Numbers 15, Psalm 51, Isaiah 5, Hebrews 12

Numbers 15,

1 The LORD said to Moses,
 
2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'After you enter the land I am giving you as a home
 
3 and you present to the LORD offerings made by fire, from the herd or the flock, as an aroma pleasing to the LORD-whether burnt offerings or sacrifices, for special vows or freewill offerings or festival offerings-
 
4 then the one who brings his offering shall present to the LORD a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil.
 
5 With each lamb for the burnt offering or the sacrifice, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering.
 
6 " 'With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil,
 
7 and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.
 
8 " 'When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, for a special vow or a fellowship offering to the LORD,
 
9 bring with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil.
 
10 Also bring half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It will be an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.
 
11 Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this manner.
 
12 Do this for each one, for as many as you prepare.
 
13 " 'Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.
 
14 For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, he must do exactly as you do.
 
15 The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD :
 
16 The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.' "
 
17 The LORD said to Moses,
 
18 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "When you enter the land to which I am taking you
 
19 and you eat the food of the land, present a portion as an offering to the LORD.
 
20 Present a cake from the first of your ground meal and present it as an offering from the threshing floor.
 
21 Throughout the generations to come you are to give this offering to the LORD from the first of your ground meal.
 
22 " 'Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses-
 
23 any of the LORD's commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come-
 
24 and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering.
 
25 The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have brought to the LORD for their wrong an offering made by fire and a sin offering.
 
26 The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong.
 
27 " 'But if just one person sins unintentionally, he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering.
 
28 The priest is to make atonement before the LORD for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally, and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven.
 
29 One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a native-born Israelite or an alien.
 
30 " 'But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people.
 
31 Because he has despised the LORD's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him.' "
 
32 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
 
33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly,
 
34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.
 
35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp."
 
36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.
 
37 The LORD said to Moses,
 
38 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.
 
39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.
 
40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.
 
41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.' "

Psalm 51,

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
 
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
 
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
 
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
 
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
 
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
 
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
 
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
 
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
 
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
 
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
 
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
 
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
 
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
 
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
 
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
 
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
 
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
 
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
 

Isaiah 5,

1 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
 
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
 
3 "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
 
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
 
5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
 
6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it."
 
7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
 
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.
 
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.
 
10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain."
 
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.
 
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.
 
13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.
 
14 Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers.
 
15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
 
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.
 
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.
 
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,
 
19 to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it."
 
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
 
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
 
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
 
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
 
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
 
25 Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
 
26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
 
27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken.
 
28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
 
29 Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.
 
30 In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

Hebrews 12

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
 
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
 
3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
 
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
 
5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
 
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
 
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
 
8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
 
9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
 
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
 
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
 
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
 
13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
 
14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
 
15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
 
16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
 
17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
 
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm;
 
19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them,
 
20 because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."
 
21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."
 
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
 
23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
 
24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
 
25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
 
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."
 
27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken-that is, created things-so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
 
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
 
29 for our "God is a consuming fire."