Daily Bible GNT March 09 Scroll

Jesus and Beelzebul
(Mark 3.20-30; Luke 11.14-23)

Matthew 12 ²²Then some people brought to Jesus a man who was blind and could not talk because he had a demon. Jesus healed the man, so that he was able to talk and see. ²³The crowds were all amazed at what Jesus had done. "Could he be the Son of David?" they asked.

²⁴When the Pharisees heard this, they replied, "He drives out demons only because their ruler Beelzebul gives him power to do so."

²⁵Jesus knew what they were thinking, and so he said to them, "Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long. And any town or family that divides itself into groups which fight each other will fall apart. ²⁶So if one group is fighting another in Satan's kingdom, this means that it is already divided into groups and will soon fall apart! ²⁷You say that I drive out demons because Beelzebul gives me the power to do so. Well, then, who gives your followers the power to drive them out? What your own followers do proves that you are wrong! ²⁸No, it is not Beelzebul, but God's Spirit, who gives me the power to drive out demons, which proves that the Kingdom of God has already come upon you.

²⁹"No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

³⁰"Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering. ³¹For this reason I tell you: people can be forgiven any sin and any evil thing they say; but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. ³²Anyone who says something against the Son of Man can be forgiven; but whoever says something against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven--now or ever.

A Tree and Its Fruit
(Luke 6.43-45)

³³"To have good fruit you must have a healthy tree; if you have a poor tree, you will have bad fruit. A tree is known by the kind of fruit it bears. ³⁴You snakes--how can you say good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ³⁵A good person brings good things out of a treasure of good things; a bad person brings bad things out of a treasure of bad things.

³⁶"You can be sure that on the Judgment Day you will have to give account of every useless word you have ever spoken. ³⁷Your words will be used to judge you--to declare you either innocent or guilty."

The Demand for a Miracle
(Mark 8.11, 12; Luke 11.29-32)

³⁸Then some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees spoke up. "Teacher," they said, "we want to see you perform a miracle."

³⁹"How evil and godless are the people of this day!" Jesus exclaimed. "You ask me for a miracle? No! The only miracle you will be given is the miracle of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰In the same way that Jonah spent three days and nights in the big fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days and nights in the depths of the earth. ⁴¹On the Judgment Day the people of Nineveh will stand up and accuse you, because they turned from their sins when they heard Jonah preach; and I tell you that there is something here greater than Jonah! ⁴²On the Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will stand up and accuse you, because she traveled all the way from her country to listen to King Solomon's wise teaching; and I assure you that there is something here greater than Solomon!

The Return of the Evil Spirit
(Luke 11.24-26)

⁴³"When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one, ⁴⁴it says to itself, 'I will go back to my house.' So it goes back and finds the house empty, clean, and all fixed up. ⁴⁵Then it goes out and brings along seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in worse shape than at the beginning. This is what will happen to the evil people of this day."

Jesus' Mother and Brothers
(Mark 3.31-35; Luke 8.19-21)

⁴⁶Jesus was still talking to the people when his mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside, asking to speak with him. ⁴⁷So one of the people there said to him, "Look, your mother and brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak with you."

⁴⁸Jesus answered, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" ⁴⁹Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother."

Unclean Bodily Discharges

Leviticus 15 The LORD gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations ²for the people of Israel. When any man has a discharge from his penis, the discharge is unclean, ³whether the penis runs with it or is stopped up by it. ⁴Any bed on which he sits or lies is unclean. ⁵Anyone who touches his bed ⁶or sits on anything the man has sat on must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. ⁷Anyone who touches the man with the discharge must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. ⁸If the man with the discharge spits on anyone who is ritually clean, that person must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. ⁹Any saddle or seat on which the man with the discharge sits is unclean. ¹⁰Anyone who touches anything on which the man sat is unclean until evening. Anyone who carries anything on which the man sat must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. ¹¹If a man who has a discharge touches one of you without first having washed his hands, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, and you remain unclean until evening. ¹²Any clay pot that the man touches must be broken, and any wooden bowl that he touches must be washed.

¹³After the man is cured of his discharge, he must wait seven days and then wash his clothes and take a bath in fresh spring water, and he will be ritually clean. ¹⁴On the eighth day he shall take two doves or two pigeons to the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence and give them to the priest. ¹⁵The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way he will perform the ritual of purification for the man.

¹⁶When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body, and he remains unclean until evening. ¹⁷Anything made of cloth or leather on which the semen falls must be washed, and it remains unclean until evening. ¹⁸After sexual intercourse both the man and the woman must take a bath, and they remain unclean until evening.

¹⁹When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean until evening. ²⁰Anything on which she sits or lies during her monthly period is unclean. ^21-23Any who touch her bed or anything on which she has sat must wash their clothes and take a bath, and they remain unclean until evening. ²⁴If a man has sexual intercourse with her during her period, he is contaminated by her impurity and remains unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies is unclean.

²⁵If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her monthly period or if her flow continues beyond her regular period, she remains unclean as long as the flow continues, just as she is during her monthly period. ²⁶Any bed on which she lies and anything on which she sits during this time is unclean. ²⁷Any who touch them are unclean and must wash their clothes and take a bath; they remain unclean until evening. ²⁸After her flow stops, she must wait seven days, and then she will be ritually clean. ²⁹On the eighth day she shall take two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence. ³⁰The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and in this way he will perform the ritual of purification for her.

³¹The LORD told Moses to warn the people of Israel about their uncleanness, so that they would not defile the Tent of his presence, which was in the middle of the camp. If they did, they would be killed.

³²These are the regulations about a man who has a discharge or an emission of semen, ³³a woman during her monthly period, or a man who has sexual intercourse with a woman who is ritually unclean.

The Day of Atonement

Leviticus 16 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who were killed when they offered unholy fire to the LORD. ²He said, "Tell your brother Aaron that only at the proper time is he to go behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place, because that is where I appear in a cloud above the lid on the Covenant Box. If he disobeys, he will be killed. ³He may enter the Most Holy Place only after he has brought a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering."

⁴Then the LORD gave the following instructions. Before Aaron goes into the Most Holy Place, he must take a bath and put on the priestly garments: the linen robe and shorts, the belt, and the turban.

⁵The community of Israel shall give Aaron two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁶He shall offer a bull as a sacrifice to take away his own sins and those of his family. ⁷Then he shall take the two goats to the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence. ⁸There he shall draw lots, using two stones, one marked "for the LORD" and the other "for Azazel." ⁹Aaron shall sacrifice the goat chosen by lot for the LORD and offer it as a sin offering. ¹⁰The goat chosen for Azazel shall be presented alive to the LORD and sent off into the desert to Azazel, in order to take away the sins of the people.

¹¹When Aaron sacrifices the bull as the sin offering for himself and his family, ¹²he shall take a fire pan full of burning coals from the altar and two handfuls of fine incense and bring them into the Most Holy Place. ¹³There in the LORD's presence he shall put the incense on the fire, and the smoke of the incense will hide the lid of the Covenant Box so that he will not see it and die. ¹⁴He shall take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the lid and then sprinkle some of it seven times in front of the Covenant Box.

¹⁵After that, he shall kill the goat for the sin offering for the people, bring its blood into the Most Holy Place, and sprinkle it on the lid and then in front of the Covenant Box, as he did with the bull's blood. ¹⁶In this way he will perform the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place from the uncleanness of the people of Israel and from all their sins. He must do this to the Tent, because it stands in the middle of the camp, which is ritually unclean. ¹⁷From the time Aaron enters the Most Holy Place to perform the ritual of purification until he comes out, there must be no one in the Tent. When he has performed the ritual for himself, his family, and the whole community, ¹⁸he must then go out to the altar for burnt offerings and purify it. He must take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it all over the projections at the corners of the altar. ¹⁹With his finger he must sprinkle some of the blood on the altar seven times. In this way he is to purify it from the sins of the people of Israel and make it holy.

The Scapegoat

²⁰When Aaron has finished performing the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place, the rest of the Tent of the LORD's presence, and the altar, he shall present to the LORD the live goat chosen for Azazel. ²¹He shall put both of his hands on the goat's head and confess over it all the evils, sins, and rebellions of the people of Israel, and so transfer them to the goat's head. Then the goat is to be driven off into the desert by someone appointed to do it. ²²The goat will carry all their sins away with him into some uninhabited land.

²³Then Aaron shall go into the Tent, take off the priestly garments that he had put on before entering the Most Holy Place, and leave them there. ²⁴He must take a bath in a holy place and put on his own clothes. After that, he shall go out and offer the burnt offering to remove his own sins and those of the people. ²⁵He shall burn on the altar the fat of the animal for the sin offering. ²⁶The man who drove the goat into the desert to Azazel must wash his clothes and take a bath before he comes back into camp. ²⁷The bull and the goat used for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to take away sin, shall be carried outside the camp and burned. Skin, meat, and intestines shall all be burned. ²⁸The one who burns them must wash his clothes and take a bath before he returns to camp.

Observing the Day of Atonement

²⁹The following regulations are to be observed for all time to come. On the tenth day of the seventh month the Israelites and the foreigners living among them must fast and must not do any work. ³⁰On that day the ritual is to be performed to purify them from all their sins, so that they will be ritually clean. ³¹That day is to be a very holy day, one on which they fast and do no work at all. These regulations are to be observed for all time to come. ³²The High Priest, properly ordained and consecrated to succeed his father, is to perform the ritual of purification. He shall put on the priestly garments ³³and perform the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place, the rest of the Tent of the LORD's presence, the altar, the priests, and all the people of the community. ³⁴These regulations are to be observed for all time to come. This ritual must be performed once a year to purify the people of Israel from all their sins.

So Moses did as the LORD had commanded.

Proverbs 27 Never boast about tomorrow. You don't know what will happen between now and then.

²Let other people praise you--even strangers; never do it yourself.

³The weight of stone and sand is nothing compared to the trouble that stupidity can cause.

⁴Anger is cruel and destructive, but it is nothing compared to jealousy.

⁵Better to correct someone openly than to let him think you don't care for him at all.

⁶Friends mean well, even when they hurt you. But when an enemy puts his arm around your shoulder--watch out!

⁷When you are full, you will refuse honey, but when you are hungry, even bitter food tastes sweet.

⁸Anyone away from home is like a bird away from its nest.

⁹Perfume and fragrant oils make you feel happier, but trouble shatters your peace of mind.

¹⁰Do not forget your friends or your father's friends. If you are in trouble, don't ask a relative for help; a nearby neighbor can help you more than relatives who are far away.

¹¹Be wise, my child, and I will be happy; I will have an answer for anyone who criticizes me.

¹²Sensible people will see trouble coming and avoid it, but an unthinking person will walk right into it and regret it later.

¹³Any people stupid enough to promise to be responsible for a stranger's debts deserve to have their own property held to guarantee payment.

¹⁴You might as well curse your friends as wake them up early in the morning with a loud greeting.

¹⁵A nagging wife is like water going drip-drip-drip on a rainy day. ¹⁶How can you keep her quiet? Have you ever tried to stop the wind or ever tried to hold a handful of oil?

¹⁷People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron.

¹⁸Take care of a fig tree and you will have figs to eat. Servants who take care of their master will be honored.

¹⁹It is your own face that you see reflected in the water and it is your own self that you see in your heart.

²⁰Human desires are like the world of the dead--there is always room for more.

²¹Fire tests gold and silver; a person's reputation can also be tested.

²²Even if you beat fools half to death, you still can't beat their foolishness out of them.

²³Look after your sheep and cattle as carefully as you can, ²⁴because wealth is not permanent. Not even nations last forever. ²⁵You cut the hay and then cut the grass on the hillsides while the next crop of hay is growing. ²⁶You can make clothes from the wool of your sheep and buy land with the money you get from selling some of your goats. ²⁷The rest of the goats will provide milk for you and your family, and for your servant women as well.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.