READ THE BIBLE IN A YEAR - VERSES OF THE DAY - LEVITICUS 24, LUKE 5, PROVERBS 17

Joyce Meyer - Knowing God (3)

Leviticus 24

Olive Oil and Bread Set Before the LORD

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. ³ Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ⁴ The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.

 ⁵ “Take the finest flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah^[a] for each loaf. ⁶
Arrange them in two stacks, six in each stack, on the table of pure gold before the LORD. ⁷ By each stack put some pure incense as a memorial^[b] portion to represent the bread and to be a food offering presented to the LORD. ⁸ This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. ⁹ It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in the sanctuary area, because it is a most holy part of their perpetual share of the food offerings presented to the LORD.”

A Blasphemer Put to Death

 ¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. ¹¹ The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) ¹² They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.
 ¹³ Then the LORD said to Moses: ¹⁴ “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. ¹⁵ Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; ¹⁶ anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.
 ¹⁷ “‘Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. ¹⁸ Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. ¹⁹ Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. ²¹ Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. ²² You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.’”
 ²³ Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Luke 5

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

 ¹ One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,^[h] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

 ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
 ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
 ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
 ⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
   Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy

 ¹² While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.^[i] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
 ¹³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
 ¹⁴ Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
 ¹⁵ Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

 ¹⁷ One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. ¹⁸ Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. ¹⁹ When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

 ²⁰ When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

 ²¹ The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
 ²² Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ²⁵ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. ²⁶ Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners

 ²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

 ²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
 ³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

 ³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
 ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? ³⁵ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
 ³⁶ He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. ³⁸ No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Proverbs 17

 ¹ Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
   than a house full of feasting, with strife.

 ² A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son
   and will share the inheritance as one of the family.
 ³ The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
   but the LORD tests the heart.
 ⁴ A wicked person listens to deceitful lips;
   a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.
 ⁵ Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
   whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.
 ⁶ Children’s children are a crown to the aged,
   and parents are the pride of their children.
 ⁷ Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool—
   how much worse lying lips to a ruler!
 ⁸ A bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it;
   they think success will come at every turn.
 ⁹ Whoever would foster love covers over an offense,
   but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

 ¹⁰ A rebuke impresses a discerning person
   more than a hundred lashes a fool.

 ¹¹ Evildoers foster rebellion against God;
   the messenger of death will be sent against them.

 ¹² Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
   than a fool bent on folly.
 ¹³ Evil will never leave the house
   of one who pays back evil for good.
 ¹⁴ Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
   so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.
 ¹⁵ Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—
   the LORD detests them both.
 ¹⁶ Why should fools have money in hand to buy wisdom,
   when they are not able to understand it?

 ¹⁷ A friend loves at all times,
   and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

 ¹⁸ One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge
   and puts up security for a neighbor.

 ¹⁹ Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin;
   whoever builds a high gate invites destruction.
 ²⁰ One whose heart is corrupt does not prosper;
   one whose tongue is perverse falls into trouble.
 ²¹ To have a fool for a child brings grief;
   there is no joy for the parent of a godless fool.

 ²² A cheerful heart is good medicine,
   but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

 ²³ The wicked accept bribes in secret
   to pervert the course of justice.

 ²⁴ A discerning person keeps wisdom in view,
   but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.
 ²⁵ A foolish son brings grief to his father
   and bitterness to the mother who bore him.
 ²⁶ If imposing a fine on the innocent is not good,
   surely to flog honest officials is not right.
 ²⁷ The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint,
   and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.
 ²⁸ Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
   and discerning if they hold their tongues.