Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Today's reading is from Numbers chapters 15 to 17.
Chapter 15.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them,
When you have come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving to you, and you
make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow,
or as a freewill offering, or in your appointed feasts, to make a sweet aroma to the Lord
from the herd or the flock.
Then he who presents his offering to the Lord shall bring a grain offering of one tenth
of an effa of fine flour mixed with one fourth of a hin of oil, and one fourth of a hin of
wine as a drink offering you shall prepare with the burnt offering or the sacrifice for
each lamb.
Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two tenths of an effa of fine flour
mixed with one third of a hin of oil, and as a drink offering you shall offer one third
of a hin of wine as a sweet aroma to the Lord.
And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow,
or as a peace offering to the Lord, then shall be offered with the young bull a grain offering
of three tenths of an effa of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil.
And you shall bring as the drink offering half a hin of wine as an offering made by
fire a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Thus it shall be done for each young bull, for each ram, or for each lamb or young goat,
according to the number that you prepare, so you shall do with everyone according to
their number.
All who are native born shall do these things in this manner in presenting an offering made
by fire a sweet aroma to the Lord.
And if a stranger dwells with you or whoever is among you throughout your generations and
would present an offering made by fire a sweet aroma to the Lord, just as you do, so shall
he do.
One ordinance shall be for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells with you,
an ordinance forever throughout your generations.
As you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.
One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.
Again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them,
When you come into the land to which I bring you, then it will be when you eat the bread
of the land that you shall offer up a heave offering to the Lord.
You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering.
As a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up.
Of the first of your ground meal you shall give to the Lord a heave offering throughout
your generations.
If you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments which the Lord has
spoken to Moses, all that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day the
Lord gave commandment and onward throughout your generations, then it will be, if it is
unintentionally committed without the knowledge of the congregation, that the whole congregation
shall offer one young bull as a burnt offering, as a sweet aroma to the Lord, with its grain
offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one kid of the goats
as a sin offering.
So the priest shall make atonement for the whole congregation of the children of Israel,
and it shall be forgiven them, for it was unintentional.
They shall bring their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering
before the Lord, for their unintended sin.
It shall be forgiven the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and the stranger
who dwells among you, because all the people did it unintentionally.
And if a person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring a female goat in its first
year as a sin offering, so the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally,
when he sins unintentionally before the Lord, to make atonement for him, and it shall be
forgiven him.
You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native born among the children
of Israel, and for the stranger who dwells among them.
But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native born or a stranger, that
one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people.
Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken his commandment, that person
shall be completely cut off.
His guilt shall be upon him.
Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks
on a Sabbath day, and those who found him gathering sticks, brought him to Moses and
Aaron and to all the congregation.
They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
Then the Lord said to Moses, the man must surely be put to death.
All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.
So as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him
with stones, and he died.
Again the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel, tell them to make
tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread
in the tassels of the corners, and you shall have the tassel that you may look upon it,
and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, and that you may not follow the
harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember
and do all my commandments, and be holy for your God.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
I am the Lord your God.
Chapter 16 Now Korah the son of Izar, the son of Kohath,
the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons
of Reuben, took men, and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel,
two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of
renown.
They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, You take too much upon yourselves,
for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them.
Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?
So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face, and he spoke to Korah and all his company
saying, Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is he and who is holy, and will cause
him to come near to him.
That one whom he chooses, he will cause to come near to him.
Do this, take censors, Korah and all your company, put fire in them and put incense
in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the Lord chooses is the
holy one.
You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi.
Then Moses said to Korah, Hear now you sons of Levi, is it a small thing to you that the
God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to
do the work of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to serve
them?
And that he has brought you near to himself, you and all your brethren, the sons of Levi,
with you?
And are you seeking the priesthood also?
Therefore, you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord, and what is Aaron
that you complain against him?
And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, but they said, We will not
come up.
Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and
honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you should keep acting like a prince over us?
Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us
inheritance of fields and vineyards.
Will you put out the eyes of these men?
We will not come up.
And Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, Do not respect their offering.
I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them.
And Moses said to Korah, Tomorrow you and all your company be present before the Lord,
you and they, as well as Aaron.
Let each take his censer and put incense in it, and each of you bring his censer before
the Lord, two hundred and fifty censers, both you and Aaron, each with his censer.
So every man took his censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and stood at the door
of the tabernacle of meeting with Moses and Aaron.
And Korah gathered all the congregation against them at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.
And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation,
that I may consume them in a moment.
Then they fell on their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh,
shall one man sin and you be angry with all the congregation?
So the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the congregation, saying, Get away from
the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.
Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.
And he spoke to the congregation, saying, Depart now from the tents of these wicked
men.
Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins.
So they got away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.
And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents with their wives,
their sons and their little children.
And Moses said, By this you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works,
for I have not done them of my own will.
If these men die naturally like all men, or if they are visited by the common faith of
all men, then the Lord has not sent me.
But if the Lord creates a new thing and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up
with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand
that these men have rejected the Lord.
Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart
under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households,
and all the men with Korah with all their goods.
So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit.
The earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.
Then all Israel, who were around them, fled at their cry, for they said, Lest the earth
shall swallow us up also.
Then fire came out from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering
incense.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Tell Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, to pick
up the censers out of the blaze, for they are holy, and scatter the fire some distance
away.
The censers of these men who sinned against their own souls, let them be made into hammered
plates as a covering for the altar, because they presented them before the Lord, therefore
they are holy, and they shall be assigned to the children of Israel.
So Eliezer the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burnt up had presented,
and they were hammered out as a covering on the altar, to be a memorial to the children
of Israel, that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should come near to offer incense
before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his companions, just as the
Lord had said to him through Moses.
On the next day, all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses
and Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the Lord.
Now it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they
turned toward the tabernacle of meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory
of the Lord appeared.
Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment, and they fell
on their faces.
So Moses said to Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire in it from the altar, put incense
on it, and take it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them, for wrath has
gone out from the Lord.
The plague has begun.
Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly, and already
the plague had begun among the people.
So he put in the incense, and made atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead
and the living, so the plague was stopped.
Now these who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the Korah incident.
So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague
had stopped.
Chapter 17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak
to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father's house, all their
leaders according to their father's houses, twelve rods.
Write each man's name on his rod, and you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi,
for there shall be one rod for the head of each father's house.
And you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the testimony where I meet
with you.
And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom.
Thus I will rid myself of the complaints of the children of Israel which they make against
you.
So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece,
for each leader according to their father's houses, twelve rods.
And the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
And Moses placed the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness.
Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold
the rod of Aaron of the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced
blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.
Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel, and
they looked, and each man took his rod.
And the Lord said to Moses, Bring Aaron's rod back before the testimony, to be kept
as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from me, lest they
die.
Thus did Moses, just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.
So the children of Israel spoke to Moses saying, Surely we die, we perish, we all perish.
Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die.
Shall we all utterly die?
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.