Today's Readings and Stuff-- Thursday 18 February 2021

yeah, I know it's late.

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Leviticus 26, 27

LEVITICUS 26

Covenant Blessings and Discipline

1“Do not make idols for yourselves,  set up a carved image or sacred pillar for yourselves, or place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am Yahweh your God. 2You must keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary;  I am Yahweh.

3“If you follow My statutes and faithfully observe My commands, 4I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 5Your threshing will continue until grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have plenty of food to eat and live securely in your land.  6I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.  7You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. 8Five of you will pursue 100, and 100 of you will pursue 10,000; your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 

9“I will turn to you, make you fruitful and multiply you, and confirm My covenant with you. 10You will eat the old grain of the previous year and will clear out the old to make room for the new. 11I will place My residence  among you, and I will not reject you.  12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.  13I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke  and enabled you to live in freedom. 

14“But if you do not obey Me and observe all these commands — 15if you reject My statutes and despise My ordinances, and do not observe all My commands — and break My covenant, 16then I will do this to you: I will bring terror  on you — wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. 17I will turn  against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you. 

18“But if after these things you will not obey Me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins.  19I will break down your strong pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, 20and your strength will be used up for nothing.  Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

21“If you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times for your sins.  22I will send wild animals against you that will deprive you of your children, ravage your livestock, and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted. 

23“If in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but act with hostility toward Me, 24then I will act with hostility toward you; I also will strike you seven times for your sins. 25I will bring a sword against you  to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into enemy hands. 26When I cut off your supply of bread, 10 women will bake your bread in a single oven and ration out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied. 

27“And if in spite of this you do not obey Me but act with hostility toward Me, 28I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will also discipline you seven times for your sins. 29You will eat the flesh of your sons; you will eat the flesh of your daughters.  30I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols;  I will reject you. 31I will reduce your cities to ruins and devastate your sanctuaries. I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.  32I also will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it. 33But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins.

34“Then the land will make up for its Sabbath years during the time it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and make up for its Sabbaths. 35As long as it lies desolate, it will have the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths when you lived there.

36“I will put anxiety in the hearts of those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a wind-driven leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as one flees from a sword, and fall though no one is pursuing them. 37They will stumble over one another as if fleeing from a sword though no one is pursuing them. You will not be able to stand against your enemies. 38You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. 39Those  who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away because of their sin; they will also waste away because of their fathers’ sins along with theirs.

40“But if they will confess their sin and the sin of their fathers — their unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, and how they acted with hostility toward Me, 41and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies — and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled,  and if they will pay the penalty for their sin, 42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob. I will also remember My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43For the land abandoned by them will make up for its Sabbaths by lying desolate without the people, while they pay the penalty for their sin, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes. 44Yet in spite of this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or abhor them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them, since I am Yahweh their God.  45For their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God; I am Yahweh.”

46These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws the Lord established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

LEVITICUS 27

Funding the Sanctuary

1The Lord spoke to Moses: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When someone makes a special vow  to the Lord that involves the assessment of people, 3if the assessment concerns a male from 20 to 60 years old, your assessment is 50 silver shekels  measured by the standard sanctuary shekel.  4If the person is a female, your assessment is 30 shekels.  5If the person is from five to 20 years old, your assessment for a male is 20 shekels  and for a female 10 shekels. 6If the person is from one month to five years old, your assessment for a male is five silver shekels,  and for a female your assessment is three shekels of silver. 7If the person is 60 years or more, your assessment is 15 shekels for a male and 10 shekels for a female. 8But if one is too poor to pay the assessment, he must present the person before the priest and the priest will set a value for him. The priest will set a value for him according to what the one making the vow can afford.

9“If the vow involves one of the animals that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any of these he gives to the Lord will be holy. 10He may not replace it or make a substitution for it, either good for bad, or bad for good.  But if he does substitute one animal for another, both that animal and its substitute will be holy.

11“If the vow involves any of the unclean animals that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal must be presented before the priest. 12The priest will set its value, whether high or low; the price will be set as the priest makes the assessment for you. 13If the one who brought it decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the  assessed value. 

14“When a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will assess its value, whether high or low. The price will stand just as the priest assesses it. 15But if the one who consecrated his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to the  assessed value, and it will be his. 

16“If a man consecrates to the Lord any part of a field that he possesses, your assessment of value will be proportional to the seed needed to sow it, at the rate of 50 silver shekels for every five bushels  of barley seed.  17If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee,  the price will stand according to your assessment. 18But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will calculate the price for him in proportion to the years left until the next Year of Jubilee, so that your assessment will be reduced. 19If the one who consecrated the field decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the  assessed value, and the field will transfer back to him. 20But if he does not redeem the field or if he has sold it to another man, it is no longer redeemable. 21When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will be holy to the Lord like a field permanently set apart; it becomes the priest’s property.

22“If a person consecrates to the Lord a field he has purchased that is not part of his inherited landholding, 23then the priest will calculate for him the amount of the  assessment up to the Year of Jubilee, and the person will pay the assessed value on that day as a holy offering to the Lord. 24In the Year of Jubilee the field will return to the one he bought it from,  the original owner. 25All your assessed values will be measured by the standard sanctuary shekel, 20 gerahs to the shekel. 

26“But no one can consecrate a firstborn of the livestock, whether an animal from the herd or flock, to the Lord, because a firstborn already belongs to the Lord.  27If it is one of the unclean livestock, it must be ransomed according to your assessment by adding a fifth of its value to it. If it is not redeemed, it can be sold according to your assessment. 

28“Nothing that a man permanently sets apart to the Lord from all he owns, whether a person, an animal, or his inherited landholding, can be sold or redeemed; everything set apart is especially holy to the Lord. 29No person who has been set apart for destruction is to be ransomed; he must be put to death. 

30“Every tenth of the land’s produce, grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord;  it is holy to the Lord. 31If a man decides to redeem any part of this tenth, he must add a fifth to its value. 32Every tenth animal from the herd or flock, which passes under the shepherd’s rod,  will be holy to the Lord. 33He is not to inspect whether it is good or bad, and he is not to make a substitution for it. But if he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute will be holy;  they cannot be redeemed.” 

34These are the commands the Lord gave Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai. 

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Mark 2

MARK 2

The Son of Man Forgives and Heals

1When  He entered Capernaum  again after some days, it was reported that He was at home. 2So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and He was speaking the message  to them. 3Then they came to Him bringing a paralytic,  carried by four men. 4Since they were not able to bring him to  Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above where He was. And when they had broken through, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

5Seeing their faith,  Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins  are forgiven.” 

6But some of the scribes  were sitting there, thinking  to themselves:  7“Why does He speak like this? He’s blaspheming!  Who can forgive  sins  but God alone? ” 

8Right away  Jesus understood in His spirit  that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?  9Which is easier:  to say to the paralytic,  ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?  10But so you may know that the Son of Man  has authority  on earth to forgive sins,”  He told the paralytic, 11“I tell you: get up,  pick up your mat, and go home.”

12Immediately he got up, picked up the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded  and gave glory  to God,  saying, “We have never seen anything like this! ” 

The Call of Matthew

13Then  Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd was coming to Him, and He taught  them. 14Then, moving on, He saw Levi  the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office,  and He said to him, “Follow Me! ”  So he got up and followed  Him.

Dining with Sinners

15While He was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors  and sinners  were also guests   with Jesus and His disciples, because there were many who were following Him. 16When the scribes  of the Pharisees   saw that He was eating  with sinners  and tax collectors,  they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat  with tax collectors and sinners? ”

17When Jesus heard this, He told them, “Those who are well don’t need  a doctor,  but the sick  do need one. I didn’t come to call the righteous,  but sinners.” 

A Question about Fasting

18Now  John’s  disciples  and the Pharisees   were fasting.  People came and asked Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but Your disciples do not fast? ”

19Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests  cannot fast while the groom  is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20But the time  will come  when the groom is taken away from them,  and then they will fast  in that day. 21No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth,  and a worse tear is made. 22And no one puts new wine  into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst  the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.  But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

Lord of the Sabbath

23On  the Sabbath He was going through the grainfields, and His disciples  began to make their way picking some heads of grain. 24The Pharisees  said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful  on the Sabbath? ”

25He said to them, “Have you never read what David  and those who were with him did when he was in need  and hungry  — 26how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar  the high priest  and ate the sacred bread  — which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests  — and also gave some to his companions? ” 27Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for  man and not man for  the Sabbath.  28Therefore, the Son of Man  is Lord  even of the Sabbath.”