EZEKIEL 39:1-40:27
JAMES 2:18-3:18
PSALM 118:1-18
PROVERBS 28:2
EZEKIEL 39:1-40:27
" Son of man, prophesy against Gog. Give him this message from the Sovereign LORD: I am your enemy, O Gog, ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you and drive you toward the mountains of Israel, bringing you from the distant north. 3 I will knock your weapons from your hands and leave you helpless. 4 You and all your vast hordes will die on the mountains. I will give you as food to the vultures and wild animals. 5 You will fall in the open fields, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign LORD. 6 And I will rain down fire on Magog and on all your allies who live safely on the coasts. Then they will know that I am the LORD. 7 " Thus, I will make known my holy name among my people of Israel. I will not let it be desecrated anymore. And the nations, too, will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 8 That day of judgment will come, says the Sovereign LORD. Everything will happen just as I have declared it.9 " Then the people in the towns of Israel will go out and pick up your small and large shields, bows and arrows, javelins and spears, and they will use them for fuel. There will be enough to last them seven years! 10 They will need nothing else for their fires. They won't need to cut wood from the fields or forests, for these weapons will give them all they need. They will take plunder from those who planned to plunder them, says the Sovereign LORD. 11 " And I will make a vast graveyard for Gog and his hordes in the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Dead Sea. The path of those who travel there will be blocked by this burial ground, and they will change the name of the place to the Valley of Gog's Hordes. 12 It will take seven months for the people of Israel to cleanse the land by burying the bodies. 13 Everyone in Israel will help, for it will be a glorious victory for Israel when I demonstrate my glory on that day, says the Sovereign LORD. 14 At the end of the seven months, special crews will be appointed to search the land for any skeletons and to bury them, so the land will be made clean again. 15 Whenever some bones are found, a marker will be set up beside them so the burial crews will see them and take them to be buried in the Valley of Gog's Hordes. 16 (There will be a town there named Hamonah--which means ` horde.') And so the land will finally be cleansed. 17 " And now, son of man, call all the birds and wild animals, says the Sovereign LORD. Say to them: Gather together for my great sacrificial feast. Come from far and near to the mountains of Israel, and there eat the flesh and drink the blood! 18 Eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of princes as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and fat young bulls of Bashan! 19 Gorge yourselves with flesh until you are glutted; drink blood until you are drunk. This is the sacrificial feast I have prepared for you. 20 Feast at my banquet table--feast on horses, riders, and valiant warriors, says the Sovereign LORD. 21 " Thus, I will demonstrate my glory among the nations. Everyone will see the punishment I have inflicted on them and the power I have demonstrated. 22 And from that time on the people of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. 23 The nations will then know why Israel was sent away to exile--it was punishment for sin, for they acted in treachery against their God. Therefore, I turned my back on them and let their enemies destroy them. 24 I turned my face away and punished them in proportion to the vileness of their sins.25 " So now the Sovereign LORD says: I will end the captivity of my people; I will have mercy on Israel, for I am jealous for my holy reputation! 26 They will accept responsibility for their past shame and treachery against me after they come home to live in peace and safety in their own land. And then no one will bother them or make them afraid. 27 When I bring them home from the lands of their enemies, my holiness will be displayed to the nations. 28 Then my people will know that I am the LORD their God--responsible for sending them away to exile and responsible for bringing them home. I will leave none of my people behind. 29 And I will never again turn my back on them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon them, says the Sovereign LORD." 40:1 ON April 28, during the twenty-fifth year of our captivity--fourteen years after the fall of Jerusalem--the LORD took hold of me. 2 In a vision of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain. From there I could see what appeared to be a city across from me toward the south. 3 As he brought me nearer, I saw a man whose face shone like bronze standing beside a gateway entrance. He was holding in his hand a measuring tape and a measuring rod. 4 He said to me, " Son of man, watch and listen. Pay close attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so I can show you many things. Then you will return to the people of Israel and tell them everything you have seen." 5 I could see a wall completely surrounding the Temple area. The man took a measuring rod that was 10 feet long and measured the wall, and the wall was 10 feet thick and 10 feet high. 6 Then he went over to the gateway that goes through the eastern wall. He climbed the steps and measured the threshold of the gateway; it was 10 feet deep. 7 There were guard alcoves on each side built into the gateway passage. Each of these alcoves was 10 feet square, with a distance between them of 8 feet along the passage wall. The gateway's inner threshold, which led to the foyer at the inner end of the gateway passage, was 10 feet deep. 8 He also measured the foyer of the gateway 9 and found it to be 14 feet deep, with supporting columns 3 feet thick. This foyer was at the inner end of the gateway structure, facing toward the Temple. 10 There were three guard alcoves on each side of the gateway passage. Each had the same measurements, and the dividing walls separating them were also identical. 11 The man measured the gateway entrance, which was 17 feet wide at the opening and 22 feet wide in the gateway passage. 12 In front of each of the guard alcoves was a 21-inch curb. The alcoves themselves were 10 feet square.13 Then he measured the entire width of the gateway, measuring the distance between the back walls of facing guard alcoves; this distance was 43 feet. 14 He measured the dividing walls all along the inside of the gateway up to the gateway's foyer; this distance was 105 feet. 15 The full length of the gateway passage was 87 feet from one end to the other. 16 There were recessed windows that narrowed inward through the walls of the guard alcoves and their dividing walls. There were also windows in the foyer structure. The surfaces of the dividing walls were decorated with carved palm trees. 17 Then the man brought me through the gateway into the outer courtyard of the Temple. A stone pavement ran along the walls of the courtyard, and thirty rooms were built against the walls, opening onto the pavement. 18 This pavement flanked the gates and extended out from the walls into the courtyard the same distance as the gateway entrance. This was the lower pavement. 19 Then the man measured across the Temple's outer courtyard between the outer and inner gateways; the distance was 175 feet. 20 There was a gateway on the north just like the one on the east, and the man measured it. 21 Here, too, there were three guard alcoves on each side, with dividing walls and a foyer. All the measurements matched those of the east gateway. The gateway passage was 87 feet long and 43 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves. 22 The windows, the foyer, and the palm tree decorations were identical to those in the east gateway. There were seven steps leading up to the gateway entrance, and the foyer was at the inner end of the gateway passage. 23 Here on the north side, just as on the east, there was another gateway leading to the Temple's inner courtyard directly opposite this outer gateway. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet. 24 Then the man took me around to the south gateway and measured its various parts, and he found they were exactly the same as in the others. 25 It had windows along the walls as the others did, and there was a foyer where the gateway passage opened into the outer courtyard. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 feet long and 43 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves. 26 This gateway also had a stairway of seven steps leading up to it, and there were palm tree decorations along the dividing walls. 27 And here again, directly opposite the outer gateway, was another gateway that led into the inner courtyard. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
JAMES 2:18-3:18
Now someone may argue, " Some people have faith; others have good deeds." I [James] say, " I can't see your faith if you don't have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds." 19 Do you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! 20 Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?21 Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was declared right with God because of what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did--by his actions. 23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: " Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous." He was even called " the friend of God." 24 So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. 25 Rahab the prostitute is another example of this. She was made right with God by her actions--when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. 26 Just as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith is dead without good deeds.3:1 DEAR brothers and sisters,* not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged by God with greater strictness. 2 We all make many mistakes, but those who control their tongues can also control themselves in every other way. 3 We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself. 7 People can tame all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Can you pick olives from a fig tree or figs from a grapevine? No, and you can't draw fresh water from a salty pool. 13 If you are wise and understand God's ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth. And if you don't brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise! 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your hearts, don't brag about being wise. That is the worst kind of lie. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and motivated by the Devil. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.
PSALM 118:1-18
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Let the congregation of Israel repeat:
" His faithful love endures forever."
3 Let Aaron's descendants, the priests, repeat:
" His faithful love endures forever."
4 Let all who fear the LORD repeat:
" His faithful love endures forever."
5 In my distress I prayed to the LORD,
and the LORD answered me and rescued me.
6 The LORD is for me, so I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
7 Yes, the LORD is for me; he will help me.
I will look in triumph at those who hate me.
8 It is better to trust the LORD
than to put confidence in people.
9 It is better to trust the LORD
than to put confidence in princes.
10 Though hostile nations surrounded me,
I destroyed them all in the name of the LORD.
11 Yes, they surrounded and attacked me,
but I destroyed them all in the name of the LORD.
12 They swarmed around me like bees;
they blazed against me like a roaring flame.
But I destroyed them all in the name of the LORD.
13 You did your best to kill me, O my enemy,
but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my victory.
15 Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly.
The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things!
16 The strong right arm of the LORD is raised in triumph.
The strong right arm of the LORD has done glorious things!
17 I will not die, but I will live
to tell what the LORD has done.
18 The LORD has punished me severely,
but he has not handed me over to death.
PROVERBS 28:2
When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But with wise and knowledgeable leaders, there is stability.
