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Isaiah 2:1-5
The Nations Shall Gather to God
1 This is a vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2
In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be the highest of all—
the most important place on earth.
It will be raised above the other hills,
and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.3
People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
his word will go out from Jerusalem.4
The Lord will mediate between nations
and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer fight against nation,
nor train for war anymore.5
Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 6
1 God spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the regulation regarding the ascent-offering; it remains the same, valid ascent-offering as long as it was placed on the fire pile atop the Altar anytime during the entire night, until morning, inasmuch as the fire of the Altar will be burning on it throughout the night.
3 Every morning, the priest must don his linen tunic, and he must don his linen trousers on his flesh. He must remove the ashes remaining after the fire will consume the daily afternoon ascent-offering upon the Altar, and deposit them next to the Altar.
4 He should remove his garments and put on other garments, and he must take the ashes out to a ritually undefiled place outside the camp.
5 The fire burning on the Altar must not be allowed to go out. The priest must kindle wood upon it every morning, and he must arrange the cut-up pieces of the morning daily ascent-offering upon it. He must burn up the fats of the peace-offerings upon it.
6 The fire used to kindle the lamps of the Candelabrum, which must be lit regularly, must burn upon the Altar. The fire on the Altar must not go out.
7 This is the regulation of the grain-offering: Aaron’s sons must bring it before God, at the front of the Altar.
8 The priest must lift out its memorial portion from it with his fist, from the fine flour of the grain-offering as well as from its oil, and all the frankincense that is on the grain-offering. He must burn up its memorial portion on the Altar with the intention that it be pleasing to God.
9 Aaron and his sons must eat whatever is left over from it. It must be eaten as unleavened bread in a holy place; they must eat it in the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
10 It must not be baked leavened, even though I have given it to them as their portion from My fire-offerings. It is a sacrifice of superior holiness, like the sin-offering and like the guilt-offering.
11 Every male among Aaron’s descendants may eat it; it is an eternal entitlement throughout your generations from the fire-offerings of God. Anything that touches a sacrifice of superior holiness will become holy like it.’”
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Acts 17:22-28
All Peoples Are Kin
22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 6
12 God spoke to Moses, saying,
13 “This is the offering of Aaron and his descendants that they must offer up to God, beginning on the day when one of them is anointed as high priest: one-tenth of an ephah of fine wheat flour as a perpetual grain-offering, half in the morning and half in the afternoon.
14 It must be made, i.e., fried, in oil in a shallow frying pan; it must be brought to the frying pan after being scalded in water and baked in an oven. The grain-offering must be broken into pieces. You must offer it up with the intention to please God.
15 The priest from among his sons who is anointed in his stead must prepare it; it is an eternal allotment given to God. All of it must be burned up.
16 Every grain-offering brought by a priest on his own behalf must be wholly burned up. It may not be eaten.”
17 God spoke to Moses, saying,
18 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is the regulation of the sin-offering: The sin-offering must be slaughtered before God in the place where the ascent-offering is slaughtered. It is a sacrifice of superior holiness.
19 Any priest who is fit to offer it up as a sin-offering may eat it. It must be eaten in a holy place, i.e., in the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
20 Any food that touches its meat will become holy like it. If any of its blood spurts onto a garment, you must wash the area of the garment onto which it spurted in a holy place.
21 Any earthenware vessel in which it has been cooked must be shattered. If it is cooked in a copper vessel, it must be purged and rinsed with water.
22 Every male among the priests may eat it; it is a sacrifice of superior holiness.
23 But any sin-offering some of whose blood was mistakenly brought into the Tent of Meeting in order to effect atonement in the Sanctuary must not be eaten; it must be burned in fire.
Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 7
1 The following is the regulation of the guilt-offering: It is an offering of superior holiness.
2 They must slaughter the guilt-offering in the place where they slaughter the ascent-offering. Its blood must be dashed upon the Altar in an encircling manner.
3 The priest must offer up from it all of its fat: the tail, the fat covering the innards,
4 the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and that is on the flanks. He must remove the diaphragm along with the kidneys and along with part of the liver.
5 The priest must burn them up on the Altar as a fire-offering to God. It is a guilt-offering.
6 Every male among the priests may eat it. It must be eaten in a holy place, for it is a sacrifice of superior holiness.
7 The guilt-offering is like the sin-offering in that they both have this same regulation: the priests’ portion belongs to any priest who is fit to effect atonement through it.
8 With regard to any priest who is fit to offer up a person’s ascent-offering, that priest may receive the hide of any ascent-offering that he has offered up.
9 With regard to any grain-offering baked in an oven, or any grain-offering made in a deep frying pan or in a shallow frying pan, the priest who is fit to offer it up may receive it.
10 Any grain-offering, whether it be mixed with oil or be dry, will belong to all the sons of Aaron, each individual priest like the other.
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John 14:1-4
Many Dwellings in the Father’s House
1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 7
11 This is the regulation governing the peace-promoting feast-offering that a person must bring to God
12 if he is bringing it in order to give thanks: He must bring—along with the thanksgiving feast-offering—unleavened loaves mixed with oil, flat unleavened cakes smeared with oil, and loaves of scalded flour mixed with oil.
13 He must bring his offering along with loaves of leavened bread together with his peace-promoting feast-offering of thanksgiving.
14 He must bring from it one of each offering as a contribution to God. Any priest who is fit to dash the blood of the peace-offering will have a share of it.
15 The flesh of his peace-promoting feast-offering of thanksgiving must be eaten during the day it is offered up; he must not leave any of it over until morning.
16 If his sacrifice is brought to fulfill a vow or a dedication, it may be eaten on the day he offers up his sacrifice, and whatever is left over from it may be eaten on the next day.
17 However, whatever is left over from the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned up in fire.
18 If the slaughterer intends that some of the flesh of his peace-promoting feast-offering be eaten on the third day, the offering will not be accepted; it will not count for the one who offers it up; it will become contemptible, and the person who eats of it will bear his sin.
19 The flesh of a peace-offering that touches anything ritually defiled must not be eaten. It must be burned in fire. With regard to the flesh of peace-offerings, anyone who is not ritually defiled may eat the flesh.
20 But with regard to a person who eats the flesh of a peace-promoting feast-offering to God while he is ritually defiled, that person will be cut off from his people.
21 A person who touches anything ritually defiled—whether the source of defilement be a human corpse, the carcass of a spiritually defiled animal, or the carcass of any spiritually defiled loathsome creature—and eats the flesh of a peace-promoting feast-offering to God, that person will be cut off from his people.’”
22 God spoke to Moses, saying:
23 “Speak to the Israelites, saying: ‘You may not eat any fat from a work-bull, a sheep, or a goat.
24 The fat of a carcass and the fat of an animal with a fatal disease or injury may be used for any type of work, but you must not eat it.
25 For with regard to whoever eats such fat from animal species from which sacrifices are brought as fire-offerings to God, the person who eats it will be cut off from his people.
26 You must not consume any blood, in any of your dwelling places, of fowl and mammals.
27 Regarding any person who consumes any blood, that person will be cut off from his people.’”
28 God spoke to Moses, saying:
29 “Speak to the Israelites, saying: ‘When someone brings his peace-promoting feast-offering to God, he must bring, from his peace-promoting feast-offering, his sacrifice to God:
30 His own hands must bring the fire-offerings of God: the fat, which the priest must bring on top of the breast. The priest brings the breast to wave it as a wave-offering before God.
31 The priest must burn up the fat on the Altar, and the breast will be for Aaron and his sons.
32 You must give the right hind midleg to the priest, as a raised-offering taken from your peace-promoting feast-offerings.
33 Any of the sons of Aaron who are fit to offer up the blood of the peace-offering and the fat will have a share in the right hind midleg.
34 For I have taken the breast used as the wave-offering and the right hind midleg used as the raised-offering from the Israelites, i.e., from their peace-promoting feast-offerings, and I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, as an eternal entitlement from the Israelites.
35 This is what is due to the priests from the fire-offerings of God, by virtue of Aaron’s anointment and his sons’ anointment on the day that He brought them near to Him to minister as priests to God,
36 which God commanded to give them from the Israelites on the day that He anointed them. It is an eternal entitlement for their generations.’”
37 The above is the regulation for the ascent-offering, the grain-offering, the sin-offering, the guilt-offering, the installation-offerings, and the peace-promoting feast-offering,
38 concerning which God commanded Moses at Mount Sinai on the day He commanded the Israelites to offer up their sacrifices to God in the Sinai Desert.
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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Encouraging Words of Hope
13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 8
1 God spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Take Aaron, together with his sons, the priestly garments, the anointing oil, the sin-offering bull, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread,
3 and assemble the entire community outside the entrance to the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.”
4 Moses did as God commanded him, and the community assembled outside the entrance to the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
5 Moses said to the community: “This is what God has commanded me to do.”
6 Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and immersed them in the water of a mikveh.
7 He placed the Tunic upon him, girded him with the Sash, clothed him in the Robe, placed the Ephod upon him, girded him with the belt of the Ephod, and adorned him with it.
8 He placed the Breastplate upon him and inserted the urim and the tumim into the Breastplate.
9 He placed the Turban on his head, and he placed the golden Forehead-plate—the holy diadem—over the Turban, below the front of the Turban, as God had commanded Moses.
10 Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Sanctuary and everything in it, and thereby sanctified them.
11 He dashed some of it upon the Outer Altar seven times, and he anointed the Outer Altar and all its utensils and the Laver and its base, to sanctify them.
12 He poured some of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head and anointed him, to sanctify him.
13 Moses brought Aaron’s sons forward and dressed them in tunics, girded them with sashes, and put on their hats, as God had commanded Moses.
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Job 19:23-27
I Know that My Redeemer Lives
23 “Oh, that my words could be recorded.
Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,24
carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead,
engraved forever in the rock.25
“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and he will stand upon the earth at last.26
And after my body has decayed,
yet in my body I will see God!27
I will see him for myself.
Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
I am overwhelmed at the thought!Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 8
14 He brought the sin-offering bull before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons leaned their hands upon the head of the sin-offering bull.
15 Moses slaughtered it, and Moses took the blood and placed it on the Altar’s protrusions with his finger as he walked around it, and thus purified the Altar. He poured the rest of the blood on the base of the Altar, and sanctified it as an instrument upon which to effect atonement.
16 He took all the fat that is on the innards, the diaphragm along with part of the liver, the two kidneys, and their fat. Moses burned them up on the Altar.
17 He burned the bull—i.e., its hide, its flesh, and its waste matter—outside the camp, as God had commanded Moses.
18 He brought forth the ascent-offering ram, and Aaron and his sons leaned their hands upon the head of the ram.
19 He slaughtered it and Moses dashed the blood upon the Altar in an encircling manner.
20 He cut up the ram into its pieces, and Moses burned up the head, the pieces, and the fat.
21 He washed the innards and the legs in water, and Moses burned up the entire ram on the Altar with the intention that it be a pleasing ascent-offering and fire-offering to God, as God had commanded Moses.
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Isaiah 26:12-19
Awake and Sing for Joy
12
Lord, you will grant us peace;
all we have accomplished is really from you.13
O Lord our God, others have ruled us,
but you alone are the one we worship.14
Those we served before are dead and gone.
Their departed spirits will never return!
You attacked them and destroyed them,
and they are long forgotten.15
O Lord, you have made our nation great;
yes, you have made us great.
You have extended our borders,
and we give you the glory!16
Lord, in distress we searched for you.
We prayed beneath the burden of your discipline.17
Just as a pregnant woman
writhes and cries out in pain as she gives birth,
so were we in your presence, Lord.18
We, too, writhe in agony,
but nothing comes of our suffering.
We have not given salvation to the earth,
nor brought life into the world.19
But those who die in the Lord will live;
their bodies will rise again!
Those who sleep in the earth
will rise up and sing for joy!
For your life-giving light will fall like dew
on your people in the place of the dead!Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 8
22 He brought forth the second ram, i.e., the installation ram, and Aaron and his sons leaned their hands upon the ram’s head.
23 He slaughtered it, and Moses took some of its blood and placed it on the middle of the ridge of the antihelix of Aaron’s right ear, on his right thumb, and on his right big toe.
24 He brought Aaron’s sons forward, and Moses placed some of the blood on the middle of the ridge of the antihelix of their right ears, on their right thumbs, and on their right big toes. Moses dashed the remaining blood onto the Altar in an encircling manner.
25 He took the fat, the tail, all the fat that was on the innards, the diaphragm, along with part of the liver, the two kidneys together with their fat, and the right hind midleg.
26 He took one loaf of unleavened bread, one scalded loaf of unleavened “oil bread,” and one flat unleavened cake out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before God, and he placed them on top of the fats and the right hind midleg.
27 Then he placed it all on Aaron’s palms and on his sons’ palms, and he waved it, thus making it into a wave-offering before God.
28 Moses took them from their palms and burned them up on the Altar along with the ascent-offering with the intention that they be pleasing installation-offerings and a fire-offering to God.
29 Moses took the breast and waved it, making it a wave-offering before God. It belonged to Moses as his portion to eat from the installation ram, as God had commanded Moses.
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Psalm 118:15-24
Give Thanks to the Lord
15
Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly.
The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things!16
The strong right arm of the Lord is raised in triumph.
The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things!17
I will not die; instead, I will live
to tell what the Lord has done.18
The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not let me die.19
Open for me the gates where the righteous enter,
and I will go in and thank the Lord.20
These gates lead to the presence of the Lord,
and the godly enter there.21
I thank you for answering my prayer
and giving me victory!22
The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.23
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.24
This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 8
30 Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the Altar and mixed them together. He dashed the mixture on Aaron, on his garments, on his sons, and on his sons’ garments with him, and he thereby sanctified Aaron, his garments, his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.
31 Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, “Cook the meat inside the Courtyard, outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and eat it there, along with the bread that is in the basket of the installation-offerings, as I have commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons must eat it.’
32 You must burn whatever part of the meat and the bread that is left over.
33 You must not leave the entrance to the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting, for seven days, until the day that completes your installation days, for He will install you into the priesthood for seven days.
34 As He has done on this day, so has God commanded me to do to atone for you.
35 You must remain day and night for seven days at the entrance to the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting, keeping God’s watch, in order that you not die, for thus I was commanded.”
36 Aaron and his sons did all the things that God had commanded them to do through Moses.
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Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) Chapter 7
21 So says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Add your burnt offerings upon your sacrifices and eat flesh.
22 For neither did I speak with your forefathers nor did I command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning a burnt offering or a sacrifice.
23 But this thing did I command them, saying: Obey Me so that I am your God and you are My people, and you walk in all the ways that I command you, so that it may be well with you.
24 But they did not obey nor did they incline their ear, but walked according to [their] own counsels and in the view of their evil heart, and they went backwards and not forwards.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt until this day, I sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them day [after day] with every fresh morn.
26 Yet they hearkened not to Me nor did they incline their ear, but stiffened their necks; they did worse than their fathers.
27 And when you will speak all of these words to them and they will not hearken to you, and you call to them and they will not answer you,
28 Then say to them: This is the nation that did not hear the voice of the Lord their God and has not received correction; out of their mouth faithfulness has disappeared, yea rooted out!
Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) Chapter 9
22 Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, nor the strong man boast of his strength, nor the rich man boast of his riches.
23 But let him that boasts exult in this, that he understands and knows me, for I am the Lord Who practices kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord.