by the 250 Israeli leaders.
26
“Quick!” he told the people, “get away from the tents of these wicked men, and don’t touch anything that belongs to them, lest you be included in their sins and be destroyed with them.
*
”
27
So all the people stood back from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents with their wives and sons and little ones.
28
And Moses said, “By this you shall know that Jehovah has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own.
29
If these men die a natural death or from some ordinary accident or disease, then Jehovah has not sent me.
30
But if the Lord does a miracle and the ground opens up and swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord.”
31
He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them,
32
and a great fissure swallowed them up, along with their tents and families and the friends who were standing with them, and everything they owned.
33
So they went down alive into Sheol and the earth closed upon them, and they perished.
34
All of the people of Israel fled at their screams, fearing that the earth would swallow them too.
35
Then fire came from Jehovah and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense.
36-37
And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to pull those censers from the fire; for they are holy, dedicated to the Lord. He must also scatter the burning incense
38
from the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives. He shall then beat the metal into a sheet as a covering for the altar, for these censers are holy because they were used before the Lord; and the altar sheet shall be a reminder to the people of Israel.”
39
So Eleazar the priest took the 250 bronze censers and beat them out into a sheet of metal to cover the altar,
40
to be a reminder to the people of Israel that no unauthorized person—no one who is not a descendant of Aaron—may come before the Lord to burn incense, lest the same thing happen to him as happened to Korah and his associates. Thus the Lord’s directions to Moses were carried out.
Early in the morning the chief priests, elders and teachers of religion—the entire Supreme Court—met to discuss their next steps. Their decision was to send Jesus under armed guard to Pilate, the Roman governor.
*
2
Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
“Yes,”
Jesus replied,
“it is as you say.”
3-4
Then the chief priests accused him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, “Why don’t you say something? What about all these charges against you?”
5
But Jesus said no more, much to Pilate’s amazement.
6
Now, it was Pilate’s custom to release one Jewish prisoner each year at Passover time—any prisoner the people requested.
7
One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, convicted along with others for murder during an insurrection.
8
Now a mob began to crowd in toward Pilate, asking him to release a prisoner as usual.
9
“How about giving you the ‘King of Jews’?” Pilate asked. “Is he the one you want released?”
10
(For he realized by now that this was a frameup, backed by the chief priests because they envied Jesus’ popularity.)
11
But at this point the chief priests whipped up the mob to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.
12
“But if I release Barabbas,” Pilate asked them, “what shall I do with this man you call your king?”
13
They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
14
“But why?” Pilate demanded. “What has he done wrong?” They only roared the louder, “Crucify him!”
15
Then Pilate, afraid of a riot and anxious to please the people, released Barabbas to them. And he ordered Jesus flogged with a leaded whip, and handed him over to be crucified.
16-17
Then the Roman soldiers took him into the barracks of the palace, called out the entire palace guard, dressed him in a purple robe, and made a crown of long, sharp thorns and put it on his head.
18
Then they saluted, yelling, “Yea! King of the Jews!”
19
And they beat him on the head with a cane, and spat on him, and went down on their knees to “worship” him.
20
When they finally tired of their sport, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again, and led him away to be crucified.
21
Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country just then, was pressed into service to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus.)
22
And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha. (Golgotha means skull.)
23
Wine drugged with bitter herbs was offered to him there, but he refused it.
24
And then they crucified him—and threw dice for his clothes.
25
It was about nine o’clock in the morning when the crucifixion took place.
26
A signboard was fastened to the cross above his head, announcing his crime. It read, “The King of the Jews.”
27
Two robbers were also crucified that morning, their crosses on either side of his.
28
*
And so the Scripture was fulfilled that said, “He was counted among evil men.”
29-30
The people jeered at him as they walked by, and wagged their heads in mockery.
“Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “Sure, you can destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! If you’re so wonderful, save yourself and come down from the cross.”
31
The chief priests and religious leaders were also standing around joking about Jesus.
“He’s quite clever at ‘saving’ others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!”
32
“Hey there, Messiah!” they yelled at him. “You ‘King of Israel’! Come on down from the cross and we’ll believe you!”
And even the two robbers dying with him cursed him.
33
About noon, darkness fell across the entire land,
*
lasting until three o’clock that afternoon.
34
Then Jesus called out with a loud voice,
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
*
(“My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”)
35
Some of the people standing there thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah.
36
So one man ran and got a sponge and filled it with sour wine and held it up to him on a stick.
“Let’s see if Elijah will come and take him down!” he said.
37
Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and dismissed his spirit.
38
And the curtain
*
in the Temple was split apart from top to bottom.
39
When the Roman officer standing beside his cross saw how he dismissed his spirit, he exclaimed, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”
40
Some women were there watching from a distance—Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the Younger and of Joses), Salome, and others.
41
They and many other Galilean women who were his followers had ministered to him when he was up in Galilee, and had come with him to Jerusalem.
42-43
This all happened the day before the Sabbath. Late that afternoon Joseph from Arimathea, an honored member of the Jewish Supreme Court (who personally was eagerly expecting the arrival of God’s Kingdom), gathered his courage and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.
44
Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead so he called for the Roman officer in charge and asked him.
45
The officer confirmed the fact, and Pilate told Joseph he could have the body.
46
Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth and, taking Jesus’ body down from the cross, wound it in the cloth and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb, and rolled a stone in front of the entrance.
47
(Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching as Jesus was laid away.)