The Daily Audio Bible

Rules for Worship

¹³ “‘This is the contribution you must give to the Lord: seventeen percent of your wheat and seventeen percent of your barley. ¹⁴ You must give one percent of your olive oil using the standard measure. ¹⁵ You must take one sheep out of every 200 from the well-watered pastures of Israel. You must sacrifice them with grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings to make peace with the Lord, declares Adonay Yahweh. ¹⁶ All the common people must give this contribution to the prince in Israel. ¹⁷ Then the prince is responsible to provide burnt offerings, grain offerings, and wine offerings at the annual festivals, the New Moon Festivals, the weekly days of worship, and all the other appointed festivals of the nation of Israel. He must prepare offerings for sin, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings to make peace with the Lord for the nation of Israel.

¹⁸ “‘This is what Adonay Yahweh says: On the first day of the first month, take a young bull that has no defects and remove sin from the holy place. ¹⁹ The priest must take some blood from the offering for sin and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gateways of the inner courtyard. ²⁰ You must do the same on the seventh day of the month for everyone who unintentionally does something wrong and is unaware of it. So you must make peace with the Lord for the temple.

²¹ “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month, you will celebrate the Passover, a festival lasting seven days when unleavened bread is eaten. ²² At that time the prince must prepare for himself and for all the common people a young bull as an offering for sin. ²³ Every day during the seven days of the festival, he must prepare burnt offerings for Yahweh: seven young bulls that have no defects, seven rams that have no defects, and one male goat as an offering for sin. ²⁴ He must also give as a grain offering a half-bushel for each young bull and a half-bushel for each ram. He must also give one gallon of olive oil for every half-bushel of grain. ²⁵ On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at the Festival of Booths, he must do the same as on those seven days. He must prepare the same offerings for sin, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and olive oil.

46 “‘This is what Adonay Yahweh says: The east gate of the inner courtyard must be closed during the six working days, but it must be opened on the weekly day of worship. It must also be opened on the New Moon Festival. ² The prince must enter from the outside through the entrance hall of the gateway. He must stand by the doorposts of the gateway. Then the priests must prepare the prince’s burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He must worship at the entrance of the gateway and then leave. The gate must not be closed until evening. ³ The common people must worship at the door of the gateway in the presence of Yahweh on the weekly days of worship and on New Moon Festivals. ⁴ The prince must offer to Yahweh six lambs that have no defects and one ram that has no defects as a burnt offering on the day of worship. ⁵ The grain offering that is to be brought with the ram must be a half-bushel, and the grain offering that is to be brought with the lambs must be whatever the prince can bring. One gallon of olive oil must be brought with each half-bushel of grain. ⁶ On the first day of the month, the burnt offering must be one young bull, six lambs, and one ram—all animals that have no defects. ⁷ With each young bull and each ram the offering must include a half-bushel of grain, and with each lamb the offering must be whatever the prince wants to bring. One gallon of olive oil must be offered with each half-bushel of grain. ⁸ When the prince enters, he must enter through the entrance hall of the gateway. He must enter and leave the same way.

⁹ “‘The people will enter Yahweh’s presence at the time of the appointed festivals. Those entering through the north gate to worship must leave through the south gate. Those entering through the south gate must leave through the north gate. They must not leave through the same gate they entered. They must leave through the opposite gate. ¹⁰ The prince must be among them. When they enter, he must enter. When they leave, he must leave.

¹¹ “‘On festival days and at appointed festivals, a grain offering of a half-bushel must be brought with each young bull, and a half-bushel must be brought with each ram. But with the lambs, the prince may bring whatever he wants to bring. One gallon of olive oil must be brought with each half-bushel of grain. ¹² When the prince prepares a freewill burnt offering, either a burnt offering or a fellowship offering to Yahweh, the east gate must be opened for him. He must sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings as he does on the day of worship. When he leaves, the gate must be shut after him.

¹³ “‘Prepare a year-old lamb that has no defects every day as a burnt offering to Yahweh. Do this every morning. ¹⁴ Also, prepare a grain offering with it every morning: three-and-a-third quarts of grain and one-and-a-third quarts of olive oil to moisten the flour. It will be a grain offering dedicated to Yahweh. These rules are to be followed always. ¹⁵ Prepare the lamb, the grain offering, and the olive oil every morning as a daily burnt offering.

¹⁶ “‘This is what Adonay Yahweh says: Suppose the prince offers one of his sons a gift from his property. The gift will belong to his descendants because it is their inheritance. ¹⁷ But suppose the prince offers a gift from his property to one of his servants. The gift will belong to the servant only until the year of freedom. Then the gift will go back to the prince. Only his sons can inherit his property. ¹⁸ The prince must not take any of the people’s property. He must not force them to give up their property. He must give his own property as an inheritance to his sons so that none of my people will be separated from their property.’”

¹⁹ The man brought me through a passage beside the gateway to the side rooms that faced north. These rooms were reserved for the priests. He showed me a place on the west side of the rooms. ²⁰ He said to me, “This is the place where the priests must boil the meat for the guilt offering and the offering for sin. This is the place where they must bake grain offerings so that they don’t have to bring the offerings into the outer courtyard. This way they won’t transfer holiness to the people.”

²¹ Then the man led me to the outer courtyard and took me past the four corners of the courtyard. I saw that in each corner of the courtyard there was a smaller courtyard. ²² The smaller courtyards that were in each of the four corners of the courtyard were 60 feet long and 45 feet wide. All four of the smaller courtyards in the corners of the courtyard were the same size. ²³ Around each of the four courtyards were stone walls, and these walls were equipped with fireplaces.

²⁴ Then the man said to me, “These are the kitchens where the temple servants must boil the people’s sacrifices.”

Live Holy Lives

¹³ Therefore, your minds must be clear and ready for action. Place your confidence completely in what God’s kindness will bring you when Yeshua Christ appears again. ¹⁴ Because you are children who obey God, don’t live the kind of lives you once lived. Once you lived to satisfy your desires because you didn’t know any better. ¹⁵ But because the God who called you is holy you must be holy in every aspect of your life. ¹⁶ Scripture says, “Be holy, because I am holy.” ¹⁷ So if you call God your Father, live your time as temporary residents on earth in fear. He is the God who judges all people by what they have done, and he doesn’t play favorites. ¹⁸ Realize that you weren’t set free from the worthless life handed down to you from your ancestors by a payment of silver or gold which can be destroyed. ¹⁹ Rather, the payment that freed you was the precious blood of Christ, the lamb with no defects or imperfections. ²⁰ He is the lamb who was known long ago before the world existed, but for your good he became publicly known in the last period of time. ²¹ Through him you believe in God who brought Christ back to life and gave him glory. So your faith and confidence are in God.

Love Each Other

²² Love each other with a warm love that comes from the heart. After all, you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth. As a result you have a sincere love for each other. ²³ You have been born again, not from a seed that can be destroyed, but through God’s everlasting word that can’t be destroyed. That’s why Scripture says,

This word is the Good News that was told to you.

Live as God’s Chosen People

2 So get rid of every kind of evil, every kind of deception, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander. ² Desire God’s pure word as newborn babies desire milk. Then you will grow in your salvation. ³ Certainly you have tasted that the Lord is good!

⁴ You are coming to Christ, the living stone who was rejected by humans but was chosen as precious by God. ⁵ You come to him as living stones, a spiritual house that is being built into a holy priesthood. So offer spiritual sacrifices that God accepts through Yeshua Christ. ⁶ That is why Scripture says,

⁷ This honor belongs to those who believe. But to those who don’t believe:

The people tripped over the word because they refused to believe it. Therefore, this is how they ended up.

⁹ However, you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people who belong to God. You were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not God’s people, but now you are. Once you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.