The Daily Audio Bible

⁷ Moses said to Aaron, ‘Go to the altar. Sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to the Lord. You must do that to pay for your sins and those of the people. Then sacrifice the people's gift. Their offerings are an atonement for the bad things that they have done. The Lord said that you should do this.’

⁸ Aaron brought the young bull to the altar. He killed it. This was his offering to the Lord to atone for his sin. ⁹ His sons brought the blood to Aaron. He put his finger in the blood and he put it on the horns of the altar. He poured the blood that he did not use onto the floor in front of the altar. ¹⁰ Aaron burnt the fat, the kidneys and the best piece of the liver on the altar as a sin offering. He did it as the Lord had told Moses. ¹¹ He took the meat and the skin from the young bull outside the camp and he burnt it.

¹² Aaron brought the male sheep for the burnt offering to the altar. He killed it. His sons brought the blood to him. He threw the blood onto the sides of the altar. ¹³ The priests gave the pieces of the animal, including the head, to Aaron. Aaron burnt them on the altar. ¹⁴ He washed the inside parts and the legs. He burnt them on the altar on top of the burnt offering.

¹⁵ Aaron brought the goat. This was the people's sacrifice to God. Aaron killed it and he burnt it on the altar. It was an offering to atone for the people's sin. He offered this sacrifice in the same way as the first sacrifice for sin.

¹⁶ Aaron brought the other young cow. He killed it and he burnt it on the altar. He did it as Moses had told him. ¹⁷ He also brought the grain offering. He took some of it and he burnt it on the altar. He burnt it with the morning sacrifice.

¹⁸ Aaron killed the bull and the male sheep. These were friendship offerings from the people. The priests brought the blood to him. He threw it onto the sides of the altar. ¹⁹ Aaron took the fat tail, the fat and the kidneys and the best piece of the liver. ²⁰ He put them on the meat of the animal's ribs. Then he burnt the fat on the altar. ²¹ Aaron lifted up the meat as an offering to the Lord. Moses had told him that he must do this.

²² When Aaron had finished burning the gifts, he lifted up his hands over the people. He had sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the friendship offering. Then he asked God to do good things for the people. And Aaron came down from the altar.

²³ Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they asked God to do good things for the people. The bright light from the Lord appeared to the people to show how great he is. ²⁴ Then the Lord sent a fire to show that he accepted the gifts.^[a] It completely burnt all the fat and the offerings that were on the altar. The people were very happy when they saw this. They shouted and they fell down with their faces to the ground.

The Lord kills Nadab and Abihu

10 Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron.^[b] They put hot material in the pots that they used to burn incense. They threw incense over the hot material. They offered the incense to the Lord. This was a wrong thing to do. The Lord had not told them that they should do it. So it was wrong. ² The Lord was angry and he sent fire to burn them. They died there in front of the Lord's altar. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord said,

“People may come near to me. But those people must see that I am holy.

All the people must give honour to me.” ’

Aaron did not reply.

⁴ Mishael and Elzaphan were sons of Aaron's father's brother, Uzziel. Moses said to them, ‘Carry Nadab and Abihu away from the altar. Take your cousins outside the camp.’ ⁵ Nadab and Abihu were still wearing their robes. Mishael and Elzaphan carried Nadab and Abihu outside the camp. Moses had told them that they must do that.

⁶ Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, ‘Comb your hair. Do not tear your clothes. If you do that, you will die. And the Lord will be angry with all the people. But Israel's people can show that they are sad. They are sad because the Lord has killed Nadab and Abihu with fire. ⁷ If you go away from the door of the Tent of Meeting you will die. You will die because the Lord's holy oil is on you.’ So Aaron and his sons did as Moses had said.

⁸ The Lord then said to Aaron, ⁹ ‘Do not drink wine before you go into the Tent of Meeting. And do not drink anything that contains alcohol. If you do, you will die. This rule is for you and for all your sons and grandsons. ¹⁰ You must know what is holy. And you must know what is not holy. You must know what you can use. And you must know what you must not use to worship me. ¹¹ You must teach Israel's people all the rules that I, the Lord, gave to them by Moses.’

¹² Moses said to Aaron and to his two other sons Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘The grain offering is most holy. Take the part that you did not burn in front of the Lord. And make it into bread. Do not use yeast. Take it to the side of the altar and eat it. ¹³ Eat it in a holy place. The Lord has said that it is your part of the grain offering. It is for you and for your sons. ¹⁴ You and your sons and daughters can eat the meat of the ribs that you held up to God. And all your family can eat the top part of the leg. Eat the meat in a place that is clean and ready for God's use. It is your part of the people's friendship offering. ¹⁵ Bring the top of the leg and the meat of the ribs. Lift them up to the Lord. The Lord has given them to you and to your children. Lift them up with the fat parts of the burnt offering. He told you that you should do this.’

¹⁶ Moses looked for the goat that was to atone for the people's sin. Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, sons of Aaron. He was angry because they had burnt the goat. ¹⁷ Moses said to them, ‘This gift was for the Lord. It was a very holy gift. It was to atone for the people's sins. Why did you not take it to the holy place and eat it? ¹⁸ You did not bring the blood into the holy place. I told you that you must eat its meat in the Tent of Meeting.’ ¹⁹ Aaron said to Moses, ‘My sons sacrificed their gifts to the Lord today. But very bad things have happened to me today. I would not have given the Lord any pleasure if I had eaten the sin offering today.’ ²⁰ When Moses heard this, he was not angry any longer.

Jesus tells a story about seeds

²⁶ Then Jesus said, ‘I will tell you a story about the kingdom of God. It is like this: A man throws seeds in his field. ²⁷ Then he sleeps each night and he wakes up each day. The seeds start to grow into plants. They continue to grow. The man does not know how this happens. ²⁸ The soil causes the plants to grow. The leaves of the plant grow first. Then the flowers appear. Then the plant makes new seeds. ²⁹ When the new seeds have completely grown, the man will cut down the plants. It is time for him to take the seeds to use for food.’

Jesus tells a story about a very small seed

³⁰ Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story about the kingdom of God. This story shows what the kingdom of God is like. ³¹ It is like this: A man takes a seed of the plant called mustard. He plants it in the soil. It is smaller than any other seed that people plant in the soil. ³² But when it starts to grow, it becomes bigger than the largest bush. It will have big branches. Then the birds will come and they will live there. They will build their nests in the shade of the branches.’

³³ Jesus taught God's message to the people. He used many stories like these. He told the people as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He always used stories to teach the people. Then he explained everything to his own disciples when he was alone with them.

Jesus stops a storm

³⁵ On that same day, in the evening, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘We should go across the lake to the other side.’ ³⁶ So they went and left the crowd behind. Jesus was already in the boat. So the disciples took him across the lake. Some other boats also went with them. ³⁷ Then a strong wind began to blow across the lake. Water began to go into the boat and fill it. Soon the boat was almost going under the water. ³⁸ Jesus was in a comfortable place at the back of the boat. He was sleeping. The disciples woke him. They said to him, ‘Teacher, we will die here in the water! Please do something!’

³⁹ Jesus woke up and he spoke strongly to the wind and to the water. ‘Be quiet!’ he said. ‘Stop!’ Then the wind stopped and the water became quiet again.

⁴⁰ Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You should not be afraid like that. You should trust me.’

⁴¹ But the disciples became very afraid. They said to each other, ‘Who is this man? Even the wind and the water obey him.’

A man with many bad spirits

5 Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the lake. They came to a place where the Gerasene people lived.^[a]

^2-4 Jesus got out of the boat. Immediately, a man with a bad spirit in him came to him. This man lived outside, among some graves. He was very strong and nobody could hold him. People often put chains around his ankles to hold him. They wanted to keep him in a safe place. But he broke the chains that held him. ⁵ The man often walked in the place where the dead people were and on the hills. Every day and every night, he screamed and he used stones to cut himself.

⁶ He saw Jesus a long way away and he ran to meet him. He went down on his knees in front of Jesus. ⁷ He screamed loudly, ‘Jesus, you are the Son of the Most High God! What are you doing here? Please, promise God that you will not hurt me.’ ⁸ He said that because Jesus had already said to the bad spirit, ‘Come out of this man.’

⁹ Then Jesus asked the man, ‘What is your name?’

The man replied, ‘My name is Army because there are so many bad spirits in me.’

¹⁰ He said to Jesus many times, ‘Please do not send these bad spirits away from this place.’

¹¹ A large group of pigs was eating on the hill. ¹² The bad spirits said, ‘Jesus, send us to the pigs. Let us go into them.’ ¹³ Jesus let them do this. So the bad spirits came out of the man and they went into the pigs. There were about 2,000 pigs. They rushed together down the hill into the lake. All the pigs died there in the water.

¹⁴ The men who were taking care of these pigs ran away. They told the people in the town and in the villages what had happened. Then those people came to see the place for themselves. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus. They saw the man that the army of bad spirits had ruled. He was now sitting there quietly. He was wearing clothes and his mind was well again. When the people saw this, they were afraid. ¹⁶ The people who had seen this told other people what had happened to the man. They also explained what happened to the pigs. ¹⁷ Then the people who lived there said to Jesus, ‘Please go away. Leave this place.’

¹⁸ Jesus got back into the boat. The man that the bad spirits had ruled spoke to him. He told Jesus that he wanted to go with him. ¹⁹ But Jesus did not let him do this. Jesus said to him, ‘Go to your home and to your friends. Tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he has been kind to you.’ ²⁰ So the man went away. He began to speak to many people in the region called ‘The ten cities’. He told them about the great things that Jesus had done for him. All the people were very surprised.