Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The One Year Bible TLB (42 page)
A wise youth makes hay while the sun shines, but what a shame to see a lad who sleeps away his hour of opportunity.
February 20Moses then told Aaron to proceed to the altar and to offer the sin offering and the burnt offering, making atonement for himself first, and then for the people, as the Lord had commanded.
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So Aaron went up to the altar and killed the calf as a sacrifice for his own sin;
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his sons caught the blood for him, and he dipped his finger in it and smeared it upon the horns of the altar, and poured out the rest at the base of the altar.
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Then he burned upon the altar the fat, kidneys, and gall bladder from this sin offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses,
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but he burned the meat and hide outside the camp.
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Next he killed the burnt offering animal, and his sons caught the blood, and he sprinkled it back and forth upon the altar;
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they brought the animal to him piece by piece, including the head, and he burned each part upon the altar.
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Then he washed the insides and the legs, and offered these also upon the altar as a burnt offering.
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Next he sacrificed the people’s offering; he killed the goat and offered it in just the same way as he had the sin offering for himself.
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Thus he sacrificed their burnt offering to the Lord, in accordance with the instructions God had given.
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Then he presented the grain offering, taking a handful and burning it upon the altar in addition to the regular morning offering.
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Next he killed the ox and ram—the people’s peace offering sacrifice; and Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he sprinkled it back and forth upon the altar.
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Then he collected the fat of the ox and the ram—the fat from their tails and the fat covering the inner organs—and the kidneys and gall bladders.
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The fat was placed upon the breasts of these animals, and Aaron burned it upon the altar;
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but he waved the breasts and right shoulders slowly before the Lord as a gesture of offering it to him, just as Moses had commanded.
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Then, with hands spread out toward the people, Aaron blessed them and came down from the altar.
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Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came out again they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole assembly.
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Then fire came from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and fat on the altar; and when the people saw it, they all shouted and fell flat upon the ground before the Lord.
10:
1
But Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, placed unholy fire in their censers, laid incense on the fire, and offered the incense before the Lord
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—contrary to what the Lord had just commanded them!
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So fire blazed forth from the presence of the Lord and destroyed them.
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Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when he said, ‘I will show myself holy among those who approach me, and I will be glorified before all the people.’” And Aaron was speechless.
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Then Moses called for Mishael and Elzaphon, Aaron’s cousins, the sons of Uzziel, and told them, “Go and get the charred bodies from before the Tabernacle, and carry them outside the camp.”
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So they went over and got them, and carried them out in their coats as Moses had told them to.
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Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not mourn—do not let your hair hang loose as a sign of your mourning, and do not tear your clothes. If you do, God will strike you dead too, and his wrath will come upon all the people of Israel. But the rest of the people of Israel may lament the death of Nadab and Abihu, and mourn because of the terrible fire the Lord has sent.
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But you are not to leave the Tabernacle under penalty of death, for the anointing oil of Jehovah is upon you.” And they did as Moses commanded.
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Now the Lord instructed Aaron, “Never drink wine or strong drink when you go into the Tabernacle, lest you die; and this rule applies to your sons and to all your descendants from generation to generation.
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Your duties will be to arbitrate for the people, to teach them the difference between what is holy and what is ordinary, what is pure and what is impure;
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and to teach them all the laws Jehovah has given through Moses.”
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Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons who were left, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering—the food that remains after the handful has been offered to the Lord by burning it on the altar—make sure there is no leaven in it, and eat it beside the altar. The offering is most holy;
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therefore, you must eat it in the sanctuary, in a holy place. It belongs to you and to your sons, from the offerings to Jehovah made by fire; for so I am commanded.
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But the breast and the thigh, which have been offered to the Lord by the gesture of waving it before him, may be eaten in any holy place. It belongs to you and to your sons and daughters for your food. It is your portion of the peace offering sacrifices of the people of Israel.
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“The people are to bring the thigh that was set aside, along with the breast that was offered when the fat was burned, and they shall be presented before the Lord by the gesture of waving them. And afterwards they shall belong to you and your family, for the Lord has commanded this.”
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Then Moses searched everywhere for the goat of the sin offering and discovered that it had been burned! He was very angry about this with Eleazar and Ithamar, the remaining sons of Aaron.
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“Why haven’t you eaten the sin offering in the sanctuary, since it is most holy, and God has given it to you to take away the iniquity and guilt of the people, to make atonement for them before the Lord?” he demanded.
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“Since its blood was not taken inside the sanctuary, you should certainly have eaten it there, as I ordered you.”
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But Aaron interceded with Moses. “They offered their sin offering and burnt offering before the Lord,” he said, “but if I had eaten the sin offering on such a day as this, would it have pleased the Lord?”
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And when Moses heard that, he was satisfied.
“Here is another story illustrating what the Kingdom of God is like:
“A farmer sowed his field
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and went away, and as the days went by, the seeds grew and grew without his help.
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For the soil made the seeds grow. First a leaf blade pushed through, and later the heads of wheat formed, and finally the grain ripened,
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and then the farmer came at once with his sickle and harvested it.”
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Jesus asked,
“How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story shall I use to illustrate it?
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It is like a tiny mustard seed! Though this is one of the smallest of seeds, yet it grows to become one of the largest of plants, with long branches where birds can build their nests and be sheltered.”
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He used many such illustrations to teach the people as much as they were ready to understand.
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In fact, he taught only by illustrations in his public teaching, but afterwards, when he was alone with his disciples, he would explain his meaning to them.
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As evening fell, Jesus said to his disciples,
“Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.”
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So they took him just as he was and started out, leaving the crowds behind (though other boats followed).
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But soon a terrible storm arose. High waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water and about to sink.
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Jesus was asleep at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they wakened him, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you even care that we are all about to drown?”
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Then he rebuked the wind and said to the sea,
“Quiet down!”
And the wind fell, and there was a great calm!
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And he asked them,
“Why were you so fearful? Don’t you even yet have confidence in me?”
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And they were filled with awe and said among themselves, “Who is this man, that even the winds and seas obey him?”
5:
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When they arrived at the other side of the lake, a demon-possessed man ran out from a graveyard, just as Jesus was climbing from the boat.
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This man lived among the gravestones and had such strength that whenever he was put into handcuffs and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the handcuffs from his wrists and smashed the shackles and walked away. No one was strong enough to control him.
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All day long and through the night he would wander among the tombs and in the wild hills, screaming and cutting himself with sharp pieces of stone.
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When Jesus was still far out on the water, the man had seen him and had run to meet him, and fell down before him.
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Then Jesus spoke to the demon within the man and said,
“Come out, you evil spirit.”
It gave a terrible scream, shrieking, “What are you going to do to me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, don’t torture me!”
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“What is your name?”
Jesus asked, and the demon replied, “Legion, for there are many of us here within this man.”
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Then the demons begged him again and again not to send them to some distant land.
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Now as it happened there was a huge herd of hogs rooting around on the hill above the lake.
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“Send us into those hogs,” the demons begged.
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And Jesus gave them permission. Then the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the hogs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.
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The herdsmen fled to the nearby towns and countryside, spreading the news as they ran. Everyone rushed out to see for themselves.
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And a large crowd soon gathered where Jesus was; but as they saw the man sitting there, fully clothed and perfectly sane, they were frightened.
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Those who saw what happened were telling everyone about it,
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and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone!
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So he got back into the boat. The man who had been possessed by the demons begged Jesus to let him go along.
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But Jesus said no.
“Go home to your friends,”
he told him,
“and tell them what wonderful things God has done for you; and how merciful he has been.”
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So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns
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of that region and began to tell everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him; and they were awestruck by his story.
The godly shall be firmly planted in the land and live there forever.
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The godly man is a good counselor because he is just and fair and knows right from wrong.
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Evil men spy on the godly, waiting for an excuse to accuse them and then demanding their death.
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But the Lord will not let these evil men succeed, nor let the godly be condemned when they are brought before the judge.
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Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep traveling steadily along his pathway and in due season he will honor you with every blessing,
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and you will see the wicked destroyed.
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I myself have seen it happen: a proud and evil man, towering like a cedar of Lebanon, but when I looked again, he was gone! I searched but could not find him!
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But the good man—what a different story! For the good man—the blameless, the upright, the man of peace—he has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending.
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But evil men shall be destroyed, and their posterity shall be cut off.
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The Lord saves the godly! He is their salvation and their refuge when trouble comes.
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Because they trust in him, he helps them and delivers them from the plots of evil men.
The good man is covered with blessings from head to foot, but an evil man inwardly curses his luck.
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We all have happy memories of good men gone to their reward, but the names of wicked men stink after them.