Read the whole Bible in one year

Feb. 26 to Mar. 4, 2011

“Week 9, March 5, 2011:  Jubilant”

This week's Reading:

Old Testament:  Leviticus 19:1-Numbers 3:51

New Testament:  Mark 8:11-12:17

Psalms:  Psalm 42:1-47:9

Proverbs:  Proverbs 10:17-25

Key Bible Verses:  Leviticus 25:8-34 and  Mark 8:22-26

What is the Year of Jubilee?  How does it work, and what is the point of it?

The Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:  [8] "And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years.  [9] Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.  [10] And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.  [11] A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines.  [12] For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field.  [13] "In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.  [14] And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.  [15] According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you.  [16] If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you.  [17] You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.  [18] "Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and perform them; so you will dwell in the land securely.  [19] The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely.  [20] And if you say, `What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'  [21] I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that it will bring forth fruit for three years.  [22] When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.  [23] The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.  [24] And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land.  [25] "If your brother becomes poor, and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.  [26] If a man has no one to redeem it, and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, [27] let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.  [28] But if he has not sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.  [29] "If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a whole year after its sale; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption.  [30] If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee.  [31] But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.  [32] Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.  [33] And if one of the Levites does not exercise his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city of their possession shall be released in the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel.  [34] But the fields of common land belonging to their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession. 


Why did Jesus lay his hands on the blind man twice, in order to heal him?

Mark 8 (RSV):  [22] And they came to Beth-sa'ida. And some people brought to him a blind man, and begged him to touch him.  [23] And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the village; and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?"  [24] And he looked up and said, "I see men; but they look like trees, walking."  [25] Then again he laid his hands upon his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and saw everything clearly.  [26] And he sent him away to his home, saying, "Do not even enter the village."