The Daily Audio Bible

⁷ Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar, and bring your sin offering, and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people.^[a] Then present the offering for the people, and make atonement for them, as Adonai commanded.”

⁸ So Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. ⁹ The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him. Then he dipped his finger in the blood, dabbed it onto the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar. ¹⁰ But the fat, the kidneys and the cover from the liver of the sin offering he burned up as smoke on the altar, as Adonai had commanded Moses. ¹¹ The flesh and the hide he burned in a fire outside the camp. ¹² Aaron slaughtered the burnt offering, then his sons presented the blood to him and he splashed it around on the altar. ¹³ They handed the burnt offering to him piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned them up as smoke on the altar. ¹⁴ He washed the innards and the legs and he offered them in smoke upon the burnt offering on the altar. ¹⁵ Then he presented the people’s gift, took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people, slaughtered it, and offered it for sin, just like the first one. ¹⁶ He presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the decree.

¹⁷ Then Aaron presented the grain offering, filling his hand with some of it and burning it up as smoke on the altar, alongside the burnt offering of the morning. ¹⁸ He also slaughtered the bull and the ram as the sacrifice of fellowship offerings for the people. Then his sons brought him the blood, which he splashed around on the altar, ¹⁹ as well as the fat from the bull and the ram, the fat tail, and the layer over the innards along with the kidneys and the covering of the liver. ²⁰ They put the fat upon the breasts, and he burned it on the altar. ²¹ But the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave offering before Adonai, as Moses had commanded. ²² Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.^[b] Then he stepped down from presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.

²³ Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came back out and blessed the people, the glory of Adonai appeared to all the people. ²⁴ Fire came out from the presence of Adonai, and devoured the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Holy Fire Consumes Unauthorized Fire

10 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own censer, put fire in it, laid incense over it, and offered unauthorized fire before Adonai—which He had not commanded them. ² So fire came out from the presence of Adonai and consumed them. So they died before Adonai. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Adonai spoke of, saying:

To those who are near Me

I will show myself holy.

Upon the faces of all the people

I will be glorified.”

Then Aaron kept silent.

⁴ Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come near, carry your relatives away from the front of the Sanctuary to outside of the camp.” ⁵ So they drew near and carried them, still in their tunics, outside of the camp, as Moses had said.

⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons: “Do not uncover your heads or tear your clothes, so you may not die and He will not be angry with the entire congregation. But let your kinsmen—the whole house of Israel—mourn over the burning that Adonai has kindled. ⁷ You must not go out from the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, or you will die, for the anointing oil of Adonai is on you.” So they acted according to the word of Moses.

⁸ Adonai spoke to Aaron saying: ⁹ “Do not drink wine or fermented drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, so that you do not die. This is to be a statute forever throughout your generations. ¹⁰ You are to make a distinction between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean. ¹¹ And you are to teach Bnei-Yisrael all the statutes which Adonai has spoken to them through Moses.”

¹² Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Itamar his surviving sons: “Take the grain offering left over from Adonai’s offerings by fire, and eat it without hametz beside the altar, for it is most holy. ¹³ You are to eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion and your sons’ portion of the offerings of Adonai made by fire. For so I have been commanded. ¹⁴ You are to eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented in a clean place—you, your sons and your daughters with you—for they are given as your portion, and your children’s portion, out of the sacrifices of the fellowship offerings of Bnei-Yisrael. ¹⁵ They are to bring the thigh that is presented and the breast that is waved with fat portions scorched by fire, to wave it as a wave offering before Adonai. So it will be yours and your sons’ with you, a share forever, as Adonai has commanded.”

¹⁶ Then Moses searched carefully for the goat of the sin offering and noticed it had been burned up. So he snapped at Eleazar and Itamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying: ¹⁷ “Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the Sanctuary, since it is most holy, and He gave it to you in order to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before Adonai? ¹⁸ Look, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly should have eaten it in the Sanctuary, as I commanded.”

¹⁹ But Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before Adonai. When things like these have happened to me, would it have been good in the eyes of Adonai if I had eaten the sin offering today?” ²⁰ When Moses heard this, it was good in his eyes.

What Is the Kingdom of God Like?

²⁶ And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like when a man spreads seed on the soil ²⁷ and falls asleep at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He himself doesn’t know how. ²⁸ Automatically, the earth brings forth a crop—first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain is ready, at once he sends in the sickle, for the harvest has come.”

³⁰ Yeshua also said, “How should we picture the kingdom of God? Or by what story shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed when it’s planted in the ground. Though the smallest of all seeds in the earth, ³² yet when planted it grows up and becomes the largest of all the herbs. It puts forth big branches, so the birds of the air can nest in its shade.”^[a]

³³ With many such parables He used to tell them the word, as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ But apart from a parable, He wasn’t speaking to them. Yet when they were alone, to His own disciples He would explain everything.

Power Over Nature

³⁵ Now on that same day in the evening, He says to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side.” ³⁶ After leaving the crowd, they take Him along in the boat, just as He was. And other boats were with Him.

³⁷ A great windstorm arises, and the waves were rushing into the boat. The boat was beginning to fill up. ³⁸ But Yeshua was in the back of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They wake Him up and say to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”

³⁹ So He woke up and rebuked the wind. And He said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind stopped, and it became totally calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Even now you have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were struck with awe and said to one another, “Who is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

Power Over Demons

5 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. ² As soon as Yeshua got out of the boat, a man from the graveyard^[b] with an unclean spirit met Him. ³ He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been ripped apart by him and the shackles broken. No one was strong enough to tame him. ⁵ And through it all, night and day, at the graveyard and in the mountains, he kept screaming and gashing himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Yeshua from a distance, he ran and bowed down before Him. ⁷ Crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What’s between You and me, Yeshua, Ben El Elyon? I’m warning you, in the name of God, do not torment me!”

⁸ For Yeshua had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ Then Yeshua began questioning him, “What is your name?”

And he answered, “My name is Legion,^[c] for we are many.” ¹⁰ He kept begging Him not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now a large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside nearby. ¹² The unclean spirits urged Him, saying, “Send us to the pigs, so we may enter them.” ¹³ So Yeshua gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. And the herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the cliff and were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ The herdsmen ran away and told the town and countryside, and they came to see what had happened. ¹⁵ Now they came to Yeshua and saw the madman who had had the legion. He was sitting there, dressed in clothes and in his right mind. The people were scared.

¹⁶ Those who had seen it described in detail what had happened to the man plagued by a demon, and they also told about the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to beg Yeshua to leave their country. ¹⁸ As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been infested with demons kept begging to remain with Him. ¹⁹ Yeshua did not let him, but He told him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much Adonai has done for you, how He showed you mercy.”

²⁰ So he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis^[d] how much Yeshua had done for him. And all were amazed.

Sayings of the Mouth Matter