Sunday, 20 Nissan 5784 / April 28, 2024
Day 484 Readings
Torah: Parshat Acharei, 1st Portion Vayikra (Leviticus) 16:1-17
Leviticus 16:1-17
English Standard Version
The Day of Atonement
16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, 2 and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.[a] 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
11 “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel.
BIBLE Study Together
Isaiah 10:20-12:6
English Standard Version
The Remnant of Israel Will Return
20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. 27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”[a]
28 He has come to Aiath;he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;29 they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night;Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!31 Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.32 This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power;the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.
The Righteous Reign of the Branch
11 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush,[b] from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
12 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel,and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.14 But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east.They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.15 And the Lord will utterly destroy[c] the tongue of the Sea of Egypt,and will wave his hand over the River[d] with his scorching breath,[e]and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.16 And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people,as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
The Lord Is My Strength and My Song
12 You[f] will say in that day:“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me,your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid;for the Lord God[g] is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
3 With joy you[h] will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name,make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known[i] in all the earth.6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your[j] midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
ESV Readings
Scripture
Psalm 118
English Standard Version
His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”3 Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”4 Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?7 The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.
10 All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!12 They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!13 I was pushed hard,[a] so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.15 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous:“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,16 the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.18 The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.[b]23 This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us.Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. 29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
Leviticus 24
Isaiah 30:18-33
English Standard Version
The Lord Will Be Gracious
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;[a]his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; 28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place[b] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
Isaiah 31
English Standard Version
Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt
31 Woe[a] to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses,who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong,but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words,but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.
4 For thus the Lord said to me,“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against himhe is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise,so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight[b] on Mount Zion and on its hill. 5 Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem;he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.”
6 Turn to him from whom people[c] have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. 9 His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 32:1
Ephesians 3
English Standard Version
The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed
1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is[a] that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in[b] God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
Prayer for Spiritual Strength
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Dear AVI,
Blessed are YOU O GOD Almighty KING YESHUA Adonai Tzevaot who fights for me who loves me, who stands by me because I wait for YOU, I am YOURS and YOU are mine. O GOD I pray give me grace to talk to Lilibeth who has transferred to another location and job without my permission. I pray that she will be humble enough to receive what I will be telling her as I go to her today. I pray O GOD that YOU will take care of me because I want to ride the motor just to go to her. Please O GOD take hold of my emotions and my heart. Take hold of me in all that I do O GOD, I pray that YOU will take care of me because I am also very emotional, do not let my emotions take hold of me but help me be calm when talking and dealing with people with all discernment and wisdom for I am YOUR Child and YOU long to be gracious to me O GOD.
In JESUS Name, AMen!