7 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to make atonement for yourself and for the people. And sacrifice the people’s offering to make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.”

8 So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. 9The sons of Aaron brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and applied it to the horns of the altar. And he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 10On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver from the sin offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 11But he burned up the flesh and the hide outside the camp.

12 Then Aaron slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar. 13They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. 14He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them atop the burnt offering on the altar.

15 Aaron then presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and offered it for sin like the first one.

16 He presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance.

17 Next he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning’s burnt offering.

18 Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram as the people’s peace offering. His sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

19 They also brought the fat portions from the ox and the ram— the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver— 20and placed these on the breasts. Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar, 21but he waved the breasts and the right thigh as a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.

22 Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having made the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down.

23 Moses and Aaron then entered the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

1 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to His command. 2So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the Lord.

3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when He said:

But Aaron remained silent.

4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry the bodies of your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” 5So they came forward and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses had directed.

6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become disheveled and do not tear your garments, or else you will die, and the Lord will be angry with the whole congregation. But your brothers, the whole house of Israel, may mourn on account of the fire that the Lord has ignited. 7You shall not go outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, or you will die, for the Lord’s anointing oil is on you.”

So they did as Moses instructed.

8 Then the Lord said to Aaron, 9“You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink when you enter the Tent of Meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statute for the generations to come. 10You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean, 11so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given them through Moses.”

12 And Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that remains from the food offerings to the Lord and eat it without leaven beside the altar, because it is most holy. 13You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and your sons’ share of the food offerings to the Lord; for this is what I have been commanded.

14 And you and your sons and daughters may eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution in a ceremonially clean place, because these portions have been assigned to you and your children from the peace offerings of the sons of Israel. 15They are to bring the thigh of the contribution and the breast of the wave offering, together with the fat portions of the food offerings, to wave as a wave offering before the Lord. It will belong permanently to you and your children, as the Lord has commanded.”

16 Later, Moses searched carefully for the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and asked, 17“Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the congregation by making atonement for them before the Lord. 18Since its blood was not brought inside the holy place, you should have eaten it in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.”

19 But Aaron replied to Moses, “Behold, this very day they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. Since these things have happened to me, if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in the sight of the Lord?”

20 And when Moses heard this explanation, he was satisfied.

26 Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how. 28All by itself the earth produces a crop— first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within. 29And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come. ”

30 Then He asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable shall we present it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds sown upon the earth. 32But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade.”

33 With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, to the extent that they could understand. 34He did not tell them anything without using a parable. But privately He explained everything to His own disciples.

35 When that evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us cross to the other side.” 36After they had dismissed the crowd, they took Jesus with them, since He was already in the boat. And there were other boats with Him.

37 Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped. 38But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?”

39 Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.

40 “Why are you so afraid?” He asked. “Do you still have no faith?”

41 Overwhelmed with fear, they asked one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

1 On the other side of the sea, they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes. 2As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, He was met by a man with an unclean spirit, who was coming from the tombs. 3This man had been living in the tombs and could no longer be restrained, even with chains. 4Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles. Now there was no one with the strength to subdue him. 5Night and day in the tombs and in the mountains he kept crying out and cutting himself with stones.

6 When the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees before Him. 7And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!” 8For Jesus had already declared, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!”

9 “What is your name?” Jesus asked.

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10And he begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of that region.

11 There on the nearby hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. 12So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”

13 He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water.

14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

16 Those who had seen it described what had happened to the demon-possessed man and also to the pigs. 17And the people began to beg Jesus to leave their region.

18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by the demons begged to go with Him. 19But Jesus would not allow him. “Go home to your own people,” He said, “and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy He has shown you.”

20 So the man went away and began to proclaim throughout the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.