Ezekiel 45; Ezekiel 46; 1 John 2

Ezekiel 45

1 When the land is divided to give each tribe a share, one part is to be dedicated to the Lord. It is to be 10 miles long by 8 miles wide. The entire area will be holy.

2 In this area there is to be a square plot of land for the Temple, 840 feet on each side, entirely surrounded by an open space 84 feet wide.

3 Half of this area, a section 10 miles by 4 miles, is to be measured off; it will contain the Temple, the holiest place of all.

4 It will be a holy part of the country, set aside for the priests who serve the Lord in his Temple. It will contain their houses and the section of land for the Temple.

5 The other half of the area is to be set aside as the possession of the Levites, who do the work in the Temple. There will be towns there for them to live in.

6 Next to the holy area, another section, 10 miles long and 2 miles wide, is to be set aside for a city where any of the people of Israel may live.

7 Land is also to be set aside for the ruling prince. From the west boundary of the holy area it will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea; and from the east boundary it will extend to the eastern border of the country, so that its length will be the same as the length of one of the areas allotted to the tribes of Israel.

8 This area will be the share the ruling prince will have in the land of Israel, so that he will no longer oppress the people, but will let the rest of the country belong to the tribes of Israel.

9 The Sovereign Lord said, "You have sinned too long, you rulers of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression. Do what is right and just. You must never again drive my people off their land. I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling you this.

10 "Everyone must use honest weights and measures:

11 "The [ephah ]for dry measure is to be equal to the [bath ]for liquid measure. The standard is the [homer.] The resulting measures are as follows: 1 [homer ]= 10 [ephahs ]= 10 [baths]

12 "Your weights are to be as follows: 20 [gerahs ]= 1 [shekel] 60 [shekels ]= 1 [mina]

13 "This is the basis on which you are to make your offerings: Wheat: 1/60th of your harvest Barley: 1/60th of your harvest Olive oil: 1/100th of the yield of your trees (Measure it by the [bath]: 10 [baths ]= 1 [homer ]= 1 [kor].) Sheep: 1 sheep out of every 200 from the meadows of Israel "You are to bring grain offerings, animals to be burned whole, and animals for fellowship offerings, so that your sins will be forgiven. I, the Sovereign Lord, command it.

16 "All the people of the land must take these offerings to the ruling prince of Israel.

17 It will be his duty to provide the animals to be burned whole, the grain offerings, and the wine offerings for the whole nation of Israel at the New Moon Festivals, the Sabbaths, and the other festivals. He is to provide the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the offerings to be burned whole, and the fellowship offerings, to take away the sins of the people of Israel."

18 The Sovereign Lord said, "On the first day of the first month you are to sacrifice a bull without any defects and purify the Temple.

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

20 On the seventh day of the month you are to do the same thing on behalf of anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance. In this way you will keep the Temple holy.

21 "On the fourteenth day of the first month you will begin the celebration of the Passover Festival. For seven days everyone will eat bread made without yeast.

22 On the first day of the festival the ruling prince must offer a bull as a sacrifice for his sins and for those of all the people.

23 On each of the seven days of the festival he is to sacrifice to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without any defects and burn them whole. He is also to sacrifice a male goat each day as a sin offering.

24 For each bull and each ram that is sacrificed, there is to be an offering of half a bushel of grain and three quarts of olive oil.

25 "For the Festival of Shelters, which begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the prince will offer on each of the seven days the same sacrifice for sin, the same offerings to be burned whole, and the same offerings of grain and olive oil."

Ezekiel 46

1 The Sovereign Lord says, "The east gateway to the inner courtyard must be kept closed during the six working days, but it is to be opened on the Sabbath and at the New Moon Festival.

2 The ruling prince will go from the outer courtyard into the entrance room of the gateway and stand beside the posts of the gate while the priests burn his sacrifices whole and offer his fellowship offerings. There at the gate he must worship and then go back out. The gate must not be shut until evening.

3 Each Sabbath and each New Moon Festival all the people are also to bow down and worship the Lord in front of the gate.

4 On the Sabbath the prince is to bring to the Lord, as sacrifices to be burned whole, six lambs and one ram, all without any defects.

5 With each ram he is to bring an offering of half a bushel of grain, and with each lamb he is to bring whatever he wants to give. For each half-bushel of grain offering he is to bring three quarts of olive oil.

6 At the New Moon Festival he will offer a young bull, six lambs, and a ram, all without any defects.

7 With each bull and each ram the offering is to be half a bushel of grain, and with each lamb the offering is to be whatever the prince wants to give. Three quarts of olive oil are to be offered with each half-bushel of grain.

8 The prince must leave the entrance room of the gateway and go out by the same way he went in.

9 "When the people come to worship the Lord at any festival, those who enter by the north gate are to leave by the south gate after they have worshiped, and those who enter by the south gate are to leave by the north gate. No one may go out by the same way he entered, but must leave by the opposite gate.

10 The prince is to come in when the people come, and leave when they leave.

11 On the feast days and at the festivals the grain offering will be half a bushel with each bull or ram, and whatever the worshiper wants to give with each lamb. Three quarts of olive oil are to be offered with each half-bushel of grain.

12 "When the ruling prince wants to make a voluntary offering to the Lord, either an offering to be burned whole or a fellowship offering, the east gate to the inner courtyard will be opened for him. He is to make the offering in the same way he does on the Sabbath, and the gate is to be closed after he goes back out."

13 The Lord says, "Every morning a one-year-old lamb without any defects is to be burned whole as an offering to the Lord. This offering must be made every day.

14 Also an offering of five pounds of flour is to be made every morning, along with one quart of olive oil for mixing with the flour. The rules for this offering to the Lord are to be in force forever.

15 The lamb, the flour, and the olive oil are to be offered to the Lord every morning forever."

16 The Sovereign Lord commands: "If the ruling prince gives any of the land he owns to one of his sons as a present, it will belong to that son as a part of his family property.

17 But if the ruling prince gives any of his land to anyone who is in his service, it will become the prince's property again when the Year of Restoration comes. It belongs to him, and only he and his sons can own it permanently.

18 The ruling prince must not take any of the people's property away from them. Any land he gives to his sons must be from the land that is assigned to him, so that he will not oppress any of my people by taking their land."

19 Then the man took me to the entrance of the rooms facing north near the gate on the south side of the inner courtyard. These are holy rooms for the priests. He pointed out a place on the west side of the rooms

20 and said, "This is the place where the priests are to boil the meat offered as sacrifices for sin or as repayment offerings, and to bake the offerings of flour, so that nothing holy is carried to the outer courtyard, where it might harm the people."

21 Then he led me to the outer courtyard and showed me that in each of its four corners there was a smaller courtyard, 68 feet long and 48 feet wide.

23 Each one had a stone wall around it, with fireplaces built against the wall.

24 The man told me, "These are the kitchens where the Temple servants are to boil the sacrifices the people offer."

1 John 2

1 I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf - Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

2 And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.

3 If we obey God's commands, then we are sure that we know him.

4 If we say that we know him, but do not obey his commands, we are liars and there is no truth in us.

5 But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

6 if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.

7 My dear friends, this command I am writing you is not new; it is the old command, the one you have had from the very beginning. The old command is the message you have already heard.

8 However, the command I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.

9 If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour.

10 If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin.

11 But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.

12 I write to you, my children, because your sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ.

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

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

15 Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

16 Everything that belongs to the world - what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of - none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world.

17 The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

18 My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near.

19 These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

20 But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth.

21 I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.

22 Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ - they reject both the Father and the Son.

23 For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.

24 Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father.

25 And this is what Christ himself promised to give us - eternal life.

26 I am writing this to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

27 But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit's teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.

28 Yes, my children, remain in union with him, so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes.

29 You know that Christ is righteous; you should know, then, that everyone who does what is right is God's child.