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 18, 19 and 20.
Chapter 18 Then the Lord said to Aaron, You and your
sons and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity related to the sanctuary,
and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity associated with your priesthood.
Also bring with you your brethren of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they
may be joined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the
tabernacle of witness.
They shall attend to your needs and all the needs of the tabernacle, but they shall not
come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar lest they die, they and you also.
They shall be joined with you and attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting for
all the work of the tabernacle.
But an outsider shall not come near you, and you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary
and the duties of the altar, that there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel.
Behold I myself have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel.
They are a gift to you, given by the Lord to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting.
Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at
the altar and behind the veil, and you shall serve.
I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall
be put to death.
And the Lord spoke to Aaron, Here I myself have also given you charge of my heave offerings,
all the holy gifts of the children of Israel I have given them as a portion to you and
your sons as an ordinance for ever.
This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire.
Every offering of theirs, every grain offering and every sin offering and every trespass
offering which they render to me shall be most holy for you and your sons.
In a most holy place you shall eat it.
Every male shall eat it, it shall be holy to you.
This also is yours, the heave offering of their gift.
With all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given them to you and your
sons and daughters with you as an ordinance for ever.
Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.
All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their first fruits
which they offer to the Lord I have given them to you.
Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land which they bring to the Lord shall be yours.
Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.
Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.
Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh which they bring to the Lord, whether
man or beast, shall be yours.
Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem and the firstborn of unclean
animals you shall surely redeem.
And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according
to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary,
which is twenty ageras.
But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you
shall not redeem, they are holy.
You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by
fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord.
And their flesh shall be yours, just as the wave breast and the right thigh are yours.
All the heave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to the
Lord I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever.
It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.
Then the Lord said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you
have any portion among them.
I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithe in Israel as an inheritance
in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.
Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting lest they
bear sin and die.
But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall
bear their iniquity.
It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations that among the children of Israel
they shall have no inheritance.
For the tithe of the children of Israel which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord
I have given to the Levites as an inheritance.
Therefore I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them, When
you take from the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them as your inheritance,
then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe.
And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing
floor and as the fullness of the winepress.
Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithe which you
receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord's heave offering from
it to Aaron the priest.
Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the
best of them, the consecrated part of them.
Therefore you shall say to them, When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest
shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce
of the winepress.
You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your
work in the tabernacle of meeting.
And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it.
But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the
Lord has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel that they bring you a red heifer
without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come.
You shall give it to Eliezer the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it shall
be slaughtered before him.
And Eliezer the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some
of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting.
Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight, its hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal
shall be burned.
And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet, and cast them in the midst of
the fire, burning the heifer.
Then the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall
come into the camp.
The priest shall be unclean until evening.
And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean
until evening.
And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside
the camp in a clean place.
And they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of
purification.
It is for purifying from sin.
And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until
evening.
It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who dwells
among them.
He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days.
He shall purify himself with the water on the third day, and on the seventh day.
Then he shall be clean.
But if he does not purify himself on the third day, and on the seventh day, he will not be
clean.
Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died and does not purify himself, defiles the
tabernacle of the Lord.
That person shall be cut off from Israel.
He shall be unclean.
Because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, his uncleanness is still
on him.
This is the law when a man dies in a tent.
All who come into the tent, and all who are in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
And every open vessel which has no cover fastened on it is unclean.
Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword, or who has died, or a
bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for
purification from sin, and running water shall be put on them in a vessel.
A clean person shall take hissup and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on
all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain,
the dead, or a grave.
The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day.
And on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes and bathe in water, and at
evening he shall be clean.
But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from
among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.
The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean.
It shall be a perpetual statute for them.
He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes, and he who touches
the water of purification shall be unclean until evening.
Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it
shall be unclean until evening.
Chapter 20 Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation,
came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kaddish, and
Miriam died there and was buried there.
Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and
Aaron.
And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If only we had died when our brethren
died before the Lord.
Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our
animals should die there?
And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?
It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there any water to
drink.
So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle
of meeting, and they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, gather
the congregation together, speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water.
Thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation
and their animals.
So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them,
Here now you rebels, must we bring water for you out of this rock?
Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came out
abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe me, to hallow me in the
eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the
land which I have given them.
This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord,
and he was hallowed among them.
Now Moses sent messengers from Kaddish to the king of Edom, thus says your brother Israel,
you know all the hardship that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to Egypt, and
we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers.
When we cried out to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent the angel, and brought us up
out of Egypt.
Now here we are in Kaddish, a city on the edge of your border, please let us pass through
your country.
We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells, we will
go along the king's highway.
We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left, until we have passed through
your territory.
Then Edom said to him, you shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you
with the sword.
So the children of Israel said to him, we will go by the highway, and if I or my livestock
drink any of your water, then I will pay for it.
Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.
Then he said, you shall not pass through.
So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand.
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from
him.
Now the children of Israel, the whole congregation journeyed from Kaddish and came to Mount Hor,
and the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom saying,
Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given
to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.
Take Aaron and Eliezer his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor, and strip Aaron of his
garments and put them on Eliezer his son, for Aaron shall be gathered to his people
and die there.
So Moses did just as the Lord commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of
all the congregation.
Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eliezer his son, and Aaron died there
on the top of the mountain.
Then Moses and Eliezer came down from the mountain.
Now when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned
for Aaron 30 days.
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.