Daily Bible GNT March 23 Scroll

Jesus Speaks a Third Time about His Death
(Mark 10.32-34; Luke 18.31-34)

Matthew 20 ¹⁷As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and spoke to them privately, as they walked along. ¹⁸"Listen," he told them, "we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death ¹⁹and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life."

A Mother's Request
(Mark 10.35-45)

²⁰Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowed before him, and asked him for a favor.

²¹"What do you want?" Jesus asked her.

She answered, "Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King."

²²"You don't know what you are asking for," Jesus answered the sons. "Can you drink the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?"

"We can," they answered.

²³"You will indeed drink from my cup," Jesus told them, "but I do not have the right to choose who will sit at my right and my left. These places belong to those for whom my Father has prepared them."

²⁴When the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with the two brothers. ²⁵So Jesus called them all together and said, "You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. ²⁶This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; ²⁷and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others-- ²⁸like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people."

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men
(Mark 10.46-52; Luke 18.35-43)

²⁹As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd was following. ³⁰Two blind men who were sitting by the road heard that Jesus was passing by, so they began to shout, "Son of David! Have mercy on us, sir!"

³¹The crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But they shouted even more loudly, "Son of David! Have mercy on us, sir!"

³²Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked them.

³³"Sir," they answered, "we want you to give us our sight!"

³⁴Jesus had pity on them and touched their eyes; at once they were able to see, and they followed him.

Laws about Sacrifice

Numbers 15 The LORD gave Moses ²the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ³A bull, a ram, a sheep, or a goat may be presented to the LORD as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfillment of a vow or as a freewill offering or as an offering at your regular religious festivals; the odor of these food offerings is pleasing to the LORD. ^4-5Whoever presents a sheep or a goat as a burnt offering to the LORD is to bring with each animal 2 pounds of flour mixed with 2 pints of olive oil as a grain offering, together with 2 pints of wine. ⁶When a ram is offered, 4 pounds of flour mixed with 3 pints of olive oil are to be presented as a grain offering, ⁷together with 3 pints of wine. The odor of these sacrifices is pleasing to the LORD. ⁸When a bull is offered to the LORD as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfillment of a vow or as a fellowship offering, ⁹a grain offering of 6 pounds of flour mixed with 4 pints of olive oil is to be presented, ¹⁰together with 4 pints of wine. The odor of this sacrifice is pleasing to the LORD.

¹¹That is what shall be offered with each bull, ram, sheep, or goat. ¹²When more than one animal is offered, the accompanying offering is to be increased proportionately. ¹³All native Israelites are to do this when they present a food offering, an odor pleasing to the LORD. ¹⁴And if at any time foreigners living among you, whether on a temporary or a permanent basis, make a food offering, an odor that pleases the LORD, they are to observe the same regulations. ¹⁵For all time to come, the same rules are binding on you and on the foreigners who live among you. You and they are alike in the LORD's sight; ¹⁶the same laws and regulations apply to you and to them.

¹⁷The LORD gave Moses ¹⁸the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ¹⁹When any food produced there is eaten, some of it is to be set aside as a special contribution to the LORD. ²⁰When you bake bread, the first loaf of the first bread made from the new grain is to be presented as a special contribution to the LORD. This is to be presented in the same way as the special contribution you make from the grain you thresh. ²¹For all time to come, this special gift is to be given to the LORD from the bread you bake.

²²But suppose someone unintentionally fails to keep some of these regulations which the LORD has given Moses. ²³And suppose that in the future the community fails to do everything that the LORD commanded through Moses. ²⁴If the mistake was made because of the ignorance of the community, they are to offer a bull as a burnt offering, an odor that pleases the LORD, with the proper grain offering and wine offering. In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵The priest shall perform the ritual of purification for the community, and they will be forgiven, because the mistake was unintentional and they brought their sin offering as a food offering to the LORD. ²⁶The whole community of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven, because everyone was involved in the mistake.

²⁷If any of you sin unintentionally, you are to offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering. ²⁸At the altar the priest shall perform the ritual of purification to purify you from your sin, and you will be forgiven. ²⁹The same regulation applies to all who unintentionally commit a sin, whether they are native Israelites or resident foreigners.

³⁰But any who sin deliberately, whether they are natives or foreigners, are guilty of treating the LORD with contempt, and they shall be put to death, ³¹because they have rejected what the LORD said and have deliberately broken one of his commands. They are responsible for their own death.

The Man Who Broke the Sabbath

³²Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath. ³³He was taken to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community, ³⁴and was put under guard, because it was not clear what should be done with him. ³⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must be put to death; the whole community is to stone him to death outside the camp." ³⁶So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded.

Rules about Tassels

³⁷The LORD commanded Moses ³⁸to say to the people of Israel: "Make tassels on the corners of your garments and put a blue cord on each tassel. You are to do this for all time to come. ³⁹The tassels will serve as reminders, and each time you see them you will remember all my commands and obey them; then you will not turn away from me and follow your own wishes and desires. ⁴⁰The tassels will remind you to keep all my commands, and you will belong completely to me. ⁴¹I am the LORD your God; I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD."

The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

Numbers 16 ^1-2Korah son of Izhar, from the Levite clan of Kohath, rebelled against the leadership of Moses. He was joined by three members of the tribe of Reuben--Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth--and by 250 other Israelites, well-known leaders chosen by the community. ³They assembled before Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! All the members of the community belong to the LORD, and the LORD is with all of us. Why, then, Moses, do you set yourself above the LORD's community?"

⁴When Moses heard this, he threw himself on the ground and prayed. ⁵Then he said to Korah and his followers, "Tomorrow morning the LORD will show us who belongs to him; he will let the one who belongs to him, that is, the one he has chosen, approach him at the altar. ^6-7Tomorrow morning you and your followers take fire pans, put live coals and incense on them, and take them to the altar. Then we will see which of us the LORD has chosen. You Levites are the ones who have gone too far!"

⁸Moses continued to speak to Korah. "Listen, you Levites! ⁹Do you consider it a small matter that the God of Israel has set you apart from the rest of the community, so that you can approach him, perform your service in the LORD's Tent, and minister to the community and serve them? ¹⁰He has let you and all the other Levites have this honor--and now you are trying to get the priesthood too! ¹¹When you complain against Aaron, it is really against the LORD that you and your followers are rebelling."

¹²Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, but they said, "We will not come! ¹³Isn't it enough that you have brought us out of the fertile land of Egypt to kill us here in the wilderness? Do you also have to lord it over us? ¹⁴You certainly have not brought us into a fertile land or given us fields and vineyards as our possession, and now you are trying to deceive us. We will not come!"

¹⁵Moses became angry and said to the LORD, "Do not accept any offerings these men bring. I have not wronged any of them; I have not even taken one of their donkeys."

¹⁶Moses said to Korah, "Tomorrow you and your 250 followers must come to the Tent of the LORD's presence; Aaron will also be there. ¹⁷Each of you will take his fire pan, put incense on it, and then present it at the altar." ¹⁸So they each took their fire pans, put live coals and incense on them, and stood at the entrance of the Tent with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹Then Korah gathered the whole community, and they stood facing Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent. Suddenly the dazzling light of the LORD's presence appeared to the whole community, ²⁰and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹"Move back from these people, and I will destroy them immediately."

²²But Moses and Aaron bowed down with their faces to the ground and said, "O God, you are the source of all life. When one of us sins, do you become angry with the whole community?"

²³The LORD said to Moses, ²⁴"Tell the people to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram."

²⁵Then Moses, accompanied by the leaders of Israel, went to Dathan and Abiram. ²⁶He said to the people, "Get away from the tents of these wicked men and don't touch anything that belongs to them. Otherwise, you will be wiped out with them for all their sins." ²⁷So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrance of their tents, with their wives and children. ²⁸Moses said to the people, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it is not by my own choice that I have done them. ²⁹If these men die a natural death without some punishment from God, then the LORD did not send me. ³⁰But if the LORD does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the LORD."

³¹As soon as he had finished speaking, the ground under Dathan and Abiram split open ³²and swallowed them and their families, together with all of Korah's followers and their possessions. ³³So they went down alive to the world of the dead, with their possessions. The earth closed over them, and they vanished. ³⁴All the people of Israel who were there fled when they heard their cry. They shouted, "Run! The earth might swallow us too!"

³⁵Then the LORD sent a fire that blazed out and burned up the 250 men who had presented the incense.

The Fire Pans

³⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, ³⁷"Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to remove the bronze fire pans from the remains of those who have been burned, and scatter the coals from the fire pans somewhere else, because the fire pans are holy. ³⁸They became holy when they were presented at the LORD's altar. So take the fire pans of these who were put to death for their sin, beat them into thin plates, and make a covering for the altar. It will be a warning to the people of Israel." ³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the fire pans and had them beaten into thin plates to make a covering for the altar. ⁴⁰This was a warning to the Israelites that no one who was not a descendant of Aaron should come to the altar to burn incense for the LORD. Otherwise he would be destroyed like Korah and his men. All this was done as the LORD had commanded Eleazar through Moses.

Aaron Saves the People

⁴¹The next day the whole community complained against Moses and Aaron and said, "You have killed some of the LORD's people." ⁴²After they had all gathered to protest to Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the Tent and saw that the cloud was covering it and that the dazzling light of the LORD's presence had appeared. ⁴³Moses and Aaron went and stood in front of the Tent, ⁴⁴and the LORD said to Moses, ⁴⁵"Move back from these people, and I will destroy them on the spot!"

The two of them bowed down with their faces to the ground, ⁴⁶and Moses said to Aaron, "Take your fire pan, put live coals from the altar in it, and put some incense on the coals. Then hurry with it to the people and perform the ritual of purification for them. Hurry! The LORD's anger has already broken out and an epidemic has already begun." ⁴⁷Aaron obeyed, took his fire pan and ran into the middle of the assembled people. When he saw that the plague had already begun, he put the incense on the coals and performed the ritual of purification for the people. ⁴⁸This stopped the plague, and he was left standing between the living and the dead. ⁴⁹The number of people who died was 14,700, not counting those who died in Korah's rebellion. ⁵⁰When the plague had stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent.

Thoughts on Wisdom and Foolishness

Ecclesiastes 9¹³There is something else I saw, a good example of how wisdom is regarded in this world. ¹⁴There was a little town without many people in it. A powerful king attacked it. He surrounded it and prepared to break through the walls. ¹⁵Someone lived there who was poor, but so clever that he could have saved the town. But no one thought about him. ¹⁶I have always said that wisdom is better than strength, but no one thinks of the poor as wise or pays any attention to what they say. ¹⁷It is better to listen to the quiet words of someone wise than to the shouts of a ruler at a council of fools. ¹⁸Wisdom does more good than weapons, but one sinner can undo a lot of good.
Ecclesiastes 10 Dead flies can make a whole bottle of perfume stink, and a little stupidity can cancel out the greatest wisdom.

²It is natural for the wise to do the right thing and for fools to do the wrong thing. ³Their stupidity will be evident even to strangers they meet along the way; they let everyone know that they are fools.

⁴If your ruler becomes angry with you, do not hand in your resignation; serious wrongs may be pardoned if you keep calm.

⁵Here is an injustice I have seen in the world--an injustice caused by rulers. ⁶Stupid people are given positions of authority while the rich are ignored. ⁷I have seen slaves on horseback while noblemen go on foot like slaves.

⁸If you dig a pit, you fall in it; if you break through a wall, a snake bites you. ⁹If you work in a stone quarry, you get hurt by stones. If you split wood, you get hurt doing it. ¹⁰If your ax is dull and you don't sharpen it, you have to work harder to use it. It is smarter to plan ahead. ¹¹Knowing how to charm a snake is of no use if you let the snake bite first. ¹²What the wise say brings them honor, but fools are destroyed by their own words. ¹³They start out with silly talk and end up with pure madness. ¹⁴A fool talks on and on.

No one knows what is going to happen next, and no one can tell us what will happen after we die.

¹⁵Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work.

¹⁶A country is in trouble when its king is a youth and its leaders feast all night long. ¹⁷But a country is fortunate to have a king who makes his own decisions and leaders who eat at the proper time, who control themselves and don't get drunk.

¹⁸When you are too lazy to repair your roof, it will leak, and the house will fall in.

¹⁹Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can't have either without money.

²⁰Don't criticize the king, even silently, and don't criticize the rich, even in the privacy of your bedroom. A bird might carry the message and tell them what you said.

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.