Exodus 34; Exodus 35; Matthew 22:23-46

Exodus 34

1 The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. I'll write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke into pieces.

2 Get ready in the morning and come up to Mount Sinai. Stand there on top of the mountain in front of me.

3 No one else can come up with you. Don't allow anyone even to be seen anywhere on the mountain. Don't even let sheep and cattle graze in front of the mountain."

4 So Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning and climbed up Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him. He carried the two stone tablets in his hands.

5 The LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him, and proclaimed the name, "The LORD."

6 The LORD passed in front of him and proclaimed: "The LORD! The LORD! a God who is compassionate and merciful, very patient, full of great loyalty and faithfulness,

7 showing great loyalty to a thousand generations, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion, yet by no means clearing the guilty, punishing for their parents' sins their children and their grandchildren, as well as the third and the fourth generation."

8 At once Moses bowed to the ground and worshipped.

9 He said, "If you approve of me, my Lord, please go along with us. Although these are stubborn people, forgive our guilt and our sin and take us as your own possession."

10 The LORD said: I now make a covenant. In front of all your people, I'll perform dramatic displays of power that have never been done before anywhere on earth or in any nation. All the people who are around you will see what the LORD does, because I will do an awesome thing with you.

11 Be sure to obey what I command you today. I'm about to drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

12 Be careful that you don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a dangerous trap for you.

13 You must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stone pillars, and cut down their sacred poles.

14 You must not bow down to another god, because the LORD is passionate: the LORD's name means "a passionate God."

15 Don't make a covenant with those who live in the land. When they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they may invite you and you may end up eating some of the sacrifice.

16 Then you might go and choose their daughters as wives for your sons. And their daughters who prostitute themselves with their gods might lead your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.

17 Don't make metal gods for yourself.

18 Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You should eat unleavened bread for seven days, as I commanded you, at the set time in the month of Abib, because it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.

19 Every first offspring is mine. That includes all your male livestock, the oldest offspring of cows and sheep.

20 But a donkey's oldest offspring you may ransom with a sheep. Or if you don't ransom it, you must break its neck. You should ransom all of your oldest sons. No one should appear before me empty-handed.

21 You should do your work for six days, but on the seventh day you should rest. Even during plowing or harvesttime you should rest.

22 You should observe the Festival of Weeks, for the early produce of the wheat harvest, and the Gathering Festival at the end of the year.

23 All your males should appear three times a year before the LORD God, Israel's God.

24 I will drive out nations before you and extend your borders. No one will desire and try to take your land if you go up and appear before the LORD your God three times a year.

25 Don't slaughter the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened. The sacrifice of the Passover Festival shouldn't be left over until the morning.

26 Bring the best of the early produce of your farmland to the LORD your God's temple. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

27 The LORD said to Moses: "Write down these words because by these words I hereby make a covenant with you and with Israel."

28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He didn't eat any bread or drink any water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two covenant tablets in his hand, Moses didn't realize that the skin of his face shone brightly because he had been talking with God.

30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw the skin of Moses' face shining brightly, they were afraid to come near him.

31 But Moses called them closer. So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke with them.

32 After that, all the Israelites came near as well, and Moses commanded them everything that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

33 When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

34 Whenever Moses went into the LORD's presence to speak with him, Moses would take the veil off until he came out again. When Moses came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,

35 the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was shining brightly. So Moses would put the veil on his face again until the next time he went in to speak with the LORD.

Exodus 35

1 Moses gathered together the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do:

2 Do your work for six days, but the seventh day should be holy to you, a Sabbath of complete rest for the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath will be put to death.

3 Don't start a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath day.

4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, This is what the LORD has commanded:

5 Collect gift offerings for the LORD from all of you. Whoever freely wants to give should bring the LORD's gift offerings: gold, silver, and copper;

6 blue, purple, and deep red yarns; fine linen; goats' hair;

7 rams' skins dyed red; beaded leather; acacia wood;

8 the oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense;

9 gemstones; and gems for setting in the priest's vest and in the priest's chest pendant.

10 All of you who are skilled in crafts should come forward and make everything that the LORD has commanded:

11 the dwelling, its tent and its covering, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its posts, and its bases,

12 the chest with its poles and its cover, the veil for a screen,

13 the table with its poles and all its equipment, the bread of the presence,

14 the lampstand for light with its equipment and its lamps, the oil for the light,

15 the incense altar with its poles, the anointing oil and the sweet-smelling incense, the entrance screen for the dwelling's entrance,

16 the altar for entirely burned offerings with its copper grate, its poles, and all its equipment, the washbasin with its stand,

17 the courtyard's drapes, its posts, and its bases, and the screen for the courtyard gate,

18 the dwelling's tent pegs and the courtyard's tent pegs, and their cords,

19 the woven clothing for ministering in the sanctuary, and the holy clothes for Aaron the priest and his sons for their service as priests.

20 The whole Israelite community left Moses.

21 Everyone who was excited and eager to participate brought the LORD's gift offerings to be used for building the meeting tent and all its furnishings and for the holy clothes.

22 Both men and women came forward. Everyone who was eager to participate brought pins, earrings, rings, and necklaces, all sorts of gold objects. Everyone raised an uplifted offering of gold to the LORD.

23 And everyone who had blue or purple or deep red yarn or fine linen or goats' hair or rams' skins dyed red or beaded leather brought them.

24 Everyone who could make a gift offering of silver or copper brought it as the LORD's gift offering. Everyone who had acacia wood that could be used in any kind of building work brought it.

25 All the skilled women spun cloth with their hands, and brought what they had spun in blue and purple and deep red yarns and fine linen.

26 All the women who were eager to use their skill spun the goats' hair.

27 The chiefs brought gemstones and gems to be set in the priest's vest and the chest pendant,

28 spices and oil for light and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet-smelling incense.

29 All the Israelite men and women who were eager to contribute something for the work that the LORD had commanded Moses to do brought it as a spontaneous gift to the LORD.

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites: “Look, the LORD has chosen Bezalel, Uri's son and Hur's grandson from the tribe of Judah.

31 The LORD has filled him with the divine spirit that will give him skill, ability, and knowledge for every kind of work.

32 He will be able to create designs, do metalwork in gold, silver, and copper,

33 cut stones for setting, carve wood, do every kind of creative work,

34 and have the ability to teach others. Both he and Oholiab, Ahisamach's son from the tribe of Dan,

35 have been given the skill to do every kind of work done by a gem cutter or a designer or a needleworker in blue, purple, and deep red yarns and in fine linen or a weaver or anyone else doing work or creating designs.

Matthew 22:23-46

23 That same day Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus.

24 They asked, "Teacher, Moses said, If a man who doesn't have children dies, his brother must marry his wife and produce children for his brother.

25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married, then died. Because he had no children he left his widow to his brother.

26 The same thing happened with the second brother and the third, and in fact with all seven brothers.

27 Finally, the woman died.

28 At the resurrection, which of the seven brothers will be her husband? They were all married to her."

29 Jesus responded, "You are wrong because you don't know either the scriptures or God's power.

30 At the resurrection people won't marry nor will they be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like angels from God.

31 As for the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read what God told you,

32 I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He isn't the God of the dead but of the living."

33 Now when the crowd heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees speechless, they met together.

35 One of them, a legal expert, tested him.

36 "Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

37 He replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind.

38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

39 And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.

40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands."

41 Now as the Pharisees were gathering, Jesus asked them,

42 "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "David's son," they replied.

43 He said, "Then how is it that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, called him Lord when he said,

44 The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I turn your enemies into your footstool'?

45 If David calls him Lord, how can he be David's son?"

46 Nobody was able to answer him. And from that day forward nobody dared to ask him anything.