Monday, March 18, 2013

Leviticus 21:1-24 and Luke 20:27-40 (NLT)

Leviticus 21:1-24
Rules For Priests

1    The Lord commanded Moses to tell the Aaronite priests, “No priest is to make himself ritually unclean by taking part in the funeral ceremonies when a relative dies,
2    unless it is his mother, father, son, daughter, brother, 
3    or unmarried sister living in his house.
4    He shall not make himself unclean at the death of those related to him by marriage.
5    “No priest shall shave any part of his head or trim his beard or cut gashes on his body to show that he is in mourning. 
6    He must be holy and must not disgrace my name. He offers food offerings to me, and he must be holy. 
7    A priest shall not marry a woman who has been a prostitute or a woman who is not a virgin or who is divorced; he is holy. 
8    The people must consider the priest holy, because he presents the food offerings to me. I am the Lord; I am holy and I make my people holy. 
9    If a priest's daughter becomes a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she shall be burned to death.
10  “The High Priest has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been consecrated to wear the priestly garments, so he must not leave his hair uncombed or tear his clothes to show that he is in mourning.
11-12  He has been dedicated to me and is not to make himself ritually unclean nor is he to defile my sacred Tent by leaving it and entering a house where there is a dead person, even if it is his own father or mother. 
13  He shall marry a virgin, 
14  not a widow or a divorced woman or a woman who has been a prostitute. He shall marry only a virgin from his own clan. 
15  Otherwise, his children, who ought to be holy, will be ritually unclean. I am the Lord and I have set him apart as the High Priest.”
16  The Lord commanded Moses 
17  to tell Aaron, “None of your descendants who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me. This applies for all time to come. 
18  No man with any physical defects may make the offering: no one who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed; 
19  no one with a crippled hand or foot; 
20  no one who is a hunchback or a dwarf; no one with any eye or skin disease; and no eunuch. 
21  No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me. 
22  Such a man may eat the food offered to me, both the holy food offering and the very holy food offering,
23  but because he has a physical defect, he shall not come near the sacred curtain or approach the altar. He must not profane these holy things, because I am the Lord and I make them holy.”
24  This, then, is what Moses said to Aaron, the sons of Aaron, and to all the people of Israel.

Luke 20:27-40
The Resurrection And Marriage

27  Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said, 
28  “Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: ‘If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.’ 
29  Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children. 
30  Then the second one married the woman, 
31  and then the third. The same thing happened to all seven—they died without having children. 
32  Last of all, the woman died.
33  Now, on the day when the dead rise to life, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her.”
34  Jesus answered them, “The men and women of this age marry, 
35  but the men and women who are worthy to rise from death and live in the age to come will not then marry. 
36  They will be like angels and cannot die. They are the children of God, because they have risen from death. 
37  And Moses clearly proves that the dead are raised to life. In the passage about the burning bush he speaks of the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 
38  He is the God of the living, not of the dead, for to him all are alive.”
39  Some of the teachers of the Law spoke up, “A good answer, Teacher!” 
40  For they did not dare ask him any more questions.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Leviticus 20:16-27 and Luke 20:20-26 (NLT)

Leviticus 20:16-27
Punishment for Sin

16  If a woman tries to have sexual relations with an animal, she and the animal shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death.
17  If a man marries his sister or half sister, they shall be publicly disgraced and driven out of the community. He has had intercourse with his sister and must suffer the consequences. 
18  If a man has intercourse with a woman during her monthly period, both of them are to be driven out of the community, because they have broken the regulations about ritual uncleanness.
19  If a man has intercourse with his aunt, both of them must suffer the consequences for incest. 
20  If a man has intercourse with his uncle's wife, he disgraces his uncle, and he and the woman will pay the penalty; neither one will have children. 
21  If a man takes his brother's wife, they will die childless. He has done a ritually unclean thing and has disgraced his brother.
22  The Lord said, “Keep all my laws and commands, so that you will not be rejected by the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. 
23  Do not adopt the customs of the people who live there; I am driving out those pagans so that you can enter the land. They have disgusted me with all their evil practices. 
24  But I have promised you this rich and fertile land as your possession, and I will give it to you. I am the Lord your God, and I have set you apart from the other nations. 
25  So then, you must make a clear distinction between animals and birds that are ritually clean and those that are not. Do not eat unclean animals or birds. I have declared them unclean, and eating them would make you unclean. 
26  You shall be holy and belong only to me, because I am the Lord and I am holy. I have set you apart from the other nations so that you would belong to me alone.
27  “Any man or woman who consults the spirits of the dead shall be stoned to death; any of you that do this are responsible for your own death.”

Luke 20:20-26
Paying Taxes to Caesar

20  So they looked for an opportunity. They bribed some men to pretend they were sincere, and they sent them to trap Jesus with questions, so that they could hand him over to the authority and power of the Roman Governor. 
21  These spies said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is right. We know that you pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people. 
22  Tell us, is it against our Law for us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, or not?”
23  But Jesus saw through their trick and said to them, 
24  “Show me a silver coin. Whose face and name are these on it?”  “The Emperor's,” they answered.
25  So Jesus said, “Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God.”
26  There before the people they could not catch him in a thing, so they kept quiet, amazed at his answer.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Leviticus 20:1-15 and Luke 20:9-19 (NLT)

Leviticus 20:1-15
Punishments For Sin

1    The Lord told Moses 
2    to say to the people of Israel, “Any of you or any foreigner living among you who gives any children to be used in the worship of the god Molech shall be stoned to death by the whole community. 
3    If any of you give one of your children to Molech and make my sacred Tent unclean and disgrace my holy name, I will turn against you and will no longer consider you my people. 
4    But if the community ignores what you have done and does not put you to death, 
5    I myself will turn against you and your whole family and against all who join you in being unfaithful to me and worshiping Molech. I will no longer consider any of you my people.
6    “If any of you go for advice to people who consult the spirits of the dead, I will turn against you and will no longer consider you one of my people. 
7    Keep yourselves holy, because I am the Lord your God. 
8    Obey my laws, because I am the Lord and I make you holy.”
9    The Lord gave the following regulations. Any of you that curse your father or mother shall be put to death; you are responsible for your own death.
10  If a man commits adultery with the wife of an Israelite, both he and the woman shall be put to death. 
11  A man who has intercourse with one of his father's wives disgraces his father, and both he and the woman shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. 
12  If a man has intercourse with his daughter-in-law, they shall both be put to death. They have committed incest and are responsible for their own death. 
13  If a man has sexual relations with another man, they have done a disgusting thing, and both shall be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. 
14  If a man marries a woman and her mother, all three shall be burned to death because of the disgraceful thing they have done; such a thing must not be permitted among you. 
15  If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he and the animal shall be put to death. 

Luke 20:9-19
The Parable Of The Tenants

9    Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time. 
10  When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing. 
11  So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing. 
12  Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out. 
13  Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!’ 
14  But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the owner's son. Let's kill him, and his property will be ours!’ 
15  So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?” Jesus asked. 
16  “He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants.”  When the people heard this, they said, “Surely not!”
17  Jesus looked at them and asked, “What, then, does this scripture mean?  ‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.’
18  Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, that person will be crushed to dust.”
19  The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest Jesus on the spot, because they knew that he had told this parable against them; but they were afraid of the people.