A Harvest of Joy

A Song of Ascents.

Various Offerings

15 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I give you, ³ and you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock an offering by fire or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfil a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing odor to the Lord, ⁴ then he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord a cereal offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil; ⁵ and wine for the drink offering, a fourth of a hin, you shall prepare with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb. ⁶ Or for a ram, you shall prepare for a cereal offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil; ⁷ and for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing odor to the Lord. ⁸ And when you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to fulfil a vow, or for peace offerings to the Lord, ⁹ then one shall offer with the bull a cereal offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil, ¹⁰ and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.

¹¹ “Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each of the male lambs or the kids. ¹² According to the number that you prepare, so shall you do with every one according to their number. ¹³ All who are native shall do these things in this way, in offering an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. ¹⁴ And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or any one is among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to offer an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, he shall do as you do. ¹⁵ For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the sojourner be before the Lord. ¹⁶ One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

⁴ Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, ⁶ as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless. ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Mary Anoints Jesus

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Laz′arus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Laz′arus was one of those at table with him. ³ Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. ⁴ But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, ⁵ “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii^[a] and given to the poor?” ⁶ This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. ⁷ Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸ The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”