Bible Readings for February 24, 2017

Today our passages are Leviticus 15:1–16:28; Mark 7:1-23; Psalm 40:11-17; and Proverbs 10:13-14. The readings are the Contemporary English Version. If you find these readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal by using the link below.

 

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Leviticus 15-16:28 (Contemporary English Version)

Leviticus 15

Sexual Uncleanness

¹The LORD told Moses and Aaron ²to say to the community of Israel: Any man with an infected penis is unclean, ³whether it is stopped up or keeps dripping. ⁴Anything that he rests on or sits on is also unclean, ^5-7and if you touch either these or him, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening.
⁸If you are spit on by the man, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ^9-10Any saddle or seat on which the man sits is unclean. And if you touch or carry either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ¹¹If the man touches you without first washing his hands, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ¹²Any clay pot that he touches must be destroyed, and any wooden bowl that he touches must be washed.
¹³Seven days after the man gets well, he will be considered clean, if he washes his clothes and takes a bath in spring water. ¹⁴On the eighth day he must bring either two doves or two pigeons to the front of my sacred tent and give them to a priest. ¹⁵The priest will offer one of the birds as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me, ^[a] then I will consider the man completely clean. ¹⁶Any man who has a flow of semen must take a bath, but he still remains unclean until evening. ¹⁷If the semen touches anything made of cloth or leather, these must be washed, but they still remain unclean until evening. ¹⁸After having sex, both the man and the woman must take a bath, but they still remain unclean until evening.
¹⁹When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days, and if you touch her, you must take a bath, but you remain unclean until evening. ^20-23Anything that she rests on or sits on is also unclean, and if you touch either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. ²⁴Any man who has sex with her during this time becomes unclean for seven days, and anything he rests on is also unclean.
²⁵Any woman who has a flow of blood outside her regular monthly period is unclean until it stops, just as she is during her monthly period. ²⁶Anything that she rests on or sits on during this time is also unclean, just as it would be during her period. ²⁷If you touch either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening.
²⁸Seven days after the woman gets well, she will be considered clean. ²⁹On the eighth day, she must bring either two doves or two pigeons to the front of my sacred tent and give them to a priest. ³⁰He will offer one of the birds as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me; then I will consider the woman completely clean.
³¹When any of you are unclean, you must stay away from the rest of the community of Israel. Otherwise, my sacred tent will become unclean, and the whole nation will die.
^32-33These are the things you men must do if you become unclean because of an infected penis or if you have a flow of semen. And these are the things you women must do when you become unclean either because of your monthly period or an unusual flow of blood. This is also what you men must do if you have sex with a woman who is unclean.

Leviticus 16

The Great Day of Forgiveness

^1-2Two of Aaron's sons had already lost their lives for disobeying the LORD, ^[b] so the LORD told Moses to say to Aaron: I, the LORD, appear in a cloud over the place of mercy on the sacred chest, which is behind the inside curtain ^[c] of the sacred tent. And I warn you not to go there except at the proper time. Otherwise, you will die! ³Before entering this most holy place, you must offer a bull as a sacrifice for your sins ^[d] and a ram as a sacrifice to please me. ^[e]⁴You will take a bath and put on the sacred linen clothes, including the underwear, the robe, the sash, and the turban. ⁵Then the community of Israel will bring you a ram and two goats, both of them males. The goats are to be used as sacrifices for sin, and the ram is to be used as a sacrifice to please me. ⁶Aaron, you must offer the bull as a sacrifice of forgiveness for your own sins and for the sins of your family. ⁷Then you will lead the two goats into my presence at the front of the sacred tent, ⁸where I will show you ^[f] which goat will be sacrificed to me and which one will be sent into the desert to the demon Azazel. ^[g]⁹After you offer the first goat as a sacrifice for sin, ¹⁰the other one must be presented to me alive, before you send it into the desert to take away the sins of the people. ¹¹You must offer the bull as a sacrifice to ask forgiveness for your own sins and for the sins of your family. ¹²Then you will take a fire pan of live coals from the bronze altar, together with two handfuls of finely ground incense, into the most holy place. ¹³There you will present them to me by placing the incense on the coals, so that the place of mercy will be covered with a cloud of smoke. Do this, or you will die right there! ¹⁴Next, use a finger to sprinkle some of the blood on the place of mercy, which is on the lid of the sacred chest; then sprinkle blood seven times in front of the chest. ¹⁵Aaron, you must next sacrifice the goat for the sins of the people, and you must sprinkle its blood inside the most holy place, just as you did with the blood of the bull. ¹⁶By doing this, you will take away the sins that make both the most holy place and the people of Israel unclean. Do the same for the sacred tent, which is here among the people. ¹⁷Only you are allowed in the sacred tent from the time you enter until the time you come out. ¹⁸After leaving the tent, you will purify the bronze altar by smearing each of its four corners with some of the blood from the bull and from the goat. ¹⁹Use a finger to sprinkle the altar seven times with the blood, and it will be completely clean from the sins of the people.
²⁰After you have purified the most holy place, the sacred tent, and the bronze altar, you must bring the live goat to the front of the tent. ²¹There you will lay your hands on its head, while confessing every sin the people have committed, and you will appoint someone to lead the goat into the desert, so that it can take away their sins. ²²Finally, this goat that carries the heavy burden of Israel's sins must be released deep in the desert.
^23-24Aaron, after this you must go inside the sacred tent, take a bath, put on your regular priestly clothes, and leave there the clothes you put on before entering the most holy place. Then you will come out and offer sacrifices to please me and sacrifices for your sins and for the sins of the people. ²⁵The fat from these sacrifices for sin must be sent up in smoke on the bronze altar.
²⁶The one who led the goat into the desert and sent it off to the demon Azazel must take a bath and wash his clothes before coming back into camp. ²⁷The remains of the bull and the goat whose blood was taken into the most holy place must be taken outside the camp and burned. ²⁸And whoever does this must take a bath and change clothes before coming back into camp.

Footnotes:

1. Leviticus 15:15sacrifice to please me: See the note at 1.1-3.
2. Leviticus 16:1lost. . . disobeying the LORD: See 10.1,2.
3. Leviticus 16:1inside curtain: That separated the holy place from the most holy place.
4. Leviticus 16:3for your sins: See 4.3-12.
5. Leviticus 16:3sacrifice to please me: See the note at 1.1-3.
6. Leviticus 16:8I will show you: The Hebrew text has " you must cast lots to find out." Pieces of wood or stone (called " lots" ) were used to find out what God wanted his people to do.
7. Leviticus 16:8Azazel: It was believed that a demon named Azazel lived in the desert.

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Mark 7:1-23 (Contemporary English Version)

Mark 7

The Teaching of the Ancestors

(Matthew 15.1-9)

¹Some Pharisees and several teachers of the Law of Moses from Jerusalem came and gathered around Jesus. ²They noticed that some of his disciples ate without first washing their hands. ^[a] ³The Pharisees and many other Jewish people obey the teachings of their ancestors. They always wash their hands in the proper way ^[b] before eating. ⁴None of them will eat anything they buy in the market until it is washed. They also follow a lot of other teachings, such as washing cups, pitchers, and bowls. ^[c]
⁵The Pharisees and teachers asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? Why do they eat without washing their hands?"
⁶Jesus replied:
You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said,
"All of you praise me
with your words,
but you never really
think about me.
⁷It is useless for you
to worship me,
when you teach rules
made up by humans."
⁸You disobey God's commands in order to obey what humans have taught. ⁹You are good at rejecting God's commands so that you can follow your own teachings! ¹⁰Didn't Moses command you to respect your father and mother? Didn't he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? ¹¹But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they own has been offered to God. ^[d]¹²You won't let those people help their parents. ¹³And you ignore God's commands in order to follow your own teaching. You do a lot of other things that are just as bad.

What Really Makes People Unclean

(Matthew 15.10-20)

¹⁴Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. ^15-16The food that you put into your mouth doesn't make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean." ^[e] ¹⁷After Jesus and his disciples had left the crowd and had gone into the house, they asked him what these sayings meant. ¹⁸He answered, "Don't you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean. ¹⁹It doesn't go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body." By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.
²⁰Then Jesus said:
What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. ²¹Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, ²²unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. ²³All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.

Footnotes:

1. Mark 7:2 without first washing their hands: The Jewish people had strict laws about washing their hands before eating, especially if they had been out in public.
2. Mark 7:3 in the proper way: The Greek text has "with the fist," but the exact meaning is not clear. It could mean "to the wrist" or "to the elbow."
3. Mark 7:4 bowls: Some manuscripts add "and sleeping mats."
4. Mark 7:11 has been offered to God: According to Jewish custom, when anything was offered to God, it could not be used for anyone else, not even for a person's parents.
5. Mark 7:15 unclean: Some manuscripts add, "If you have ears, pay attention."

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Psalm 40:11-17 (Contemporary English Version)

¹¹You, LORD, never fail
to have pity on me;
your love and faithfulness
always keep me secure.
¹²I have more troubles
than I can count.
My sins are all around me,
and I can't find my way.
My sins outnumber
the hairs on my head,
and I feel weak.
¹³Please show that you care
and come to my rescue.
Hurry and help me!
¹⁴Disappoint and confuse
all who want me dead;
turn away and disgrace
all who want to hurt me.
¹⁵Embarrass and shame
all of those who say,
"Just look at you now!"
¹⁶Our LORD, let your worshipers
rejoice and be glad.
They love you for saving them,
so let them always say,
"The LORD is wonderful!"
¹⁷I am poor and needy,
but, LORD God,
you care about me,
and you come to my rescue.
Please hurry and help.

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Proverbs 10:13-14 (Contemporary English Version)

¹³If you have good sense,
it will show when you speak.
But if you are stupid,
you will be beaten
with a stick.
¹⁴If you have good sense,
you will learn all you can,
but foolish talk
will soon destroy you.

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Verse of the Day

“I will bless you with a future filled with hope--a future of success, not of suffering. You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers. You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you” - Jeremiah 29:11-13

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

American writer, E. B. White wrote, “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”