Through the Bible – Day 37

_1-3The LORD told Moses what the people must do when they commit other sins against the LORD:

You have sinned if you rob or cheat someone, if you keep back money or valuables left in your care, or if you find something and claim not to have it.

₄When this happens, you must return what doesn't belong to you ₅and pay the owner a fine of twenty per cent. _6-7In addition, you must either bring to the priest a ram that has nothing wrong with it or else pay him for one. The priest will then offer it as a sacrifice to make things right, and you will be forgiven for what you did wrong.

_8-9The LORD told Moses to tell Aaron and his sons how to offer the daily sacrifices that are sent up in smoke to please the LORD:

You must put the animal for the sacrifice on the altar in the evening and let it stay there all night. But make sure the fire keeps burning. ₁₀The next morning you will dress in your priestly clothes, including your linen underwear. Then clean away the ashes left by the sacrifices and pile them beside the altar. ₁₁Change into your everyday clothes, take the ashes outside the camp, and pile them in the special place.

₁₂The fire must never go out, so put wood on it each morning. After this, you are to lay an animal on the altar next to the fat that you sacrifice to ask my blessing. Then send it all up in smoke to me.

₁₃The altar fire must always be kept burning—it must never go out.

₁₄When someone offers a sacrifice to give thanks to me, the priests from Aaron's family must bring it to the front of the bronze altar, ₁₅where one of them will scoop up a handful of the flour and oil, together with all the incense on it. Then, to show that the whole offering belongs to me, he will lay all of this on the altar and send it up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. _16-17The rest of it is to be baked without yeast and eaten by the priests in the sacred courtyard of the sacred tent. This bread is very holy, just like the sacrifices for sin or for making things right, and I have given this part to the priests from what is offered to me on the altar.

₁₈Only the men in Aaron's family are allowed to eat this bread, and they must go through a ceremony to be made holy before touching it. This law will never change.

₁₉The LORD spoke to Moses ₂₀and told him what sacrifices the priests must offer on the morning and evening of the day they are ordained:

It is the same as the regular morning and evening sacrifices—half a kilogramme of flour ₂₁mixed with olive oil and cooked in a shallow pan. The bread must then be crumbled into small pieces and sent up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. _22-23Each of Aaron's descendants who is ordained as a priest must perform this ceremony and make sure that the bread is completely burnt on the altar. None of it may be eaten!

₂₄The LORD told Moses ₂₅how the priests from Aaron's family were to offer the sacrifice for sin:

This sacrifice is very sacred, and the animal must be killed in my presence at the north side of the bronze altar. ₂₆The priest who offers this sacrifice must eat it in the sacred courtyard of the sacred tent, ₂₇and anyone or anything that touches the meat will be holy. If any of the animal's blood is splattered on the clothes of the priest, they must be washed in a holy place. ₂₈If the meat was cooked in a clay pot, the pot must be destroyed, but if it was cooked in a bronze pot, the pot must be scrubbed and rinsed with water.

₂₉This sacrifice is very holy, and only the priests may have any part of it. ₃₀None of the meat may be eaten from the sacrifices for sin that require blood to be brought into the sacred tent. These sacrifices must be completely burnt.

₁The sacrifice to make things right is very sacred. ₂The animal must be killed in the same place where the sacrifice to please me is killed, and the animal's blood must be splattered against the four sides of the bronze altar. ₃Offer all the animal's fat, including the fat on its tail and on its insides, ₄as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat. ₅One of the priests will lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke to me. ₆This sacrifice for making things right is very holy. Only the priests may eat it, and they must eat it in a holy place.

₇The ceremony for this sacrifice and the one for sin are alike, and the meat may be eaten only by the priest who performs this ceremony of forgiveness.

₈In fact, the priest who offers a sacrifice to please me may keep the skin of the animal, ₉just as he may eat the bread from a sacrifice to give thanks to me. ₁₀All other grain sacrifices—with or without olive oil in them—are to be divided equally among the priests of Aaron's family.

₁₁Here are the instructions for offering a sacrifice to ask my blessing: ₁₂If you offer it to give thanks, you must offer some bread together with it. Use the finest flour to make three kinds of bread without yeast—two in the form of loaves mixed with olive oil and one in the form of thin wafers brushed with oil. ₁₃You must also make some bread with yeast. ₁₄Give me one loaf or wafer from each of these four kinds of bread, after which they will belong to the priest who splattered the blood against the bronze altar.

₁₅When you offer an animal to ask a blessing from me or to thank me, the meat belongs to you, but it must be eaten the same day. ₁₆It is different with the sacrifices you offer when you make me a promise or voluntarily give me something. The meat from those sacrifices may be kept and eaten the next day, _17-18but any that is left must be destroyed. If you eat any after the second day, your sacrifice will be useless and unacceptable, and you will be both disgusting and guilty.

₁₉Don't eat any of the meat that touches something unclean. Instead, burn it. The rest of the meat may be eaten by anyone who is clean and acceptable to me. _20-21But don't eat any of this meat if you have become unclean by touching something unclean from a human or an animal or from any other creature. If you do, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.

₂₂The LORD told Moses ₂₃to say to the people:

Don't eat the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats. ₂₄If one of your animals dies or is killed by some wild animal, you may do anything with its fat except eat it. ₂₅If you eat the fat of an animal that can be used as a sacrifice to me, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel. ₂₆And no matter where you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal, ₂₇or you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.

₂₈The LORD also told Moses _29-30to say to the people of Israel:

If you want to offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing, you must bring the part to be burnt and lay it on the bronze altar. But you must first lift up the choice ribs with their fat to show that the offering is dedicated to me. ₃₁A priest from Aaron's family will then send the fat up in smoke, but the ribs belong to the priests. _32-33The upper joint of the right hind leg is for the priest who offers the blood and the fat of the animal. ₃₄I have decided that the people of Israel must always give the choice ribs and the upper joint of the right hind leg to Aaron's descendants ₃₅who have been ordained as priests to serve me. ₃₆This law will never change. I am the LORD!

₃₇These are the ceremonies for sacrifices to please the LORD, to give him thanks, and to ask his blessing or his forgiveness, as well as the ceremonies for those sacrifices that demand a payment and for the sacrifices that are offered when priests are ordained. ₃₈While Moses and the people of Israel were in the desert at Mount Sinai, the LORD commanded them to start offering these sacrifices.

₂₃The Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death. So that same day some of the Sadducees came to Jesus and said:

₂₉Jesus answered:

₃₃The crowds were surprised to hear what Jesus was teaching.

₃₄After Jesus had made the Sadducees look foolish, the Pharisees heard about it and got together. ₃₅One of them was an expert in the Jewish Law. So he tried to test Jesus by asking, ₃₆“Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”

₃₇Jesus answered:

₄₁While the Pharisees were still there, Jesus asked them, ₄₂“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose family will he come from?”

They answered, “He will be a son of King David.”

₄₃Jesus replied, “How then could the Spirit lead David to call the Messiah his Lord? David said,