Here you will find daily Bible verses and some notes on the passage.
The verses are laid out in chronological order and are spread out in a way that allows us to read through the Bible in one year. As we read and observe the whole story line, remember that we are reading the story of God’s mission and His plan to redeem His creation and His people.
Don’t worry if you miss a day or two! Just pick up where you left off or start fresh with today’s passage. As followers of Christ, it is important to be in God’s Word daily and to reflect on His teachings.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
There are some reading journals provided by the Ezra Project that are available in the church foyer for a donation (amount of your choosing). Click the Calendar button below to download an Android/iOS calendar with daily readings.
Numbers 19 - 21
Chapter 19 details the role of the red heifer, and its ashes that are to be used in all rites of purification.
In Chapter 20 we have the unfortunate incident where Moses disobeys God, and misrepresents Him before the people by striking the Rock. We know from 1 Corinthians 10 that the Rock was Jesus, and as a Type He would only need to be struck once, and then only spoken to after being struck (for all sin). But Moses broke the type, misrepresented God before the people (Who was not angry), and was punished by being prohibited from entering the promised land. Aaron also dies, and his son Eleazar becomes High Priest.
In Chapter 21 the people again complained against the Lord, and He sent poisonous snakes among them, and many died, and many others suffered. God commanded Moses to cast a bronze serpent, and raise it up for the people to look at and be healed. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, He would be raised up so that all who look upon Him might be likewise healed. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that Jesus became sin for our righteousness, and that corresponds with Him being raised up in the form of the serpent.
Then, during various wanderings in the wilderness God gives them victory over multiple kings and nations to the east of the Jordan.
Numbers 16 - 18
Korah incites a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, followed by Dathan and Abiram, and many others. See 2 Timothy 3:1-9, Jude 1:10-11, and other passages regarding those who seek to elevate themselves against God’s Will.
God judges all who rebelled, including some 14,000+ of the people who also complained against Moses and God, but Moses and Aaron intercede on behalf of the people, and God relents.
The Lord makes it clear that Aaron is His choice as High Priest, and calls out the blessings that will be upon the priestly classes for their service to God.
Numbers 14 - 15
The multitude of the people rebelled against God and Moses, and in spite of the pleading of Joshua and Caleb, they refused to go into the land God had led them to. It’s an incredible thing to contemplate all of the miracles God had done in the sight of these people, not only in rescuing them out of slavery to Egypt, and taking them through the Red Sea, but in many miraculous ways the previous year. Yet they were blind to the love and power of God, and so God condemned all of the adults to die in the wilderness before their children would be taken into the promised land. This would be accomplished over the next 38+ years, while God continued to lead and provide for them.
Why do you think God took 40 years to let those rebellious and ungrateful people gradually die off, rather than just striking them all dead in judgement, and then taking the children in at that time?
Numbers 11 - 13
These are chapters of discontent, grumbling, and complaining against God. The people complain against God and Moses for lack of meat, and God sends them quail beyond measure, so that they become utterly repulsed by it. Moses complains to God for making him responsible for such a contentious people.
Then, God brings them to the land of Canaan, and the 12 spies bring back a report of great wealth and fruit in the land, but ten of them also report about the fearsome and mighty inhabitants, and they cause the whole nation to rebel against God, and refuse to go in to the land that God wanted to take them into, which had been promised as an inheritance to Abraham’s descendants forever.
Numbers 8 - 10
Chapter 8 - All the Levites are sanctified for service to the Lord, and they are called out as a tribe in belonging to God, in substitution for every firstborn male throughout Israel.
Chapter 9 - Israel celebrates the first Passover after leaving Egypt. The nation camps or moves, based upon the presence of God on the Tabernacle of meeting. When His presence rises above the Tabernacle, they break camp and follow where He leads, and when His presence rests upon the Tabernacle they stay encamped where they are.
Chapter 10 - A pair of silver trumpets are crafted for communicating messages to the tribes, and the leaders of the tribes. The presence of the Lord rises up, the nation breaks camp, and the tribes follow the cloud of the Lord in departing from Sinai, and in traveling towards the promised land
Numbers 5 - 6
These chapters focus on the sanctity of vows before God. It includes instructions for the priests in determining the truth regarding alleged marital infidelity. It also outlines the vow of the Nazirite, which speaks of a person who has totally dedicated themselves to God, whether it is for life, or for a set period of time.
Numbers 3 - 4
The Levites, and his descendant families are numbered, with all the responsibilities of each family detailed in regards to their service to God with the Tabernacle, and their various priestly duties.
Numbers 1 - 2
This book is so named because the people are numbered twice, with a census 2 years after leaving Egypt, and then a second one just before entering the Promised Land. This was a counting of the men who were 20 years and older, who were eligible to fight in the army, which totaled 603,550, not including the Levites (who served God and His Tabernacle).
Chapter 2 lists the camping order of the tribes, with the Levites and the Tabernacle of meeting located at the center, and three tribes lined up to the east (186,400), three tribes to the south (151,450), three tribes to the west (108,100), and three tribes to the north (157,600).
If you were to fly over this camp from the rising sun (the east), you would see this multitude encamped, somewhat like the shape of the cross lying on the ground, with the Presence of God at the central junction point.
Leviticus 26 - 27
The Lord outlines the multitudes of His blessings when the people keep and follow His laws, and the multiplication of His punishments when the people are pervasively disobeying them.
Chapter 27 deals with the voluntary promises that people make to the Lord, in dedicating either themselves to Him, or something they own, and the costs they will have to pay if they later decide to go back on their promise.
Leviticus 24 - 25
Chapter 24 - The societal administration of capital punishment on the willful murderer or blasphemer, and the adjudication of justice between the victim and the guilty.
Chapter 25 - Laws concerning the use and sale of the land in Israel. The land must be allowed to rest every 7th year. Land could not be sold permanently, as it was to revert to the original owner every 50th year. Similarly, the destitute could sell themselves into slavery for a while, but not permanently. Everything and everyone went free in the year of Jubilee.
Leviticus 21 - 23
In chapters 21 and 22 God details the rules pertaining to the priests who minister before the Lord, and His expectations of holiness, with higher standards applied to them.
Chapter 23 details specific days in a year that are to be treated as holy, or separate (or different) - besides the Sabbath, which is treated differently each week:
Passover (23:5) - 14th day of the first month
Feast of Unleavened Bread (23:6-8) - 15th -21st day of the first month
Feast of First Fruits (23:10-14) - 1st day of the week after Passover
Feast of Ingathering, or Pentecost (23:15-21) - 50 days after First Fruits
Feast of Trumpets (23:24-25) - 1st day of the seventh month
Day of Atonement (23:27-32) - 10th day of the seventh month
Feast of Booths (23:34-36) - 15th through 22nd day of the seventh month
Leviticus 18 - 20
God forbids all forms of incest and sexual immorality, which were commonly practice among the nations around them.
Chapter 19 details various laws regarding behavior between people, and contains the 2nd most important law in the Bible - “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)
Chapter 20 emphasizes God’s abhorrence of killing children as sacrifices to false gods, and details the punishments due to those who do such things, as well as various forms of sexual immorality. God say “be holy, for I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 20:7)
Leviticus 15 - 17
Chapter 15 details what is to happen when people are sick with a disease that is not fatal.
Chapter 16 provides detail regarding the Day of Atonement, where that one day each year the High Priest enters into the Holy of Holies and makes atonement for himself, and then for all the people. The scapegoat is an interesting study as a type of Jesus, upon Whom all the iniquities of the people were proclaimed, and Who was then led outside the camp (or city).
Chapter 17 makes clear the guilt of anyone who sacrifices an animal to any false gods.
Leviticus 13 - 14
These two chapters are dedicated to the diagnosis of leprosy, and then the procedure the priests are to follow when leprosy has been cleansed. This is fascinating because leprosy was incurable, and there is no record of anyone in Israel having leprosy, and then being subsequently cured (except Miriam, who was struck by God, and then cured at Moses’ prayer).
Throughout the Bible leprosy is seen as a type of sin, which is also incurable. Sin was incurable until Jesus came and permanently atoned for the sins of the world. Likewise, there were suddenly many in Israel reporting to the priests (according to the instructions here in Leviticus 14) to be declared clean after Jesus healed them, which had never happened in the history of Israel.
Leviticus 11 - 12
God provides clear instruction on the distinction between what is clean versus unclean. All of living creation falls into one of these two classifications, which even Noah understood in the times prior to the flood.
God shows Himself to be very binary in all that He has created, and even today there are only two kinds of people in the world - those who belong to Him, and those who don’t.
There is no in-between.
Leviticus 8 - 10
Moses oversees the anointing and ordination of Aaron and his sons as the Lord had commanded, and after installation as Israel’s first High Priest Aaron offers the required sacrifices for himself, and then all the people.
Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons who had just been anointed, presumptuously burned incense before God with fire that did not come from God’s alter of sacrifice, and they were immediately judged and killed for their offense.
Moses tells Aaron and his two remaining sons to continue in their newly appointed responsibilities, or they might also suffer God’s judgement. Moses warns Aaron of what God required, saying “by those who come near Me I will be treated as Holy”.
James warns in chapter 3 of his epistle that those who seek to teach God’s Word, and represent God before the people, will face a stricter judgement.
Leviticus 5:14 - 7:38
There are sacrifices described for those who commit inadvertent sins, however throughout the book there is no sacrifice that is prescribed for intentional sin, which only results in consequences and punishment.
Of the animal sacrifices, the blood is poured out completely, and all of the entrails and fat are burned before the Lord, but the edible flesh is given to the priest who performs the sacrifice.
Non-animal sacrifices (grain offerings) are given to the priest after a sample is presented to the Lord and burned.
Leviticus 1:1 - 5:13
The book of Leviticus is largely one of instruction from God for the priests, which sequentially followed the giving of God’s laws. In these first chapters God provides instructions for the handling of various sacrifices, and what are appropriate sacrifices in different cases.
In Exodus 4:25 the wife of Moses called him a “husband of blood” after God confronted Moses, and the blood of their son’s circumcision appeased the Lord. She might have said “you and your bloody religion!”, which we will see repeated and repeated throughout this book of Leviticus with blood sacrifices. All of this is confirmed by the writer of Hebrews, who pointed that in Hebrews 9:22 that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
Everything in this book will point to Jesus in various ways. It was also designed by God to make obvious to the Jews that such sacrifices were not sufficient to remove sin, since such sinning continued to happen, and more sacrifices were needed year after year after year.
A greater sacrifice was needed in order to remove sin, which would only happen with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who would only die once, and thus remove the need for further blood sacrifices to temporarily cover the sins of people.