Through the Bible – Day 337

₁When the land of Israel is divided among the twelve tribes, you must set aside an area that will belong to me. This sacred area will be twelve and a half kilometres long and ten kilometres wide. ₂The temple will be on a piece of land two hundred and fifty-five metres square, and the temple will be completely surrounded by an open space twenty-five metres wide.

_3-4I will give half of my sacred land, a section twelve and a half kilometres long and five kilometres wide, to the priests who serve in the temple. Their houses will be in this half, as well as my temple, which is the most sacred place of all.

₅I will give the other half of my land to the Levites who work in my temple, and the towns where they will live will be there.

₆Next to my sacred land will be an area twelve and a half kilometres long and three kilometres wide. This will belong to the people of Israel and will include the city of Jerusalem.

_7-8The regions west and east of my sacred land and the city of Jerusalem will belong to the ruler of Israel. He will be given the region between the western edge of my land and the Mediterranean Sea, and between the eastern edge of my land and the River Jordan. This will mean that the length of his property will be the same as the sections of land given to the tribes.

This property will belong to every ruler of Israel, so they will always be fair to my people and will let them live peacefully in the land given to their tribes.

₉The LORD God said:

You leaders of Israel have robbed and cheated my people long enough! I want you to stop sinning and start doing what is right and fair. You must never again force my people off their own land. I, the LORD, have spoken.

₁₀So from now on, you must use honest weights and measures. ₁₁The ephah will be the standard dry measure, and the bath will be the standard liquid measure. Their size will be based on the homer, which will equal ten ephahs or ten baths.

₁₂The standard unit of weight will be the shekel. One shekel will equal twenty gerahs, and sixty shekels will equal one mina.

₁₃Leaders of Israel, the people must bring you one sixtieth of their grain harvests as offerings to me. ₁₄They will also bring one per cent of their olive oil. These things will be measured according to the bath, and ten baths is the same as one homer or one cor. ₁₅Finally, they must bring one sheep out of every two hundred from their flocks.

These offerings will be used as grain sacrifices, as well as sacrifices to please me and those to ask my blessing. I, the LORD, will be pleased with these sacrifices and will forgive the sins of my people.

₁₆The people of Israel will bring you these offerings. ₁₇But during New Moon Festivals, Sabbath celebrations, and other religious feasts, you leaders will be responsible for providing animals for the sacrifices, as well as the grain and wine. All these will be used for the sacrifices for sin, the grain sacrifices, the sacrifices to please me, and those to ask my blessing. I will be pleased and will forgive the sins of my people.

₁₈The LORD God said:

On the first day of the first month, a young bull that has nothing wrong with it must be offered as a sacrifice to purify the temple. ₁₉The priest will take some blood from this sacrifice and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, as well as on the four corners of the altar and on the doorposts of the gates that lead into the inner courtyard.

₂₀The same ceremony must also be done on the seventh day of the month, so that anyone who sins accidentally or without knowing it will be forgiven, and so that my temple will remain holy.

₂₁Beginning on the fourteenth day of the first month, and continuing for seven days, everyone will celebrate Passover and eat bread made without yeast. ₂₂On the first day, the ruler will bring a bull to offer as a sacrifice for his sins and for the sins of the people. ₂₃Each day of the festival he is to bring seven bulls and seven rams as sacrifices to please me, and he must bring a goat as a sacrifice for sin. These animals must have nothing wrong with them. ₂₄He will also provide nine kilogrammes of grain and three litres of olive oil to be offered with each bull and each ram.

₂₅The Festival of Shelters will begin on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and will continue for seven days. On each day of this festival, the ruler will provide the same number of animals that he did each day during Passover, as well as the same amount of grain and olive oil for the sacrifices.

₁The LORD said:

The east gate of the inner courtyard must remain closed during the six working days of each week. But on the Sabbath and on the first day of the month, this gate will be opened. ₂Israel's ruler will go from the outer courtyard into the entrance room of this gate and stand in the doorway while the priest offers sacrifices to ask my blessing and sacrifices to please me. The ruler will bow with his face to the ground to show that he has worshipped me. Then he will leave, and the gate will remain open until evening.

₃Each Sabbath and on the first day of each month, the people of Israel must also come to the east gate and worship me. ₄On the Sabbath, the ruler will bring six lambs and one ram to be offered as sacrifices to please me. There must be nothing wrong with any of these animals. ₅With the ram, he is to offer nine kilogrammes of grain, and with each of the lambs, he can offer as much as he wants. He must also offer three litres of olive oil with every nine kilogrammes of grain.

₆The ruler is to bring six lambs, a bull, and a ram to be offered as sacrifices at the New Moon Festival. There must be nothing wrong with any of these animals. ₇With the bull and the ram, he is to offer nine kilogrammes of grain, and with each of the lambs, he can offer as much as he wants. He must also offer three litres of olive oil with every nine kilogrammes of grain. ₈The ruler must come through the entrance room of the east gate and leave the same way.

₉When my people come to worship me during any festival, they must always leave by the opposite gate from which they came: those who come in the north gate must leave by the south gate, and those who come in the south gate must leave by the north gate. ₁₀Their ruler will come in at the same time they do and leave at the same time they leave.

₁₁At all other festivals and celebrations, nine kilogrammes of grain will be offered with a bull, and nine kilogrammes will be offered with a ram. The worshippers can offer as much grain as they want with each lamb. Three litres of olive oil must be offered with every nine kilogrammes of grain.

₁₂If the ruler voluntarily offers a sacrifice to please me or to ask my blessing, the east gate of the inner courtyard will be opened for him. He will offer his sacrifices just as he does on each Sabbath; then he will leave, and the gate will be closed.

₁₃Each morning a year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it must be offered as a sacrifice to please me. ₁₄Along with it, two kilogrammes of fine flour mixed with a litre of olive oil must be offered as a grain sacrifice. This law will never change— ₁₅the lamb, the flour, and the olive oil will be offered to me every morning for all time.

₁₆The LORD God said:

If the ruler of Israel gives some of his land to one of his children, it will belong to the ruler's child as part of the family property. ₁₇But if the ruler gives some of his land to one of his servants, the land will belong to the servant until the Year of Celebration, when it will be returned to the ruler. Only the ruler's children can keep what is given to them.

₁₈The ruler must never abuse my people by taking land from them. Any land he gives his children must already belong to him.

₁₉The man who was showing me the temple then took me back to the inner courtyard. We walked to the south side of the courtyard and stopped at the door to the sacred rooms that belonged to the priests. He showed me more rooms at the western edge of the courtyard ₂₀and said, “These are the kitchens where the priests must boil the meat to be offered as sacrifices to make things right and as sacrifices for sin. They will also bake the grain for sacrifices in these kitchens. That way, these sacred offerings won't have to be carried through the outer courtyard, where someone could accidentally touch them and be harmed.”

₂₁We went back to the outer courtyard and walked past the four corners. ₂₂At each corner I saw a smaller courtyard, twenty metres long and fifteen metres wide. ₂₃Around the inside of these smaller courtyards was a low wall of stones, and against the wall were places to build fires. ₂₄The man said, “These are the kitchens where the temple workers will boil the meat that worshippers offer as sacrifices.”

₁Dear friends, don't believe everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God. Test them all to find out if they really do come from God. Many false prophets have already gone out into the world, ₂and you can know which ones come from God. His Spirit says that Jesus Christ had a truly human body. ₃But when someone doesn't say this about Jesus, you know that person has a spirit that doesn't come from God and is the enemy of Christ. You knew that this enemy was coming into the world and now is already here.

₄Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God's Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world. ₅These enemies belong to this world, and the world listens to them, because they speak its language. ₆We belong to God, and everyone who knows God will listen to us. But the people who don't know God won't listen to us. That is how we can tell the Spirit that speaks the truth from the one that tells lies.

₇My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God's children, and we know him. ₈God is love, and anyone who doesn't love others has never known him. ₉God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. ₁₀Real love isn't our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. ₁₁Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

₁₂No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.

₁₃God has given us his Spirit. That is how we know that we are one with him, just as he is one with us. ₁₄God sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. We saw his Son and are now telling others about him. ₁₅God stays united with everyone who openly says that Jesus is the Son of God. That's how we stay united with God ₁₆and are sure that God loves us.

God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay united in our hearts with God, and he will stay united with us. ₁₇If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won't be worried about the day of judgment. ₁₈A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows that we have not really learnt to love.

₁₉We love because God loved us first. ₂₀But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see? ₂₁The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!”