Bible Readings for November 20, 2019

Today our passages are Ezekiel 40:28–41:26; James 4:1-17; Psalm 118:19-29; and Proverbs 28:3-5.  The readings are from the Contemporary English Version. If you find these readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal by using the link below.

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Ezekiel 40:28-41:26 (Contemporary English Version)

The Gates Leading to the Inner Courtyard

 ²⁸We then went into the inner courtyard, through the gate on the south side of the temple. The man measured the gate, and it was the same size as the gates in the outer wall. ^29-30In fact, everything along the passageway was also the same size, including the guardrooms, the walls separating them, the entrance room at the far end, and the windows. This gate, like the others, was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. ³¹The entrance room of this gate faced the outer courtyard, and carvings of palm trees decorated the walls of the passageway. Eight steps led up to this gate.    ³²Next, we went through the east gate to the inner courtyard. The man measured this gate, and it was the same size as the others. ³³The guardrooms, the walls separating them, and its entrance room had the same measurements as the other gates. The guardrooms and the entrance room had windows, and the gate was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. ³⁴The entrance room faced the outer courtyard, and the walls in the passageway were decorated with carvings of palm trees. Eight steps also led up to this gate.
    ³⁵Then the man took me to the north gate. He measured it, and it was the same size as the others, ³⁶including the guardrooms, the walls separating them, and the entrance room. There were also windows in this gate. It was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide, ³⁷and like the other inner gates, its entrance room faced the outer courtyard, and its walls were decorated with carvings of palm trees. Eight steps also led up to this gate.   

The Rooms for Sacrificing Animals

 ^38-39Inside the entrance room of the north gate, I saw four tables, two on each side of the room, where the animals to be sacrificed were killed. Just outside ^a] this room was a small building used for washing the animals before they were offered as sacrifices to please the LORD ^b] or sacrifices for sin ^c] or sacrifices to make things right. ^d]40Four more tables were in the outer courtyard, two on each side of the steps leading into the entrance room. ⁴¹So there was a total of eight tables, four inside and four outside, where the animals were killed, ^42-43and where the meat was placed until it was sacrificed on the altar. ^e] Next to the tables in the entrance room were four stone tables twenty inches high and thirty inches square; the equipment used for killing the animals was kept on top of these tables. All around the walls of this room was a three inch shelf. ^f]

The Rooms Belonging to the Priests

 ⁴⁴The man then took me to the inner courtyard, where I saw two buildings, one beside the inner gate on the north and the other beside the inner gate on the south. ^g] 45He said, "The building beside the north gate belongs to the priests who serve in the temple, ⁴⁶and the building beside the south gate belongs to those who serve at the altar. All of them are descendants of Zadok and are the only Levites allowed to serve as the LORD's priests."

The Inner Courtyard and the Temple

 ⁴⁷Now the man measured the inner courtyard; it was one hundred seventy feet square. I also saw an altar in front of the temple.    ⁴⁸We walked to the porch of the temple, and the man measured the doorway of the porch: It was twenty-four feet long, ^h] eight feet wide, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was five feet. ⁴⁹The porch itself was thirty-four feet by twenty ^i] feet, with steps ^j] leading up to it. There was a column on each side of these steps.

Ezekiel 41

 ¹Next we went into the main room of the temple. The man measured the doorway of this room: It was ten feet wide, ^k]2seventeen feet long, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was eight feet. The main room itself was sixty-eight feet by thirty-four feet. ^3-4Then the man walked to the far end of the temple's main room and said, "Beyond this doorway is the most holy place." He first measured the doorway: It was three feet wide, ten feet long, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was twelve feet. Then he measured the most holy place, and it was thirty-four feet square.   

The Storage Rooms of the Temple

 ⁵The man measured the wall of the temple, and it was ten feet thick. Storage rooms seven feet wide were built against the outside of the wall. ⁶There were three levels of rooms, with thirty rooms on each level, and they rested on ledges that were attached to the temple walls, so that nothing was built into the walls. ⁷The walls of the temple were thicker at the bottom than at the top, which meant that the storage rooms on the top level were wider than those on the bottom level. ^l] Steps led from the bottom level, through the middle level, and into the top level. ⁸The temple rested on a stone base ten feet high, which also served as the foundation for the storage rooms.⁹The outside walls of the storage rooms were eight feet thick; there was nothing between these walls ¹⁰and the nearest buildings thirty-four feet away. ¹¹One door led into the storage rooms on the north side of the temple, and another door led to those on the south side. The stone base extended eight feet beyond the outside wall of the storage rooms.   

The West Building and the Measurements of the Temple

 ¹²I noticed another building: It faced the west end of the temple and was one hundred seventeen feet wide, one hundred fifty feet long, and had walls over eight feet thick.    ¹³The man measured the length of the temple, and it was one hundred seventy feet. He then measured from the back wall of the temple, across the open space behind the temple, to the back wall of the west building; it was one hundred seventy feet. ¹⁴The distance across the front of the temple, including the open space on either side, was also one hundred seventy feet.
    ¹⁵Finally, the man measured the length of the west building, including the side rooms on each end, and it was also one hundred seventy feet.
   The inside walls of the temple's porch and main room ^m]

The Inside of the Temple

 ¹⁶were paneled with wood all the way from the floor to the windows, while the doorways, the small windows, and the three side rooms were trimmed in wood. ^n] 17The paneling stopped just above the doorway. These walls were decorated ^o] 18-20with carvings of winged creatures and had a carving of a palm tree between the creatures. Each winged creature had two faces: A human face looking at the palm tree on one side, and a lion's face looking at the palm tree on the other side. These designs were carved into the paneling all the way around the two rooms. ²¹The doorframe to the temple's main room was in the shape of a rectangle.   In front of the doorway to the most holy place was something that looked like

The Wooden Altar

 ²²a wooden altar. It was five feet high and four feet square, ^p] and its corners, its base, ^q] and its sides were made of wood. The man said, "This is a reminder that the LORD is constantly watching over his temple."

The Doors in the Temple

 ²³Both the doorway to the main room of the temple and the doorway to the most holy place had two doors, ²⁴and each door had two sections that could fold open. ²⁵The doors to the main room were decorated with carvings of winged creatures and palm trees just like those on the walls, and there was a wooden covering over the porch just outside these doors. ²⁶The walls on each side of this porch had small windows and were also decorated with carvings of palm trees.  

Footnotes:

1. Ezekiel 40:38 Just outside: Or "Inside."
2. Ezekiel 40:38 sacrifices to please the LORD: These sacrifices have traditionally been called "whole burnt offerings" because the whole animal was burned on the altar. A main purpose of such sacrifices was to please the LORD with the smell of the sacrifice, and so in the CEV they are often called "sacrifices to please the LORD."
3. Ezekiel 40:38 sacrifices for sin: See Leviticus 4.1,2; 6.24-30.
4. Ezekiel 40:38 sacrifices to make things right: See Leviticus 5.14-19; 7.1-10.
5. Ezekiel 40:42 where the meat. . . altar: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
6. Ezekiel 40:42 was a three inch shelf: Or "were three inch pegs."
7. Ezekiel 40:44 south: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 44.
8. Ezekiel 40:48 twenty-four feet long: One ancient translation; these words are not in the Hebrew text of this verse.
9. Ezekiel 40:49 twenty: One ancient translation; Hebrew "eighteen."
10. Ezekiel 40:49 steps: Hebrew; one ancient translation "ten steps."
11. Ezekiel 41:1 It was ten feet wide: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
12. Ezekiel 41:7 which meant that. . . on the bottom level: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
13. Ezekiel 41:15 The inside walls of the temple's porch and main room: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
14. Ezekiel 41:16 were trimmed in wood: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
15. Ezekiel 41:17 decorated: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 17.
16. Ezekiel 41:22 four feet square: One ancient translation; Hebrew "four feet wide."
17. Ezekiel 41:22 base: One ancient translation; Hebrew "length."

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James 4:1-17 (Contemporary English Version)

James 4

Friendship with the World

 ¹Why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn't it because you are full of selfish desires that fight to control your body? ²You want something you don't have, and you will do anything to get it. You will even kill! But you still cannot get what you want, and you won't get it by fighting and arguing. You should pray for it. ³Yet even when you do pray, your prayers are not answered, because you pray just for selfish reasons.    ⁴You people aren't faithful to God! Don't you know that if you love the world, you are God's enemies? And if you decide to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. ⁵Do you doubt the Scriptures that say, "God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us"? ^a] 6In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say, "God opposes everyone
   who is proud,
   but he is kind to everyone
   who is humble."
    ⁷Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. ⁸Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can't make up your mind. ⁹Be sad and sorry and weep. Stop laughing and start crying. Be gloomy instead of glad. ¹⁰Be humble in the Lord's presence, and he will honor you.   

Saying Cruel Things about Others

 ¹¹My friends, don't say cruel things about others! If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God's Law. And if you condemn the Law, you put yourself above the Law and refuse to obey either it ¹²or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone?   

Warning against Bragging

 ¹³You should know better than to say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!" ¹⁴What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. ¹⁵You should say, "If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things." ¹⁶Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. ¹⁷If you don't do what you know is right, you have sinned.  

Footnotes:

1. James 4:5 God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us: One possible meaning for the difficult Greek text; other translations are possible, such as, "the Spirit that God put in us truly cares."

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Psalm 118:19-29 (Contemporary English Version)

¹⁹Open the gates of justice!
   I will enter and tell the LORD
   how thankful I am.
    ²⁰Here is the gate of the LORD!
   Everyone who does right
   may enter this gate.
    ²¹I praise the LORD
   for answering my prayers
   and saving me.
    ²²The stone that the builders
   tossed aside
   has now become
   the most important stone.
    ²³The LORD has done this,
   and it is amazing to us.
    ²⁴This day belongs to the LORD!
   Let's celebrate
   and be glad today.
    ²⁵We'll ask the LORD to save us!
   We'll sincerely ask the LORD
   to let us win.
    ²⁶God bless the one who comes
   in the name of the LORD!
   We praise you from here
   in the house of the LORD.
    ²⁷The LORD is our God,
   and he has given us light!
   Start the celebration!
   March with palm branches
   all the way to the altar. ^a] 28The LORD is my God!
   I will praise him and tell him
   how thankful I am.
    ²⁹Tell the LORD
   how thankful you are,
   because he is kind
   and always merciful. 

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 118:27 Start. . . altar: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.

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Proverbs 28:3-5 (Contemporary English Version)

³When someone poor takes over
   and mistreats the poor,
   it's like a heavy rain
   destroying the crops.
    ⁴Lawbreakers praise criminals,
   but law-abiding citizens
   always oppose them.
    ⁵Criminals don't know
   what justice means,
   but all who respect the LORD
   understand it completely.

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Verse of the Day

“[Worship and Obey the LORD]Sing joyful songs to the LORD! Praise the mighty rock where we are safe. Come to worship him with thankful hearts and songs of praise.” - Psalm 95:1-2

Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.

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Thought for the Day

American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America, Norman Thomas wrote, “To us Americans much has been given; of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes, it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power.”

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A Joke for Today

The newlywed wife said to her husband when he returned from work, "I have great news for you. Pretty soon, we're going to be three in this house instead of two."

Her husband ran to her with a smile on his face and delight in his eyes.

He was glowing of happiness and kissing his wife when she said, "I'm glad that you feel this way since tomorrow morning, my mother moves in with us."

Bible Readings for November 20, 2018

Today our passages are Ezekiel 40:28–41:26; James 4:1-17; Psalm 118:19-29; and Proverbs 28:3-5. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. If you find these readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through PayPal by using the link below.

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Ezekiel 40:28-41:26The Message (MSG)

28-31 He led me into the inside courtyard through the south gate complex. He measured it and found it the same as the outside ones. Its alcoves, connecting walls, and vestibule were the same. The gate complex and porch, windowed all around, measured eighty-seven and a half by forty-three and three-quarters feet. The vestibule of each of the gate complexes leading to the inside courtyard was forty-three and three-quarters by eight and three-quarters feet. Each vestibule faced the outside courtyard. Palm trees were carved on its doorposts. Eight steps led up to it.

32-34 He then took me to the inside courtyard on the east and measured the gate complex. It was identical to the others—alcoves, connecting walls, and vestibule all the same. The gate complex and vestibule had windows all around. It measured eighty-seven and a half by forty-three and three-quarters feet. Its porch faced the outside courtyard. There were palm trees on the doorposts on both sides. And it had eight steps.

35-37 He brought me to the gate complex to the north and measured it: same measurements. The alcoves, connecting walls, and vestibule with its windows: eighty-seven and a half by forty-three and three-quarters feet. Its porch faced the outside courtyard. There were palm trees on its doorposts on both sides. And it had eight steps.

38-43 There was a room with a door at the vestibule of the gate complex where the burnt offerings were cleaned. Two tables were placed within the vestibule, one on either side, on which the animals for burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings were slaughtered. Two tables were also placed against both outside walls of the vestibule—four tables inside and four tables outside, eight tables in all for slaughtering the sacrificial animals. The four tables used for the burnt offerings were thirty-one and a half inches square and twenty-one inches high. The tools for slaughtering the sacrificial animals and other sacrifices were kept there. Meat hooks, three inches long, were fastened to the walls. The tables were for the sacrificial animals.

44-46 Right where the inside gate complex opened onto the inside courtyard there were two rooms, one at the north gate facing south and the one at the south gate facing north. The man told me, “The room facing south is for the priests who are in charge of the Temple. And the room facing north is for the priests who are in charge of the altar. These priests are the sons of Zadok, the only sons of Levi permitted to come near to God to serve him.”

47 He measured the inside courtyard: a hundred seventy-five feet square. The altar was in front of the Temple.

48-49 He led me to the porch of the Temple and measured the gateposts of the porch: eight and three-quarters feet high on both sides. The entrance to the gate complex was twenty-one feet wide and its connecting walls were four and a half feet thick. The vestibule itself was thirty-five feet wide and twenty-one feet deep. Ten steps led up to the porch. Columns flanked the gateposts.

41 1-2 He brought me into the Temple itself and measured the doorposts on each side. Each was ten and a half feet thick. The entrance was seventeen and a half feet wide. The walls on each side were eight and three-quarters feet thick.

He also measured the Temple Sanctuary: seventy feet by thirty-five feet.

3-4 He went further in and measured the doorposts at the entrance: Each was three and a half feet thick. The entrance itself was ten and a half feet wide, and the entrance walls were twelve and a quarter feet thick. He measured the inside Sanctuary, thirty-five feet square, set at the end of the main Sanctuary. He told me, “This is The Holy of Holies.”

5-7 He measured the wall of the Temple. It was ten and a half feet thick. The side rooms around the Temple were seven feet wide. There were three floors of these side rooms, thirty rooms on each of the three floors. There were supporting beams around the Temple wall to hold up the side rooms, but they were freestanding, not attached to the wall itself. The side rooms around the Temple became wider from first floor to second floor to third floor. A staircase went from the bottom floor, through the middle, and then to the top floor.

8-11 I observed that the Temple had a ten-and-a-half-foot-thick raised base around it, which provided a foundation for the side rooms. The outside walls of the side rooms were eight and three-quarters feet thick. The open area between the side rooms of the Temple and the priests’ rooms was a thirty-five-foot-wide strip all around the Temple. There were two entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one placed on the north side, the other on the south. There were eight and three-quarters feet of open space all around.

12 The house that faced the Temple courtyard to the west was one hundred twenty-two and a half feet wide, with eight-and-three-quarters-foot-thick walls. The length of the wall and building was one hundred fifty-seven and a half feet.

13-14 He measured the Temple: one hundred seventy-five feet long. The Temple courtyard and the house, including its walls, measured a hundred seventy-five feet. The breadth of the front of the Temple and the open area to the east was a hundred seventy-five feet.

15-18 He measured the length of the house facing the courtyard at the back of the Temple, including the shelters on each side: one hundred seventy-five feet. The main Sanctuary, the inner Sanctuary, and the vestibule facing the courtyard were paneled with wood, and had window frames and door frames in all three sections. From floor to windows the walls were paneled. Above the outside entrance to the inner Sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner Sanctuary and the main Sanctuary, angel-cherubim and palm trees were carved in alternating sequence.

18-20 Each angel-cherub had two faces: a human face toward the palm tree on the right and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the left. They were carved around the entire Temple. The cherubim–palm tree motif was carved from floor to door height on the wall of the main Sanctuary.

21-22 The main Sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe. In front of the Holy Place was something that looked like an altar of wood, five and a quarter feet high and three and a half feet square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that stands before God.”

23-26 Both the main Sanctuary and the Holy Place had double doors. Each door had two leaves: two hinged leaves for each door, one set swinging inward and the other set outward. The doors of the main Sanctuary were carved with angel-cherubim and palm trees. There was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. There were narrow windows alternating with carved palm trees on both sides of the porch.

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James 4:1-17The Message (MSG)

Get Serious

4 1-2 Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.

2-3 You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.

4-6 You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”

7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.

11-12 Don’t bad-mouth each other, friends. It’s God’s Word, his Message, his Royal Rule, that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You’re supposed to be honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it. God is in charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?

Nothing but a Wisp of Fog

13-15 And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”

16-17 As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.

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Psalm 118:19-29The Message (MSG)

17-20 I didn’t die. I lived!
    And now I’m telling the world what God did.
God tested me, he pushed me hard,
    but he didn’t hand me over to Death.
Swing wide the city gates—the righteous gates!
    I’ll walk right through and thank God!
This Temple Gate belongs to God,
    so the victors can enter and praise.

21-25 Thank you for responding to me;
    you’ve truly become my salvation!
The stone the masons discarded as flawed
    is now the capstone!
This is God’s work.
    We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
This is the very day God acted—
    let’s celebrate and be festive!
Salvation now, God. Salvation now!
    Oh yes, God—a free and full life!

26-29 

Blessed are you who enter in God’s name—
    from God’s house we bless you!
God is God,
    he has bathed us in light.
Festoon the shrine with garlands,
    hang colored banners above the altar!
You’re my God, and I thank you.
    O my God, I lift high your praise.
Thank God—he’s so good.
    His love never quits!

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Proverbs 28:3-5The Message (MSG)

3 The wicked who oppress the poor
are like a hailstorm that beats down the harvest.

4 If you desert God’s law, you’re free to embrace depravity;
if you love God’s law, you fight for it tooth and nail.

5 

Justice makes no sense to the evilminded;
those who seek God know it inside and out.

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Verse of the Day

Come, let’s shout praises to God, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let’s march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns!

Psalm 95:1-2 MSG

Today's passage is from the The Message.

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Thought for the Day

American minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America, Norman Thomas wrote, “To us Americans much has been given; of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes, it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power.”

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A Joke for Today

A farmer purchases an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields are grown over with weeds, the farmhouse is falling apart, and the fences are collapsing all around.

During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!"

A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Lo and behold, it's like a completely different place--the farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there are plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows. "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!"

"Yes, reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!"