Ezekiel 45
Division of the Land 1 " 'When you allot the land as an inheritance, you are to present to the LORD a portion of the land as a sacred district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 [a] cubits wide; the entire area will be holy. 2 Of this, a section 500 cubits square is to be for the sanctuary, with 50 cubits around it for open land. 3 In the sacred district, measure off a section 25,000 cubits [b] long and 10,000 cubits [c] wide. In it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4 It will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and who draw near to minister before the LORD. It will be a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 An area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide will belong to the Levites, who serve in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in. [d] 6 " 'You are to give the city as its property an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, adjoining the sacred portion; it will belong to the whole house of Israel.
7 " 'The prince will have the land bordering each side of the area formed by the sacred district and the property of the city. It will extend westward from the west side and eastward from the east side, running lengthwise from the western to the eastern border parallel to one of the tribal portions. 8 This land will be his possession in Israel. And my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allow the house of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes.
9 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have gone far enough, O princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. 10 You are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah [e] and an accurate bath. [f] 11 The ephah and the bath are to be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer [g] and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both. 12 The shekel [h] is to consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina. [i]
Offerings and Holy Days 13 " 'This is the special gift you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. 14 The prescribed portion of oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (which consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten baths are equivalent to a homer). 15 Also one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings [j] to make atonement for the people, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 All the people of the land will participate in this special gift for the use of the prince in Israel. 17 It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths—at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel. 18 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. 19 The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court. 20 You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple.
21 " 'In the first month on the fourteenth day you are to observe the Passover, a feast lasting seven days, during which you shall eat bread made without yeast. 22 On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land. 23 Every day during the seven days of the Feast he is to provide seven bulls and seven rams without defect as a burnt offering to the LORD, and a male goat for a sin offering. 24 He is to provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, along with a hin [k] of oil for each ephah.
25 " 'During the seven days of the Feast, which begins in the seventh month on the fifteenth day, he is to make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and oil.
Our Daily Bread, Devotion
James 4:13-17
Boasting About Tomorrow 13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
James 5:7-11
Patience in Suffering 7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! 10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
November 22, 2007
Harvest Home
READ: James 4:13-17; 5:7-11
You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. —James 5:8 About this cover The hymn “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is often sung at Christian services of thanksgiving. Written in 1844 by Henry Alford, it begins with thanks to God for crops safely gathered in before winter. But it is more than gratefulness for the bounty of the land. The hymn ends by focusing on God’s “harvest” of His people when Christ returns:
Even so, Lord, quickly comeTo Thy final harvest-home:Gather Thou Thy people in,Free from sorrow, free from sin;There, forever purified,In Thy presence to abide:Come, with all Thine angels, come—Raise the glorious harvest-home.
As we give thanks for material needs supplied, it’s essential to remember that our plans are uncertain and our lives are a vapor that quickly disappear (James 4:14). James encourages us to be like a farmer waiting for his crops to grow and mature. “You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (5:8).
As we thank God for His faithful provision for our needs, let’s turn our thoughts to the promised return of Jesus Christ. In patient expectation, we live for Him and look for the day when He will come to gather His glorious harvest home. —David C. McCasland
Work and pray! Continue faithWhen the Savior calleth, “Come,”Till at last we all are garneredTo that heavenly harvest-home. —Stinson
Even so, come, Lord Jesus! —Revelation 22:20
Utmost for My Highest, Oswald Chambers
November 22, 2007
Shallow and ProfoundLISTEN: READ:
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31 About this cover Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, "A disciple is not above his teacher . . ." ( Matthew 10:24 ).
We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.
A word with You, Ron Hutchcraft
So Big, So Far, So Doable - #5444 Thursday, November 22, 2007
Each winter, certain parts of America get hammered with monster snowstorms. And when it's our turn, we all have stories about how we survived the winter of whatever year it is. Well, no one's got a story like a Norwegian explorer named Boerge Ousland. For 64 days, he saw little more than white. He recently became the first person to ever cross the continent of Antarctica alone and unaided. It took him 64 days to cover those frozen 1,675 miles. He harnessed Antarctica's fierce winds by strapping himself to this parachute-like sail. With the winds in his favor, he could ski as much as 140 miles a day. All the while, he's towing a sled carrying about 400 pounds of supplies, enduring monotony and even temperatures that dipped to 40 degrees below zero. After his incredible journey, Ousland talked about the huge mental challenge of facing seemingly endless fields of snow. But here's how he did it, in his own words, "It's so big and so far - you have to keep concentrating on the near future and make every day a victory." Wow!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So Big, So Far, So Doable."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 6:25 and following, "Do not worry about your life ... look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' Your Heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Jesus' orders here are real clear - repeated three times, "Do not worry." What makes us worry? Things that are, in the words of that Antarctic explorer, "so big and so far." In fact, right now you may be facing a situation like that - maybe several of them. They look as huge as the vast expanse of Antarctica must have looked to that explorer. You're looking at or maybe you're worrying about an overwhelming challenge in your finances, or your family, maybe your health, your responsibilities, or a relationship. But your anxiety is contributing absolutely nothing to managing this situation. If anything, worry is actually paralyzing you, or distorting your judgment, or robbing you of the energy you need for this challenge.
Listen to the teaching of your Master - don't keep dragging your tomorrows into your today. Worry is trying to live your tomorrow before you get there; before you have the grace for that day that God only issues in 24-hour increments. Jesus is saying, "Just do today!" That's how one man handled the seemingly endless winter of his Antarctic journey. He said, "You have to keep concentrating on the near future." Yes, like today!
He said, "Make every day a victory." That's how you deal with a child who's taking everything you've got as a parent. It's how you beat a sin that's conquered you for so long. It's how you dig your way out of a mountain of debt. It's how you manage the unmanageable. "Make every day a victory." And on those days that don't exactly turn out to be victorious, put that day behind you and start fresh on that next new day. Remember, the Bible says, "His mercies are new every morning."
When you stop worrying about tomorrow and you focus on today - and on your Heavenly Father who knows what you need - what seems so big and so far becomes so doable.