Daily Bible CEV March 19 Scroll

Allowing and Not Allowing

Matthew 18 ¹⁸I promise you that God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth, but he will not allow anything you don't allow. ¹⁹I promise that when any two of you on earth agree about something you are praying for, my Father in heaven will do it for you. ²⁰Whenever two or three of you come together in my name, I am there with you.

An Official Who Refused To Forgive

²¹Peter came up to the Lord and asked, "How many times should I forgive someone who does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?"

²²Jesus answered:

Not just seven times, but seventy-seven times! ²³This story will show you what the kingdom of heaven is like:

One day a king decided to call in his officials and ask them to give an account of what they owed him. ²⁴As he was doing this, one official was brought in who owed him fifty million silver coins. ²⁵But he didn't have any money to pay what he owed. The king ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all he owned, in order to pay the debt.

²⁶The official got down on his knees and began begging, "Have pity on me, and I will pay you every cent I owe!" ²⁷The king felt sorry for him and let him go free. He even told the official that he did not have to pay back the money.

²⁸As the official was leaving, he happened to meet another official, who owed him a hundred silver coins. So he grabbed the man by the throat. He started choking him and said, "Pay me what you owe!"

²⁹The man got down on his knees and began begging, "Have pity on me, and I will pay you back." ³⁰But the first official refused to have pity. Instead, he went and had the other official put in jail until he could pay what he owed.

³¹When some other officials found out what had happened, they felt sorry for the man who had been put in jail. Then they told the king what had happened. ³²The king called the first official back in and said, "You're an evil man! When you begged for mercy, I said you did not have to pay back a cent. ³³Don't you think you should show pity to someone else, as I did to you?" ³⁴The king was so angry that he ordered the official to be tortured until he could pay back everything he owed. ³⁵That is how my Father in heaven will treat you, if you don't forgive each of my followers with all your heart.

The Leaders Bring Gifts to the Sacred Tent

Numbers 7 When Moses had finished setting up the sacred tent, he dedicated it to the LORD, together with its furnishings, the altar, and its equipment. ²Then the twelve tribal leaders of Israel, the same men who had been in charge of counting the people, came to the tent ³with gifts for the LORD. They brought six strong carts and twelve oxen--one ox from each leader and a cart from every two.

⁴The LORD said to Moses, ⁵"Accept these gifts, so the Levites can use them here at the sacred tent for carrying the sacred things."

⁶Then Moses took the carts and oxen and gave them to the Levites, ^7-8who were under the leadership of Ithamar son of Aaron. Moses gave two carts and four oxen to the Gershonites for their work, and four carts and eight oxen to the Merarites for their work. ⁹But Moses did not give any to the Kohathites, because they were in charge of the sacred objects that had to be carried on their shoulders.

¹⁰On the day the altar was dedicated, the twelve leaders brought offerings for its dedication. ¹¹The LORD said to Moses, "Each day one leader is to give his offering for the dedication."

^12-83So each leader brought the following gifts:

a silver bowl that weighed over three pounds and a silver sprinkling bowl weighing almost two pounds, both of them filled with flour and olive oil as grain sacrifices and weighed according to the official standards;

a small gold dish filled with incense;

a young bull, a full-grown ram, and a year-old ram as sacrifices to please the LORD;

a goat as a sacrifice for sin;

and two bulls, five full-grown rams, five goats, and five rams a year old as sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing.

The tribal leaders brought their gifts and offerings in the following order:

On the first day

Nahshon from Judah,

on the second day

Nethanel from Issachar,

on the third day

Eliab from Zebulun,

on the fourth day

Elizur from Reuben,

on the fifth day

Shelumiel from Simeon,

on the sixth day

Eliasaph from Gad,

on the seventh day

Elishama from Ephraim,

on the eighth day

Gamaliel from Manasseh,

on the ninth day

Abidan from Benjamin,

on the tenth day

Ahiezer from Dan,

on the eleventh day

Pagiel from Asher,

on the twelfth day

Ahira from Naphtali.

^84-88And so when the altar was dedicated to the LORD, these twelve leaders brought the following gifts:

twelve silver bowls and twelve silver sprinkling bowls, weighing a total of about sixty pounds, according to the official standards;

twelve gold dishes filled with incense and weighing about three pounds;

twelve bulls, twelve full-grown rams, and twelve rams a year old as sacrifices to please the LORD, along with the proper grain sacrifices;

twelve goats as sacrifices for sin;

and twenty-four bulls, sixty full-grown rams, sixty goats, and sixty rams a year old as sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing.

⁸⁹Whenever Moses needed to talk with the LORD, he went into the sacred tent, where he heard the LORD's voice coming from between the two winged creatures above the lid of the sacred chest.

Aaron Puts the Gold Lamps in Place

Numbers 8 The LORD said to Moses, ²"Tell Aaron to put the seven lamps on the lampstand so they shine toward the front."

³Aaron obeyed and placed the lamps as he was told. ⁴The lampstand was made of hammered gold from its base to the decorative flowers on top, exactly like the pattern the LORD had described to Moses.

Instructions for Ordaining the Levites

⁵The LORD said to Moses:

⁶The Levites must be acceptable to me before they begin working at the sacred tent. So separate them from the rest of the Israelites ⁷and sprinkle them with the water that washes away their sins. Then have them shave their entire bodies and wash their clothes.

⁸They are to bring a bull and its proper grain sacrifice of flour mixed with olive oil. And they must bring a second bull as a sacrifice for sin.

⁹Then you, Moses, will call together all the people of Israel and have the Levites go to my sacred tent, ¹⁰where the people will place their hands on them. ¹¹Aaron will present the Levites to me as a gift from the people, so that the Levites will do my work.

¹²After this, the Levites are to place their hands on the heads of the bulls. Then one of the bulls will be sacrificed for the forgiveness of sin, and the other to make sure that I am pleased. ¹³The Levites will stand at my altar in front of Aaron and his sons, who will then dedicate the Levites to me.

¹⁴This ceremony will show that the Levites are different from the other Israelites and belong to me in a special way. ¹⁵After they have been made acceptable and have been dedicated, they will be allowed to work at my sacred tent. ¹⁶They are mine and will take the place of the first-born Israelite sons. ¹⁷When I killed the oldest sons of the Egyptians, I decided that the first-born sons in each Israelite family would be mine, as well as every first-born male from their flocks and herds. ¹⁸But now I have chosen these Levites as substitutes for the first-born sons, ¹⁹and I have given them as gifts to Aaron and his sons to serve at the sacred tent. I will hold them responsible for what happens to anyone who gets too close to the sacred tent.

The Levites Are Dedicated to the LORD

²⁰Moses, Aaron, and the other Israelites made sure that the Levites did everything the LORD had commanded. ²¹The Levites sprinkled themselves with the water of forgiveness and washed their clothes. Then Aaron brought them to the altar and offered sacrifices to forgive their sins and make them acceptable to the LORD. ²²After this, the Levites worked at the sacred tent as assistants to Aaron and his sons, just as the LORD had commanded.

²³The LORD also told Moses, ^24-25"Levites who are between the ages of twenty-five and fifty can work at my sacred tent. But once they turn fifty, they must retire. ²⁶They may help the other Levites in their duties, but they must no longer be responsible for any work themselves. Remember this when you assign their duties."

Don't Depend on Wealth

Ecclesiastes 6 There is something else terribly unfair, and it troubles everyone on earth. ²God may give you everything you want--money, property, and wealth. Then God doesn't let you enjoy it, and someone you don't even know gets it all. That's senseless and terribly unfair!

³You may live a long time and have a hundred children. But a child born dead is better off than you, unless you enjoy life and have a decent burial. ^4-5That child will never live to see the sun or to have a name, and it will go straight to the world of darkness. But it will still find more rest than you, ⁶even if you live two thousand years and don't enjoy life. As you know, we all end up in the same place.

⁷We struggle just to have enough to eat, but we are never satisfied. ⁸We may be sensible, yet we are no better off than a fool. And if we are poor, it still doesn't do us any good to try to live right. ⁹It's better to enjoy what we have than to always want something else, because that makes no more sense than chasing the wind.

¹⁰Everything that happens was decided long ago. We humans know what we are like, and we can't argue with God, because he is too strong for us. ¹¹The more we talk, the less sense we make, so what good does it do to talk? ¹²Life is short and meaningless, and it fades away like a shadow. Who knows what is best for us? Who knows what will happen after we are gone?

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