Three National Feasts

14“Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. 15You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. 16Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.

18“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning.

19“You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.

“You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Conquest of the Land

20“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. 22But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. 24You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces. 25But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. 26There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. 29I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 30I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. 31I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. 33They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

People Affirm Their Covenant with God

1Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. 2Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.”

3Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” 4Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. 6Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” 8So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

9Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.

12Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.” 13So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14But to the elders he said, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them.” 15Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. 18Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Offerings for the Sanctuary

1Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution. 3This is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze, 4blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, 5rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, 6oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. 9According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it.

Ark of the Covenant

10“They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. 11You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. 12You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. 13You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. 15The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. 16You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

17“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. 18You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. 20The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. 21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. 22There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.

The Table of Showbread

23“You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high. 24You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. 25You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it. 26You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. 27The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. 28You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried. 29You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 30You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.

The Golden Lampstand

31“Then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work; its cups, its bulbs and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. 32Six branches shall go out from its sides; three branches of the lampstand from its one side and three branches of the lampstand from its other side. 33Three cups shall be shaped like almond blossoms in the one branch, a bulb and a flower, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bulb and a flower—so for six branches going out from the lampstand; 34and in the lampstand four cups shaped like almond blossoms, its bulbs and its flowers. 35A bulb shall be under the first pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the second pair of branches coming out of it, and a bulb under the third pair of branches coming out of it, for the six branches coming out of the lampstand. 36Their bulbs and their branches shall be of one piece with it; all of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold. 37Then you shall make its lamps seven in number; and they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it. 38Its snuffers and their trays shall be of pure gold. 39It shall be made from a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils. 40See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.

The Glorious Return

29“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Parable of the Fig Tree

32“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; 33so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

36“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.

Be Ready for His Coming

42“Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

45“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ 49and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

PSALM 30

Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death.

A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the House. A Psalm of David.

1I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,

And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

2O Lord my God,

I cried to You for help, and You healed me.

3O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol;

You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.

4Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones,

And give thanks to His holy name.

5For His anger is but for a moment,

His favor is for a lifetime;

Weeping may last for the night,

But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

6Now as for me, I said in my prosperity,

“I will never be moved.”

7O Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong;

You hid Your face, I was dismayed.

8To You, O Lord, I called,

And to the Lord I made supplication:

9“What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?

10“Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;

O Lord, be my helper.”

11You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

12That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

24Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,

And pay attention to the words of my mouth.

25Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways,

Do not stray into her paths.

26For many are the victims she has cast down,

And numerous are all her slain.

27Her house is the way to Sheol,

Descending to the chambers of death.