Friday, 23 Iyar 5784 / May 31, 2024
Day 517 Readings
Torah: Parshat Bechukotai, 6th Portion Vayikra (Leviticus) 27:22-27:28
Leviticus 27:22-28
English Standard Version
22 If he dedicates to the Lord a field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession, 23 then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on that day as a holy gift to the Lord. 24 In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession. 25 Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs[a] shall make a shekel.
26 “But a firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. 27 And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the valuation, and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at the valuation.
28 “But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord.
Bible Study Together
Micah 6-7
English Standard Version
The Indictment of the Lord
1 Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth,for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery,and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
What Does the Lord Require?
6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?7 Will the Lord be pleased with[a] thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,[b] and to walk humbly with your God?
Destruction of the Wicked
9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it![c]10 Can I forget any longer the treasures[d] of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? 11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? 12 Your[e] rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword.15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri,[f] and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your[g] inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”
Micah 7
Wait for the God of Salvation
1 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned:there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind;they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge.The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.5 Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend;guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms;[h]6 for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother,the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise;when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him,until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.10 Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
11 A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended.12 In that day they[i] will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,and from Egypt to the River,[j] from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.13 But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance,who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land;[k]let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them[l] marvelous things.16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf;17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth;they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.
God's Steadfast Love and Compassion
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our[m] sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Mark 15:25-32
ESV Readings
Scripture
Psalms 149
English Standard Version
Sing to the Lord a New Song
1 Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
3 Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.
5 Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord!
Numbers 35
Numbers 36
Joel 2:28-32
The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit
28 [a] “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
Joel 3:1-21
The Lord Judges the Nations
1 [a] “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.
4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.[b] 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”
9 Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war;[c] stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”
11 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord. 12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.
The Glorious Future of Judah
17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.
18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
19 “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations. 21 I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged,[d] for the Lord dwells in Zion.”
1 Timothy 6:3-21
1 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound[a] words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and[b] we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before[c] Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.
Grace be with you.[d]