Daily Bible CEV March 08 Scroll

A Question about the Sabbath
(Mark 2.23-28; Luke 6.1-5)

Matthew 12 One Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some wheat fields. His disciples were hungry and began picking and eating grains of wheat. ²Some Pharisees noticed this and said to Jesus, "Why are your disciples picking grain on the Sabbath? They are not supposed to do that!"

³Jesus answered:

You surely must have read what David did when he and his followers were hungry. ⁴He went into the house of God, and then they ate the sacred loaves of bread that only priests are supposed to eat. ⁵Haven't you read in the Law of Moses that the priests are allowed to work in the temple on the Sabbath? But no one says that they are guilty of breaking the law of the Sabbath. ⁶I tell you that there is something here greater than the temple. ⁷Don't you know what the Scriptures mean when they say, "Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others?" If you knew what this means, you would not condemn these innocent disciples of mine. ⁸So the Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.

A Man with a Crippled Hand
(Mark 3.1-6; Luke 6.6-11)

⁹Jesus left and went into one of the Jewish meeting places, ¹⁰where there was a man whose hand was crippled. Some Pharisees wanted to accuse Jesus of doing something wrong, and they asked him, "Is it right to heal someone on the Sabbath?"

¹¹Jesus answered, "If you had a sheep that fell into a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn't you lift it out? ¹²People are worth much more than sheep, and so it is right to do good on the Sabbath." ¹³Then Jesus told the man, "Hold out your hand." The man did, and it became as healthy as the other one.

¹⁴The Pharisees left and started making plans to kill Jesus.

God's Chosen Servant

¹⁵When Jesus found out what was happening, he left there and large crowds followed him. He healed all of their sick, ¹⁶but warned them not to tell anyone about him. ¹⁷So God's promise came true, just as Isaiah the prophet had said,

¹⁸"Here is my chosen servant!

I love him, and he pleases me.

I will give him my Spirit,

and he will bring justice to the nations.

¹⁹He won't shout or yell

or call out in the streets.

²⁰He won't break off a bent reed

or put out a dying flame,

but he will make sure that justice is done.

²¹All nations will place their hope in him."

The Ceremony for People Healed of Leprosy

Leviticus 14 The LORD told Moses to say to the people:

^2-3After you think you are healed of leprosy, you must ask for a priest to come outside the camp and examine you. And if you are well, ⁴he will have someone bring out two live birds that are acceptable for sacrifice, together with a stick of cedar wood, a piece of red yarn, and a branch from a hyssop plant. ⁵The priest will have someone kill one of the birds over a clay pot of spring water. ⁶Then he will dip the other bird, the cedar, the red yarn, and the hyssop in the blood of the dead bird. ⁷Next, he will sprinkle you seven times with the blood and say, "You are now clean." Finally, he will release the bird and let it fly away.

⁸After this you must wash your clothes, shave your entire body, and take a bath before you are completely clean. You may move back into camp, but you must not enter your tent for seven days. ⁹Then you must once again shave your head, face, and eyebrows, as well as the hair on the rest of your body. Finally, wash your clothes and take a bath, and you will be completely clean.

¹⁰On the eighth day you must bring to the priest two rams and a year-old female lamb that have nothing wrong with them; also bring a half pint of olive oil and six pounds of your finest flour mixed with oil. ¹¹Then the priest will present you and your offerings to me at the entrance to my sacred tent. ¹²There he will offer one of the rams, together with the pint of oil, as a sacrifice to make things right. He will also lift them up to show that they are dedicated to me. ¹³This sacrifice is very holy. It belongs to the priest and must be killed in the same place where animals are killed as sacrifices for sins and as sacrifices to please me.

¹⁴The priest will smear some of the blood from this sacrifice on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot. ¹⁵He will then pour some of the olive oil into the palm of his left hand, ¹⁶dip a finger of his right hand into the oil, and sprinkle some of it seven times toward the sacred tent. ¹⁷Next, he will smear some of the oil on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot, ^18-20and pour the rest of the oil from his palm on your head. Then he will offer the other two animals--one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me, together with a grain sacrifice. After this you will be completely clean.

²¹If you are poor and cannot afford to offer this much, you may offer a ram as a sacrifice to make things right, together with a half pint of olive oil and two pounds of flour mixed with oil as a grain sacrifice. The priest will then lift these up to dedicate them to me. ²²Depending on what you can afford, you must also offer either two doves or two pigeons, one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me. ²³The priest will offer these to me in front of the sacred tent on the eighth day.

^24-25The priest will kill this ram for the sacrifice to make things right, and he will lift it up with the olive oil in dedication to me. Then he will smear some of the blood on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot.

²⁶The priest will pour some of the olive oil into the palm of his left hand, ²⁷then dip a finger of his right hand in the oil and sprinkle some of it seven times toward the sacred tent. ²⁸He will smear some of the oil on your right ear lobe, some on your right thumb, and some on the big toe of your right foot, just as he did with the blood of the sacrifice to make things right. ^29-31And he will pour the rest of the oil from his palm on your head.

Then, depending on what you can afford, he will offer either the doves or the pigeons together with the grain sacrifice. One of the birds is the sacrifice for sin, and the other is the sacrifice to please me. After this you will be completely clean.

³²These are the things you must do if you have leprosy and cannot afford the usual sacrifices to make you clean.

When Mildew Is in a House

³³The LORD told Moses and Aaron to say to the people:

³⁴After I have given you the land of Canaan as your permanent possession, here is what you must do, if I ever put mildew on the walls of any of your homes. ³⁵First, you must say to a priest, "I think mildew is on the wall of my house."

³⁶The priest will reply, "Empty the house before I inspect it, or else everything in it will be unclean."

³⁷If the priest discovers greenish or reddish spots that go deeper than the surface of the walls, ³⁸he will have the house closed for seven days. ³⁹Then he will return and check to see if the mildew has spread. ^40-41If so, he will have someone scrape the plaster from the walls, remove the filthy stones, then haul everything off and dump it in an unclean place outside the town. ⁴²Afterwards the wall must be repaired with new stones and fresh plaster.

⁴³If the mildew appears a second time, ⁴⁴the priest will come and say, "This house is unclean. It's covered with mildew that can't be removed." ⁴⁵Then he will have the house torn down and every bit of wood, stone, and plaster hauled off to an unclean place outside the town. ⁴⁶Meanwhile, if any of you entered the house while it was closed, you will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷And if you either slept or ate in the house, you must wash your clothes.

⁴⁸On the other hand, if the priest discovers that mildew hasn't reappeared after the house was newly plastered, he will say, "This house is clean--the mildew has gone." ⁴⁹Then, to show that the house is now clean, he will get two birds, a stick of cedar wood, a piece of red yarn, and a branch from a hyssop plant and bring them to the house. ⁵⁰He will kill one of the birds over a clay pot of spring water ^51-52and let its blood drain into the pot. Then he will dip the cedar, the hyssop, the yarn, and the other bird into the mixture of blood and water. Next, he will sprinkle the house seven times with the mixture, then the house will be completely clean. ⁵³Finally, he will release the bird and let it fly away, ending the ceremony for purifying the house.

^54-57These are the things you must do if you discover that you are unclean because of an itch or a sore, or that your clothing or house is unclean because of mildew.

Don't Be a Fool

Proverbs 26 Expecting snow in summer and rain in the dry season

makes more sense than honoring a fool.

²A curse you don't deserve will take wings

and fly away like a sparrow or a swallow.

³Horses and donkeys must be beaten and bridled--

and so must fools.

⁴Don't make a fool of yourself by answering a fool.

⁵But if you answer any fools, show how foolish they are,

so they won't feel smart.

⁶Sending a message by a fool

is like chopping off your foot and drinking poison.

⁷A fool with words of wisdom

is like an athlete with legs that can't move.

⁸Are you going to honor a fool?

Why not shoot a slingshot with the rock tied tight?

⁹A thornbush waved around in the hand of a drunkard

is no worse than a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

¹⁰It's no smarter to shoot arrows at every passerby

than it is to hire a bunch of worthless nobodies.

¹¹Dogs return to eat their vomit,

just as fools repeat their foolishness.

¹²There is more hope for a fool

than for someone who says, "I'm really smart!"

¹³Don't be lazy and keep saying, "There's a lion outside!"

¹⁴A door turns on its hinges,

but a lazy person just turns over in bed.

¹⁵Some of us are so lazy

that we won't lift a hand to feed ourselves.

¹⁶A lazy person says, "I am smarter than everyone else."

¹⁷It's better to take hold of a mad dog by the ears

than to take part in someone else's argument.

¹⁸It's no crazier to shoot sharp and flaming arrows

¹⁹

than to cheat someone and say, "I was only fooling!"

²⁰Where there is no fuel a fire goes out;

where there is no gossip arguments come to an end.

²¹Troublemakers start trouble,

just as sparks and fuel start a fire.

²²There is nothing so delicious as the taste of gossip!

It melts in your mouth.

²³Hiding hateful thoughts behind smooth talk

is like coating a clay pot with a cheap glaze.

²⁴The pleasant talk of an enemy

hides more evil plans ²⁵than can be counted--

so don't believe a word!

²⁶Everyone will see through those evil plans.

²⁷If you dig a pit, you will fall in;

if you start a stone rolling, it will roll back on you.

²⁸Watch out for anyone who tells lies and flatters--

they are out to get you.

These daily Bible readings from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. BibleCard® images copyright iCreative. All rights reserved.