Leviticus 23; Leviticus 24; Mark 1:1-22

Leviticus 23

1 The Lord gave Moses

2 the following regulations for the religious festivals, when the people of Israel are to gather for worship.

3 You have six days in which to do your work, but remember that the seventh day, the Sabbath, is a day of rest. On that day do not work, but gather for worship. The Sabbath belongs to the Lord, no matter where you live.

4 Proclaim the following festivals at the appointed times

5 The Passover, celebrated to honor the Lord, begins at sunset on the fourteenth day of the first month.

6 On the fifteenth day the Festival of Unleavened Bread begins, and for seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast.

7 On the first of these days you shall gather for worship and do none of your daily work.

8 Offer your food offerings to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day you shall again gather for worship, but you shall do none of your daily work.

9 When you come into the land that the Lord is giving you and you harvest your grain, take the first sheaf to the priest.

11 He shall present it as a special offering to the Lord, so that you may be accepted. The priest shall present it the day after the Sabbath.

12 On the day you present the offering of grain, also sacrifice as a burnt offering a one-year-old male lamb that has no defects.

13 With it you shall present four pounds of flour mixed with olive oil as a food offering. The odor of this offering is pleasing to the Lord. You shall also present with it an offering of one quart of wine.

14 Do not eat any of the new grain, whether raw, roasted, or baked into bread, until you have brought this offering to God. This regulation is to be observed by all your descendants for all time to come

15 Count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath on which you bring your sheaf of grain to present to the Lord.

16 On the fiftieth day, the day after the seventh Sabbath, present to the Lord another new offering of grain.

17 Each family is to bring two loaves of bread and present them to the Lord as a special gift. Each loaf shall be made of four pounds of flour baked with yeast and shall be presented to the Lord as an offering of the first grain to be harvested.

18 And with the bread the community is to present seven one-year-old lambs, one bull, and two rams, none of which may have any defects. They shall be offered as a burnt offering to the Lord, along with a grain offering and a wine offering. The odor of this offering is pleasing to the Lord.

19 Also offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a fellowship offering

20 The priest shall present the bread with the two lambs as a special gift to the Lord for the priests. These offerings are holy.

21 On that day do none of your daily work, but gather for worship. Your descendants are to observe this regulation for all time to come, no matter where they live

22 When you harvest your fields, do not cut the grain at the edges of the fields, and do not go back to cut the heads of grain that were left; leave them for poor people and foreigners. The Lord is your God.

23 On the first day of the seventh month observe a special day of rest, and come together for worship when the trumpets sound.

25 Present a food offering to the Lord and do none of your daily work.

26 The tenth day of the seventh month is the day when the annual ritual is to be performed to take away the sins of the people. On that day do not eat anything at all; come together for worship, and present a food offering to the Lord.

28 Do no work on that day, because it is the day for performing the ritual to take away sin.

29 Any who eat anything on that day will no longer be considered God's people.

30 And if any do any work on that day, the Lord himself will put them to death.

31 This regulation applies to all your descendants, no matter where they live.

32 From sunset on the ninth day of the month to sunset on the tenth observe this day as a special day of rest, during which nothing may be eaten.

33 The Festival of Shelters begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and continues for seven days.

35 On the first of these days come together for worship and do none of your daily work.

36 Each day for seven days you shall present a food offering. On the eighth day come together again for worship and present a food offering. It is a day for worship, and you shall do no work

37 (These are the religious festivals on which you honor the Lord by gathering together for worship and presenting food offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and wine offerings, as required day by day.

38 These festivals are in addition to the regular Sabbaths, and these offerings are in addition to your regular gifts, your offerings as fulfillment of vows, and your freewill offerings that you give to the Lord.

39 When you have harvested your fields, celebrate this festival for seven days, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The first day shall be a special day of rest.

40 On that day take some of the best fruit from your trees, take palm branches and limbs from leafy trees, and begin a religious festival to honor the Lord your God.

41 Celebrate it for seven days. This regulation is to be kept by your descendants for all time to come.

42 All the people of Israel shall live in shelters for seven days,

43 so that your descendants may know that the Lord made the people of Israel live in simple shelters when he led them out of Egypt. He is the Lord your God.

44 So in this way Moses gave the people of Israel the regulations for observing the religious festivals to honor the Lord.

Leviticus 24

1 The Lord told Moses

2 to give the following orders to the people of Israel: Bring pure olive oil of the finest quality for the lamps in the Tent, so that a light might be kept burning regularly.

3 Each evening Aaron shall light them and keep them burning until morning, there in the Lord's presence outside the curtain in front of the Covenant Box, which is in the Most Holy Place. This regulation is to be observed for all time to come.

4 Aaron shall take care of the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold and must see that they burn regularly in the Lord's presence.

5 Take twenty-four pounds of flour and bake twelve loaves of bread.

6 Put the loaves in two rows, six in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, which is in the Lord's presence.

7 Put some pure incense on each row, as a token food offering to the Lord to take the place of the bread.

8 Every Sabbath, for all time to come, the bread must be placed in the presence of the Lord. This is Israel's duty forever.

9 The bread belongs to Aaron and his descendants, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because this is a very holy part of the food offered to the Lord for the priests.

10 There was a man whose father was an Egyptian and whose mother was an Israelite named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan. There in the camp this man quarreled with an Israelite. During the quarrel he cursed the Lord, so they took him to Moses,

12 put him under guard, and waited for the Lord to tell them what to do with him.

13 The Lord said to Moses,

14 "Take that man out of the camp. Everyone who heard him curse shall put his hands on the man's head to testify that he is guilty, and then the whole community shall stone him to death.

15 Then tell the people of Israel that anyone who curses God must suffer the consequences

16 and be put to death. Any Israelite or any foreigner living in Israel who curses the Lord shall be stoned to death by the whole community.

17 "Any who commit murder shall be put to death,

18 and any who kill an animal belonging to someone else must replace it. The principle is a life for a life.

19 "If any of you injure another person, whatever you have done shall be done to you.

20 If you break a bone, one of your bones shall be broken; if you put out an eye, one of your eyes shall be put out; if you knock out a tooth, one of your teeth shall be knocked out. Whatever injury you cause another person shall be done to you in return.

21 Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death.

22 This law applies to all of you, to Israelites and to foreigners living among you, because I am the Lord your God."

23 When Moses had said this to the people of Israel, they took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death. In this way the people of Israel did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

Mark 1:1-22

1 This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 It began as the prophet Isaiah had written: "God said, "I will send my messenger ahead of you to open the way for you.'

3 Someone is shouting in the desert, "Get the road ready for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel!' "

4 So John appeared in the desert, baptizing and preaching. "Turn away from your sins and be baptized," he told the people, "and God will forgive your sins."

5 Many people from the province of Judea and the city of Jerusalem went out to hear John. They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan River.

6 John wore clothes made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

7 He announced to the people, "The man who will come after me is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to bend down and untie his sandals.

8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

9 Not long afterward Jesus came from Nazareth in the province of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

10 As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove.

11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you."

12 At once the Spirit made him go into the desert,

13 where he stayed forty days, being tempted by Satan. Wild animals were there also, but angels came and helped him.

14 After John had been put in prison, Jesus went to Galilee and preached the Good News from God.

15 "The right time has come," he said, "and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!"

16 As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew, catching fish with a net.

17 Jesus said to them, "Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people."

18 At once they left their nets and went with him.

19 He went a little farther on and saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in their boat getting their nets ready.

20 As soon as Jesus saw them, he called them; they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with Jesus.

21 Jesus and his disciples came to the town of Capernaum, and on the next Sabbath Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach.

22 The people who heard him were amazed at the way he taught, for he wasn't like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.