Ezekiel 45; Ezekiel 46; 1 John 2

1 "'When you divide the land for the Israelite tribes by throwing lots, you must give a part of the land to belong to the Lord. It will be about seven miles long and about six miles wide; all of this land will be holy.

2 From this land, an area eight hundred seventy-five feet square will be for the Temple. There will be an open space around the Temple that is eighty-seven and one-half feet wide.

3 In the holy area you will measure a part about seven miles long and three miles wide, and in it will be the Most Holy Place.

4 This holy part of the land will be for the priests who serve in the Temple, who come near to the Lord to serve him. It will be a place for the priests' houses and for the Temple.

5 Another area about seven miles long and more than three miles wide will be for the Levites, who serve in the Temple area. It will belong to them so they will have cities in which to live.

6 "'You must give the city an area that is about one and one-half miles wide and about seven miles long, along the side of the holy area. It will belong to all the people of Israel.

7 "'The ruler will have land on both sides of the holy area and the city. On the west of the holy area, his land will reach to the Mediterranean Sea. On the east of the holy area, his land will reach to the eastern border. It will be as long as the land given to each tribe.

8 Only this land will be the ruler's property in Israel. So my rulers will not be cruel to my people anymore, but they will let each tribe in the nation of Israel have its share of the land.

9 "'This is what the Lord God says: You have gone far enough, you rulers of Israel! Stop being cruel and hurting people, and do what is right and fair. Stop forcing my people out of their homes, says the Lord God.

10 You must have honest scales, an honest dry measurement and an honest liquid measurement.

11 The dry measure and the liquid measure will be the same: The liquid measure will always be a tenth of a homer, and the ephah will always be a tenth of a homer. The measurement they follow will be the homer.

12 The shekeln will be worth twenty gerahs, and a mina will be worth sixty shekels.

13 "'This is the gift you should offer: a sixth of an ephah from every homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from every homer of barley.

14 The amount of oil you are to offer is a tenth of a bath from each cor. (Ten baths make a homer and also make a cor.)

15 You should give one sheep from each flock of two hundred from the watering places of Israel. All these are to be offered for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings to remove sins so you will belong to God, says the Lord God.

16 All people in the land will give this special offering to the ruler of Israel.

17 It will be the ruler's responsibility to supply the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings. These offerings will be given at the feasts, at the New Moons, on the Sabbaths, and at all the other feasts of Israel. The ruler will supply the sin offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings to pay for the sins of Israel.

18 "'This is what the Lord God says: On the first day of the first month take a young bull that has nothing wrong with it. Use it to make the Temple pure and ready for God's service.

19 The priest will take some of the blood from this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate to the inner courtyard.

20 You will do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned by accident or without knowing it. This is how you make the Temple pure and ready for God's service.

21 "'On the fourteenth day of the first month you will celebrate the Feast of Passover. It will be a feast of seven days when you eat bread made without yeast.

22 On that day the ruler must offer a bull for himself and for all the people of the land as a sin offering.

23 During the seven days of the feast he must offer seven bulls and seven male sheep that have nothing wrong with them. They will be burnt offerings to the Lord, which the ruler will offer every day of the seven days of the feast. He must also offer a male goat every day as a sin offering.

24 The ruler must give as a grain offering one-half bushel for each bull and one-half bushel for each sheep. He must give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel.

25 "'Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you celebrate the Feast of Shelters, the ruler will supply the same things for seven days: the sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the olive oil.

1 "'This is what the Lord God says: The east gate of the inner courtyard will stay shut on the six working days, but it will be opened on the Sabbath day and on the day of the New Moon.

2 The ruler will enter from outside through the porch of the gateway and stand by the gatepost, while the priests offer the ruler's burnt offering and fellowship offering. The ruler will worship at the entrance of the gateway, and then he will go out. But the gate will not be shut until evening.

3 The people of the land will worship at the entrance of that gateway in the presence of the Lord on the Sabbaths and New Moons.

4 This is the burnt offering the ruler will offer to the Lord on the Sabbath day: six male lambs that have nothing wrong with them and a male sheep that has nothing wrong with it.

5 He must give a half-bushel grain offering with the male sheep, but he may give as much grain offering with the lambs as he pleases. He must also give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel of grain.

6 On the day of the New Moon he must offer a young bull that has nothing wrong with it. He must also offer six lambs and a male sheep that have nothing wrong with them.

7 The ruler must give a half-bushel grain offering with the bull and one-half bushel with the male sheep. With the lambs, he may give as much grain as he pleases. But he must give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel of grain.

8 When the ruler enters, he must go in through the porch of the gateway, and he must go out the same way.

9 "'When the people of the land come into the Lord's presence at the special feasts, those who enter through the north gate to worship must go out through the south gate. Those who enter through the south gate must go out through the north gate. They must not return the same way they entered; everyone must go out the opposite way.

10 The ruler will go in with the people when they go in and go out with them when they go out.

11 "'At the feasts and regular times of worship one-half bushel of grain must be offered with a young bull, and one-half bushel of grain must be offered with a male sheep. But with an offering of lambs, the ruler may give as much grain as he pleases. He should give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel of grain.

12 The ruler may give an offering as a special gift to the Lord; it may be a burnt offering or fellowship offering. When he gives it to the Lord, the inner east gate is to be opened for him. He must offer his burnt offering or his fellowship offering as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he will go out, and the gate will be shut after he has left.

13 "'Every day you will give a year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it for a burnt offering to the Lord. Do it every morning.

14 Also, you must offer a grain offering with the lamb every morning. For this you will give three and one-third quarts of grain and one and one-third quarts of olive oil, to make the fine flour moist, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a rule that must be kept from now on.

15 So you must always give the lamb, together with the grain offering and the olive oil, every morning as a burnt offering.

16 "'This is what the Lord God says: If the ruler gives a gift from his land to any of his sons, that land will belong to the son and then to the son's children. It is their property passed down from their family.

17 But if the ruler gives a gift from his land to any of his servants, that land will belong to the servant only until the year of freedom. Then the land will go back to the ruler. Only the ruler's sons may keep a gift of land from the ruler.

18 The ruler must not take any of the people's land, forcing them out of their land. He must give his sons some of his own land so my people will not be scattered out of their own land.'"

19 The man led me through the entrance at the side of the gateway to the priests' holy rooms that face north. There I saw a place at the west end.

20 The man said to me, "This is where the priests will boil the meat of the penalty offering and sin offering and bake the grain offering. Then they will not need to bring these holy offerings into the outer courtyard, because that would hurt the people."

21 Then the man brought me out into the outer courtyard and led me to its four corners. In each corner of the courtyard was a smaller courtyard.

22 Small courtyards were in the four corners of the courtyard. Each small courtyard was the same size, seventy feet long and fifty-two and one-half feet wide.

23 A stone wall was around each of the four small courtyards, and places for cooking were built in each of the stone walls.

24 The man said to me, "These are the kitchens where those who work in the Temple will boil the sacrifices offered by the people."

1 My dear children, I write this letter to you so you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a helper in the presence of the Father -- Jesus Christ, the One who does what is right.

2 He is the way our sins are taken away, and not only our sins but the sins of all people.

3 We can be sure that we know God if we obey his commands.

4 Anyone who says, "I know God," but does not obey God's commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

5 But if someone obeys God's teaching, then in that person God's love has truly reached its goal. This is how we can be sure we are living in God:

6 Whoever says that he lives in God must live as Jesus lived.

7 My dear friends, I am not writing a new command to you but an old command you have had from the beginning. It is the teaching you have already heard.

8 But also I am writing a new command to you, and you can see its truth in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who says, "I am in the light," but hates a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.

10 Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light and will not cause anyone to stumble in his faith.

11 But whoever hates a brother or sister is in darkness, lives in darkness, and does not know where to go, because the darkness has made that person blind.

12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins are forgiven through Christ.

13 I write to you, parents, because you know the One who existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you have defeated the Evil One.

14 I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, parents, because you know the One who existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the teaching of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One.

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.

16 These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world.

17 The world and everything that people want in it are passing away, but the person who does what God wants lives forever.

18 My dear children, these are the last days. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now many enemies of Christ are already here. This is how we know that these are the last days.

19 These enemies of Christ were in our fellowship, but they left us. They never really belonged to us; if they had been a part of us, they would have stayed with us. But they left, and this shows that none of them really belonged to us.

20 You have the giftn that the Holy One gave you, so you all know the truth.

21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.

22 Who is the liar? It is the person who does not accept Jesus as the Christ. This is the enemy of Christ: the person who does not accept the Father and his Son.

23 Whoever does not accept the Son does not have the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has the Father, too.

24 Be sure you continue to follow the teaching you heard from the beginning. If you continue to follow what you heard from the beginning, you will stay in the Son and in the Father.

25 And this is what the Son promised to us -- life forever.

26 I am writing this letter about those people who are trying to lead you the wrong way.

27 Christ gave you a special gift that is still in you, so you do not need any other teacher. His gift teaches you about everything, and it is true, not false. So continue to live in Christ, as his gift taught you.

28 Yes, my dear children, live in him so that when Christ comes back, we can be without fear and not be ashamed in his presence.

29 If you know that Christ is all that is right, you know that all who do right are God's children.