July 26, 2027

15Moses then turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back. 16The tablets were made by God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “That sounds like a battle in the camp.” 18But Moses answered, “It is not the noise of victory, it is not the noise of defeat; the sound I hear is singing.” 19As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain. 20Taking the calf they had made, he burned it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink. 21Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you should lead them into a grave sin?” 22Aaron replied, “Do not let my lord be angry. You know how the people are prone to evil. 23They said to me, ‘Make us a god to go before us; as for this man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 24So I told them, ‘Whoever is wearing gold, take it off.’ They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” 30The Atonement. On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a grave sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.” 31So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Ah, this people has committed a grave sin in making a god of gold for themselves! 32Now if you would only forgive their sin! But if you will not, then blot me out of the book that you have written.” 33The LORD answered Moses: Only the one who has sinned against me will I blot out of my book. 34Now, go and lead the people where I have told you. See, my angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.

19IV At Horeb they fashioned a calf, worshiped a metal statue. 20They exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating bull. 21They forgot the God who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt, 22Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea. 23He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, his chosen one, Withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger.

18He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

31He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. 32It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’” 33The Parable of the Yeast. He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” 34The Use of Parables. All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, 35to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation [of the world].”