Hebrews 9:23-28; Hebrews 10:1-18; Exodus 9; Exodus 10; Proverbs 3

Hebrews 9:23-28

23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these [sacrifices], but the heavenly things themselves [to be purified] with better sacrifices than these.

24 For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, that He might now appear in the presence of God for us.

25 He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another.

26 Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once-and after this, judgment-

28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

Hebrews 10:1-18

1 Since the law has [only] a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year.

2 Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said: You did not want sacrifice and offering, but You prepared a body for Me.

6 You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.

7 Then I said, "See, I have come- it is written about Me in the volume of the scroll- to do Your will, O God!"

8 After He says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings, (which are offered according to the law),

9 He then says, See, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first to establish the second.

10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

11 Now every priest stands day after day ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

13 He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool.

14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He had said:

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,

17 [He adds]: I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts.

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Exodus 9

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him: This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

2 But if you refuse to let [them] go and keep holding them,

3 then the Lord's hand will bring a severe plague against your livestock in the field-the horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.

4 But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that the Israelites own will die."

5 And the Lord set a time, saying, "Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land."

6 The Lord did this the next day. All the Egyptian livestock died, but none among the Israelite livestock died.

7 Pharaoh sent [messengers] who saw that not a single one of the Israelite livestock was dead. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of furnace soot, and Moses is to throw it toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

9 It will become fine dust over the entire land of Egypt. It will become festering boils on people and animals throughout the land of Egypt."

10 So they took furnace soot and stood before Pharaoh. Moses threw it toward heaven, and it became festering boils on man and beast.

11 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians.

12 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had told Moses.

13 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

14 Otherwise, I am going to send all My plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like Me in all the earth.

15 By now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth.

16 However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you My power and to make My name known in all the earth.

17 You are still acting arrogantly against My people by not letting them go.

18 Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

19 Therefore give orders to bring your livestock and all that you have in the field into shelters. Every person and animal that is in the field and not brought inside will die when the hail falls on them."

20 Those among Pharaoh's officials who feared the word of the Lord made their servants and livestock flee to shelters,

21 but those who didn't take the Lord's word seriously left their servants and livestock in the field.

22 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven and let there be hail throughout the land of Egypt-on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt."

23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.

24 The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

25 Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field.

26 The only place it didn't hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

27 Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. "I have sinned this time," he said to them. "The Lord is the Righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones.

28 Make an appeal to the Lord. There has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't need to stay any longer."

29 Moses said to him, "When I have left the city, I will extend my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know the earth is the Lord's.

30 But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the Lord God."

31 The flax and the barley were destroyed because the barley was ripe and the flax was budding,

32 but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed since they are later crops.

33 Moses went out from Pharaoh and the city, and extended his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land.

34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials.

35 So Pharaoh's heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.

Exodus 10

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may do these miraculous signs of Mine among them,

2 and so that you may tell your son and grandson how severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am the Lord."

3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, "This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may worship Me.

4 But if you refuse to let My people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

5 They will cover the surface of the land so that no one will be able to see the land. They will eat the remainder left to you that escaped the hail; they will eat every tree you have growing in the fields.

6 They will fill your houses, all your officials' houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians-something your fathers and ancestors never saw since the time they occupied the land until today." Then he turned and left Pharaoh's presence.

7 Pharaoh's officials asked him, "How long must this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Don't you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?"

8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the Lord your God," Pharaoh said. "But exactly who will be going?"

9 Moses replied, "We will go with our young and our old; we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds because we must hold the Lord's festival."

10 He said to them, "May the Lord be with you if I [ever] let you and your families go! Look out-you are planning evil.

11 No, only the men may go and worship the Lord, for that is what you have been asking for." And they were driven from Pharaoh's presence.

12 The Lord then said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt and the locusts will come up over it and eat every plant in the land, everything that the hail left."

13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts.

14 The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there will never be again.

15 They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt.

16 Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.

17 Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to the Lord your God, so that He will take this death away from me."

18 Moses left Pharaoh's presence and appealed to the Lord.

19 Then the Lord changed the wind to a strong west wind, and it carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt.

20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the Israelites go.

21 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt."

22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.

23 One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived.

24 Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, "Go, worship the Lord. Even your families may go with you; only your flocks and your herds must stay behind."

25 Moses responded, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for the Lord our God.

26 Even our livestock must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind because we will take some of them to worship the Lord our God. We will not know what we will use to worship the Lord until we get there."

27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was unwilling to let them go.

28 Pharaoh said to him, "Leave me! Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die."

29 "As you've said," Moses replied, "I will never see your face again."

Proverbs 3

1 My son, don't forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands;

2 for they will bring you many days, a full life, and well-being.

3 Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Tie them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;

6 think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.

7 Don't consider yourself to be wise; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

8 This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.

9 Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest;

10 then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

11 Do not despise the Lord's instruction, my son, and do not loathe His discipline;

12 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, just as a father, the son he delights in.

13 Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding,

14 for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold.

15 She is more precious than jewels; nothing you desire compares with her.

16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor.

17 Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths, peaceful.

18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy.

19 The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding.

20 By His knowledge the watery depths broke open, and the clouds dripped with dew.

21 Maintain [your] competence and discretion. My son, don't lose sight of them.

22 They will be life for you and adornment for your neck.

23 Then you will go safely on your way; your foot will not stumble.

24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant.

25 Don't fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes,

26 for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare.

27 When it is in your power, don't withhold good from the one to whom it is due.

28 Don't say to your neighbor, "Go away! Come back later. I'll give it tomorrow"-when it is there with you.

29 Don't plan any harm against your neighbor, for he trusts you and lives near you.

30 Don't accuse anyone without cause, when he has done you no harm.

31 Don't envy a violent man or choose any of his ways;

32 for the devious are detestable to the Lord, but He is a friend to the upright.

33 The Lord's curse is on the household of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous;

34 He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.

35 The wise will inherit honor, but He holds up fools to dishonor.