151 And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, 2 Say to the children of Israel: If a man has an unclean flow from his flesh, it will make him unclean. 3 If the flow goes on or if the part is stopped up, to keep back the flow, he is still unclean. 4 Every bed on which he has been resting will be unclean, and everything on which he has been seated will be unclean. 5 And anyone touching his bed is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 6 And he who has been seated on anything on which the unclean man has been seated is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 7 And anyone touching the flesh of the unclean man is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 8 And if liquid from the mouth of the unclean man comes on to him who is clean, then he is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 9 And any leather seat on a horse on which the unclean man has been seated will be unclean. 10 And anyone touching anything which was under him will be unclean till the evening; anyone taking up any of these things is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 11 And anyone on whom the unclean man puts his hands, without washing them in water, is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 12 And any vessel of earth which has been touched by the unclean man will have to be broken and any vessel of wood washed. 13 And when a man who has a flow from his body is made clean from it, he is to take seven days to make himself clean, washing his clothing and bathing his body in flowing water, and then he will be clean. 14 And on the eighth day he is to take two doves or two young pigeons and come before the Lord to the door of the Tent of meeting and give them to the priest: 15 And they are to be offered by the priest, one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering, and the priest will take away his sin before the Lord on account of his flow. 16 And if a man's seed goes out from him, then all his body will have to be bathed in water and he will be unclean till evening. 17 And any clothing or skin on which the seed comes is to be washed with water and be unclean till evening. 18 And if a man has sex relations with a woman and his seed goes out from him, the two of them will have to be bathed in water and will be unclean till evening.
19 And if a woman has a flow of blood from her body, she will have to be kept separate for seven days, and anyone touching her will be unclean till evening. 20 And everything on which she has been resting, while she is kept separate, will be unclean, and everything on which she has been seated will be unclean. 21 And anyone touching her bed will have to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 22 And anyone touching anything on which she has been seated will have to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. 23 Anyone touching anything on the bed or on the thing on which she has been seated, will be unclean till evening. 24 And if any man has sex relations with her so that her blood comes on him, he will be unclean for seven days and every bed on which he has been resting will be unclean. 25 And if a woman has a flow of blood for a long time, not at the time when she generally has it, or if the flow goes on longer than the normal time, she will be unclean while the flow of blood goes on, as she is at other normal times. 26 Every bed on which she has been resting will be unclean, as at the times when she normally has a flow of blood, and everything on which she has been seated will be unclean, in the same way. 27 And anyone touching these things will be unclean, and his clothing will have to be washed and his body bathed in water and he will be unclean till evening. 28 But when her flow of blood is stopped, after seven days she will be clean. 29 And on the eighth day let her get two doves or two young pigeons and take them to the priest to the door of the Tent of meeting, 30 To be offered by the priest, one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering; and the priest will take away her sin before the Lord on account of her unclean condition. 31 In this way may the children of Israel be made free from all sorts of unclean conditions, so that death may not overtake them when they are unclean and when they make unclean my holy place which is among them. 32 This is the law for the man who has a flow from his body, or whose seed goes from him so that he is unclean; 33 And for her who has a flow of blood, and for any man or woman who has an unclean flow, and for him who has sex relations with a woman when she is unclean.
161 And the Lord said to Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they took in strange fire before the Lord and death overtook them; 2 The Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, your brother, that he may not come at all times into the holy place inside the veil, before the cover which is on the ark, for fear that death may overtake him; for I will be seen in the cloud on the cover of the ark. 3 Let Aaron come into the holy place in this way: with an ox for a sin-offering and a male sheep for a burned offering. 4 Let him put on the holy linen coat, and the linen trousers on his body, and the linen band round him, and the linen head-dress on his head; for this is holy clothing, and before he puts them on his body is to be washed with water.
5 And let him take from the children of Israel two he-goats for a sin-offering and one male sheep for a burned offering. 6 And Aaron is to give the ox of the sin-offering for himself, to make himself and his house free from sin. 7 And he is to take the two goats and put them before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron will make selection from the two goats by the decision of the Lord, one goat for the Lord and one for Azazel. 9 And the goat which is marked out for the Lord, let Aaron give for a sin-offering. 10 But the goat for Azazel is to be placed living before the Lord, for the taking away of sin, that it may be sent away for Azazel into the waste land. 11 And Aaron is to give the ox of the sin-offering for himself and take away sin from himself and his house, and put to death the ox of the sin-offering which is for himself. 12 And he is to take a vessel full of burning coal from the altar before the Lord and in his hand some sweet perfume crushed small, and take it inside the veil; 13 And let him put the perfume on the fire before the Lord so that the ark may be covered with a cloud of the smoke of the perfume, in order that death may not overtake him. 14 And let him take some of the blood of the ox, shaking drops of it from his finger on the cover of the ark on the east side, and before it, seven times.
15 Then let him put to death the goat of the sin-offering for the people, and take its blood inside the veil and do with it as he did with the blood of the ox, shaking drops of it on and before the cover of the ark. 16 And let him make the holy place free from whatever is unclean among the children of Israel and from their wrongdoing in all their sins; and let him do the same for the Tent of meeting, which has its place among an unclean people. 17 And no man may be in the Tent of meeting from the time when Aaron goes in to take away sin in the holy place till he comes out, having made himself and his house and all the people of Israel free from sin. 18 And he is to go out to the altar which is before the Lord and make it free from sin; and he is to take some of the blood of the ox and the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar and round it; 19 Shaking drops of the blood from his finger on it seven times to make it holy and clean from whatever is unclean among the children of Israel.
20 And when he has done whatever is necessary to make the holy place and the Tent of meeting and the altar free from sin, let him put the living goat before the Lord; 21 And Aaron, placing his two hands on the head of the living goat, will make a public statement over him of all the evil doings of the children of Israel and all their wrongdoing, in all their sins; and he will put them on the head of the goat and send him away, in the care of a man who will be waiting there, into the waste land. 22 And the goat will take all their sins into a land cut off from men, and he will send the goat away into the waste land. 23 Then let Aaron come into the Tent of meeting and take off the linen clothing which he put on when he went into the holy place, and put them down there; 24 And after bathing his body in water in a holy place, he is to put on his clothing and come out and give his burned offering and the burned offering of the people, to take away his sin and the sin of the people. 25 And the fat of the sin-offering is to be burned by him on the altar. 26 And the man who takes away the goat for Azazel is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and then he may come back to the tent-circle. 27 And the ox of the sin-offering and the goat of the sin-offering, whose blood was taken in to make the holy place free from sin, are to be taken away outside the tent-circle and their skins and their flesh and their waste are to be burned with fire. 28 And the man by whom they are burned is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water, and then he may come back to the tent-circle.
29 And let this be an order to you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day, you are to keep yourselves from pleasure and do no sort of work, those who are Israelites by birth and those from other lands who are living among you: 30 For on this day your sin will be taken away and you will be clean: you will be made free from all your sins before the Lord. 31 It is a special Sabbath for you, and you are to keep yourselves from pleasure; it is an order for ever. 32 And the man on whose head the holy oil has been put, and who has been marked out to be a priest in his father's place, will do what is necessary to take away sin, and will put on the linen clothing, even the holy robes: 33 And he will make the holy place and the Tent of meeting and the altar free from sin; he will take away sin from the priests and from all the people. 34 And let this be an order for ever for you, so that the sin of the children of Israel may be taken away once every year. And he did as the Lord gave orders to Moses.
271 Now when it was morning, all the chief priests and those in authority took thought together with the purpose of putting Jesus to death. 2 And they put cords on him and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate, the ruler.
3 Then Judas, who was false to him, seeing that he was to be put to death, in his regret took back the thirty bits of silver to the chief priests and those in authority, 4 Saying, I have done wrong in giving into your hands an upright man. But they said, What is that to us? it is your business. 5 And he put down the silver in the Temple and went out, and put himself to death by hanging. 6 And the chief priests took the silver and said, It is not right to put it in the Temple store for it is the price of blood. 7 And they made a decision to get with the silver the potter's field, as a place for the dead of other countries. 8 For this cause that field was named, The field of blood, to this day. 9 Then came true that which was said by Jeremiah the prophet, And they took the thirty bits of silver, the price of him who was valued by the children of Israel; 10 And they gave them for the potter's field, as I had word from the Lord.
11 And Jesus was before the ruler, who put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, You say so. 12 But when the chief priests and those in authority made statements against him, he gave no answer. 13 Then says Pilate to him, Do you give no attention to what their witnesses say against you? 14 And he gave him no answer, not even a word: so that the ruler was greatly surprised.
15 Now at the feast it was the way for the ruler to let free to the people one prisoner, at their selection. 16 And they had then an important prisoner, whose name was Barabbas. 17 So when they came together, Pilate said to them, Whom will you have? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is named Christ? 18 For he saw that for envy they had given him up. 19 And while he was on the judge's seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that upright man, for I have had much trouble this day in a dream because of him. 20 Now the chief priests and those in authority got the people to make request for Barabbas, and for Jesus to be put to death. 21 But the ruler made answer and said to them, Which of the two is it your pleasure that I let go free? And they said, Barabbas. 22 Pilate says to them, What, then, am I to do with Jesus, who is named Christ? They all say, Let him be put to death on the cross. 23 And he said, Why, what evil has he done? But they gave loud cries, saying, To the cross with him! 24 So when Pilate saw that he was able to do nothing, but that trouble was working up, he took water and, washing his hands before the people, said, The blood of this upright man is not on my hands: you are responsible. 25 And all the people made answer and said, Let his blood be on us, and on our children.
26 Then he let Barabbas go free: but after having Jesus whipped, he gave him up to be put to death on the cross.
(Read Matthew 27:1-10)
Wicked men see little of the consequences of their crimes when they commit them, but they must answer for them all. In the fullest manner Judas acknowledged to the chief priests that he had sinned, and betrayed an innocent person. This was full testimony to the character of Christ; but the rulers were hardened. Casting down the money, Judas departed, and went and hanged himself, not being able to bear the terror of Divine wrath, and the anguish of despair. There is little doubt but that the death of Judas was before that of our blessed Lord. But was it nothing to them that they had thirsted after this blood, and hired Judas to betray it, and had condemned it to be shed unjustly? Thus do fools make a mock at sin. Thus many make light of Christ crucified. And it is a common instance of the deceitfulness of our hearts, to make light of our own sin by dwelling upon other people's sins. But the judgment of God is according to truth. Many apply this passage of the buying the piece of ground, with the money Judas brought back, to signify the favour intended by the blood of Christ to strangers, and sinners of the Gentiles. It fulfilled a prophecy, Zechariah 11:12. Judas went far toward repentance, yet it was not to salvation. He confessed, but not to God; he did not go to him, and say, I have sinned, Father, against heaven. Let none be satisfied with such partial convictions as a man may have, and yet remain full of pride, enmity, and rebellion.
(Read Matthew 27:11-25)
Having no malice against Jesus, Pilate urged him to clear himself, and laboured to get him discharged. The message from his wife was a warning. God has many ways of giving checks to sinners, in their sinful pursuits, and it is a great mercy to have such checks from Providence, from faithful friends, and from our own consciences. O do not this abominable thing which the Lord hates! is what we may hear said to us, when we are entering into temptation, if we will but regard it. Being overruled by the priests, the people made choice of Barabbas. Multitudes who choose the world, rather than God, for their ruler and portion, thus choose their own delusions. The Jews were so bent upon the death of Christ, that Pilate thought it would be dangerous to refuse. And this struggle shows the power of conscience even on the worst men. Yet all was so ordered to make it evident that Christ suffered for no fault of his own, but for the sins of his people. How vain for Pilate to expect to free himself from the guilt of the innocent blood of a righteous person, whom he was by his office bound to protect! The Jews' curse upon themselves has been awfully answered in the sufferings of their nation. None could bear the sin of others, except Him that had no sin of his own to answer for. And are we not all concerned? Is not Barabbas preferred to Jesus, when sinners reject salvation that they may retain their darling sins, which rob God of his glory, and murder their souls? The blood of Christ is now upon us for good, through mercy, by the Jews' rejection of it. O let us flee to it for refuge!
(Read Matthew 27:26-30)
Crucifixion was a death used only among the Romans; it was very terrible and miserable. A cross was laid on the ground, to which the hands and feet were nailed, it was then lifted up and fixed upright, so that the weight of the body hung on the nails, till the sufferer died in agony. Christ thus answered the type of the brazen serpent raised on a pole. Christ underwent all the misery and shame here related, that he might purchase for us everlasting life, and joy, and glory.
