Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Yesterday we heard about the penalties for breaking the law, especially for the priests,
and today we're going to hear about the feasts the Israelites are called to keep and the
way that they are to keep them.
Alright, let's begin.
Today's reading is from Leviticus chapters 23 and 24.
And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them,
The feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts.
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.
You shall do no work on it, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed
times.
The fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord.
Seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it, but
you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days.
The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it.
When the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them,
When you come into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring
a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf on the day after
the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year,
without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an effa of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering
made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma, and its drink offering shall be of wine, one
fourth of a hymn.
You shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor fresh grain until the same day that you
have brought an offering to your God.
It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you
brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbathes shall be completed.
Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.
Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an effa.
They shall be of fine flour.
They shall be baked with leaven.
They are the first fruits to the Lord.
And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young
bull and two rams.
They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink
offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the
first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering.
The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before
the Lord with the two lambs.
They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.
And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you.
You shall do no customary work on it.
It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your
field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest.
You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger.
I am the Lord your God.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the
seventh month on the first day of the month you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial
of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to
the Lord.
And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the
day of atonement.
It shall be a holy convocation for you.
You shall afflict your souls an offering made by fire to the Lord.
And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the day of atonement, to make atonement
for you before the Lord your God.
For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his
people.
And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among
his people.
You shall do no manner of work.
It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest.
And you shall afflict your souls.
On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate
your Sabbath.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel saying, The fifteenth
day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.
On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work on it.
For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire
to the Lord.
It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.
These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to
offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice
and drink offerings, everything on its day, besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides
your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your free will offerings which you give
to the Lord.
Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the
land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days.
On the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath rest.
And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches
of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice
before the Lord your God for seven days.
You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations.
You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
You shall dwell in Booth for seven days.
All who are native Israelites shall dwell in Booth, that your generations may know that
I made the children of Israel dwell in Booth when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.
So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.
Chapter 24
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel that they bring to
you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually.
Outside the veil of the testimony in the tabernacle of meeting, Aaron shall be in charge of it,
from evening until morning before the Lord continually.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations.
He shall be in charge of the lamps, on a pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.
And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it.
Two tenths of an effah shall be in each cake.
You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord.
And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial,
an offering made by fire to the Lord.
Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the
children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it
is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.
Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children
of Israel.
And this Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought each other in a camp.
And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed, and so they brought
him to Moses.
His mother's name was Shelomit, the daughter of Debris, of the tribe of Dan.
Then they put him in custody that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take outside the camp him who has cursed.
Then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation
stone him.
Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear
his sin, and whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death.
All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born
in the land.
When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.
Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death.
Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal.
If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor as he has done, so shall it be done to him.
Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
As he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him.
And whoever kills an animal shall restore it, but whoever kills a man shall be put to
death.
You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country, for I am
the Lord your God.
Then Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and they took outside the camp him who had
cursed and stoned him with stones.
So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.