Consecration, Comfort, and the God Who Sees

1. “This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest’s office: take one young bull and two rams without defect, 2. unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil: you shall make them of fine wheat flour. 3. You shall put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams. 4. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall wash them with water. 5. You shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and clothe him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod; 6. and you shall set the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban. 7. Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him. 8. You shall bring his sons, and put coats on them. 9. You shall clothe them with belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind headbands on them: and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute: and you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons. 10. “You shall bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting: and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. 11. You shall kill the bull before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 12. You shall take of the blood of the bull, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar. 13. You shall take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. 14. But the meat of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside of the camp: it is a sin offering. 15. “You shall also take the one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram. 16. You shall kill the ram, and you shall take its blood, and sprinkle it around on the altar. 17. You shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its innards, and its legs, and put them with its pieces, and with its head. 18. You shall burn the whole ram on the altar: it is a burnt offering to Yahweh; it is a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 19. “You shall take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram. 20. Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood around on the altar. 21. You shall take of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him. 22. Also you shall take some of the ram’s fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration), 23. and one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Yahweh. 24. You shall put all of this in Aaron’s hands, and in his sons’ hands, and shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. 25. You shall take them from their hands, and burn them on the altar on the burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma before Yahweh: it is an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 26. “You shall take the breast of Aaron’s ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before Yahweh: and it shall be your portion. 27. You shall sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the thigh of the wave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons: 28. and it shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel; for it is a wave offering: and it shall be a wave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their wave offering to Yahweh. 29. “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them. 30. Seven days shall the son who is priest in his place put them on, when he comes into the Tent of Meeting to minister in the holy place. 31. “You shall take the ram of consecration, and boil its meat in a holy place. 32. Aaron and his sons shall eat the meat of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 33. They shall eat those things with which atonement was made, to consecrate and sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat of it, because they are holy. 34. If anything of the meat of the consecration, or of the bread, remains to the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy. 35. “You shall do so to Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. You shall consecrate them seven days. 36. Every day you shall offer the bull of sin offering for atonement: and you shall cleanse the altar, when you make atonement for it; and you shall anoint it, to sanctify it. 37. Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it: and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall be holy. 38. “Now this is that which you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually. 39. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at evening: 40. and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering. 41. The other lamb you shall offer at evening, and shall do to it according to the meal offering of the morning, and according to its drink offering, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 42. It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak there to you. 43. There I will meet with the children of Israel; and the place shall be sanctified by my glory. 44. I will sanctify the Tent of Meeting and the altar: Aaron also and his sons I will sanctify, to minister to me in the priest’s office. 45. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. 46. They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them: I am Yahweh their God. 1. “You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood. 2. Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it. 4. You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it. 5. You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 6. You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7. Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it. 8. When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations. 9. You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it. 10. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh.” 11. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12. “When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh, when you count them; that there be no plague among them when you count them. 13. They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are counted, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel for an offering to Yahweh. 14. Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to Yahweh. 15. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls. 16. You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.” 17. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 18. “You shall also make a basin of brass, and its base of brass, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. 19. Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it. 20. When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 21. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations.” 22. Moreover Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 23. “Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty; 24. and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil. 25. You shall make it into a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil. 26. You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony, 27. the table and all its articles, the lamp stand and its accessories, the altar of incense, 28. the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base. 29. You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy. 30. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest’s office. 31. You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. 32. It shall not be poured on man’s flesh, and do not make any like it, according to its composition. It is holy. It shall be holy to you. 33. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.’” 34. Yahweh said to Moses, “Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: there shall be an equal weight of each; 35. and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy: 36. and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy. 37. The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for Yahweh. 38. Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people.” 1. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2. “Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: 3. and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship, 4. to devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, 5. and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of workmanship. 6. Behold, I myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the heart of all who are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7. the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furniture of the Tent, 8. the table and its vessels, the pure lamp stand with all its vessels, the altar of incense, 9. the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, the basin and its base, 10. the finely worked garments—the holy garments for Aaron the priest—the garments of his sons to minister in the priest’s office, 11. the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded you they shall do.” 12. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 13. “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you. 14. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Yahweh. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. 16. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’” 18. He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.

1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; 4. who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ. 6. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. 7. Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort. 8. For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life. 9. Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, 10. who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us; 11. you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf. 12. For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you. 13. For we write no other things to you, than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end; 14. as also you acknowledged us in part, that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus. 15. In this confidence, I was determined to come first to you, that you might have a second benefit; 16. and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my journey to Judea. 17. When I therefore was thus determined, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?” 18. But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not “Yes and no.” 19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not “Yes and no,” but in him is “Yes.” 20. For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us. 21. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; 22. who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts. 23. But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I didn’t come to Corinth to spare you. 24. Not that we control your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith. 1. But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow. 2. For if I make you sorry, then who will make me glad but he who is made sorry by me? 3. And I wrote this very thing to you, so that, when I came, I wouldn’t have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy would be shared by all of you. 4. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you. 5. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all. 6. This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; 7. so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow. 8. Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him. 9. For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. 10. Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11. that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes. 12. Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord, 13. I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia. 14. Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. 15. For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish; 16. to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17. For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. 1. Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2. You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3. being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh. 4. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God; 5. not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; 6. who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7. But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face, which was passing away; 8. won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory? 9. For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10. For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses. 11. For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. 12. Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, 13. and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away. 14. But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away. 15. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

1. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. 3. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4. For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. 5. They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. 6. Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. 7. Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. 8. They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. 9. They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. 10. Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. 11. They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 12. Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches. 13. Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence, 14. For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning. 15. If I had said, “I will speak thus”; behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16. When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me; 17. Until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end. 18. Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. 19. How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors. 20. As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies. 21. For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart. 22. I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. 23. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand. 24. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25. Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you. 26. My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27. For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. 28. But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.