Nancy: Welcome to immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
day 200 and 77
again, a message came to me from the Lord Son of man.
Take a piece of wood and carve on it these words.
This represents Judah and its allied tribes.
Then take another piece and carve these words on it.
This represents Ephraim and the northern tribes of Israel.
Now, hold them together in your hand as if they were one piece of wood.
When your people ask you what your actions mean, say to them, this
is what the sovereign Lord says.
I will take Ephraim and the northern tribes and join them to Judah.
I will make them one piece of wood in my hand.
Then hold out the pieces of wood you have inscribed so that people can
see them and give them this message.
From the sovereign Lord, I will gather the people of Israel from among the nations.
I will bring them home to their own land.
From the places where they have been scattered, I will
unify them into one nation.
On the mountains of Israel, one king will rule them all.
No longer will they be divided into two nations or into two kingdoms.
They will never again pollute themselves with their idols
and vile images and rebellion.
For I will save them from their sinful apostasy.
I will cleanse them.
Then they will truly be my people and I will be their God.
My servant David will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd.
They will obey my regulations and be careful to keep my decrees.
They will live in the land.
I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived, they and
their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever.
Generation after generation.
And my servant David, will be their prince forever.
And I'll make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant.
I will give them their land and increase their numbers, and I will
put my temple among them forever.
I will make my home among them.
I will be their God and they will be my people.
And when my temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I am the Lord.
Who makes Israel holy?
This is another message that came to me from the Lord Son of man turn and face,
Gog of the land of May, Gog the prince who rules over the nations of meshech
and tubal and prophesy against him.
Give him this message from the sovereign Lord Gog, I am your enemy.
I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws to lead
you out with your whole army.
Your horses and charioteers in full armor and a great horde.
Armed with shields and swords.
Persia, Ethiopia and Libya will join you too with all their weapons.
Gomer and all its armies will also join you along with the armies of Beth Hogar
from the distant North and many others.
Get ready, be prepared.
Keep all the armies around you mobilized and take command of them.
A long time from now, you will be called into action.
In the distant future, you will swoop down on the land of Israel, which will be
enjoying peace after recovering from war and after its people have returned from
many lands to the mountains of Israel, you and all your allies, avast, and
awesome army will roll down on them like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.
This is what the sovereign Lord says.
At that time, evil thoughts will come to your mind and you
will devise a wicked scheme.
You will say, Israel is an unprotected land filled with un walled villages.
I will march against her and destroy these people who live in such confidence.
I will go to those formerly desolate cities that are now filled with
people who have returned from exile.
In many nations, I will capture vast amounts of plunder.
For the people are rich with livestock and other possessions.
Now they think the whole world revolves around them.
Cheba and Eden and the merchants of Tarshish will ask, do you really
think the armies you have gathered can rob them of silver and gold?
Do you think you can drive away their livestock and their
goods and carry off plunder?
Therefore, son of man prophesy against gog.
Give him this message from the sovereign Lord.
When my people are living in peace in their land, then you will rouse yourself.
You will come from your homeland in the distant north with your vast
cavalry and your mighty army, and you will attack my people Israel,
covering their land like a cloud.
At that time, in the distant future, I will bring you against my land as
everyone watches, and my holiness will be displayed by what happens to you.
Gog.
Then all the nations will know that I am the Lord.
This is what the sovereign Lord asks.
Are you the one I was talking about long ago when I announced through Israel's
prophets that in the future I would bring you against my people, but this is what
the sovereign Lord says When God invades the land of Israel, my fury will boil
over in my jealousy and blazing anger.
I promise a mighty shaking in the land of Israel on that day.
All living things.
The fish in the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, the
small animals that scurry along the ground and all the people on earth
will quake in terror at my presence.
Mountains will be thrown down, cliffs will crumble.
Walls will fall to the earth.
I will summon the sword against you on all the hills of Israel,
says the sovereign Lord.
Your men will turn their swords against each other.
I will punish you and your armies with disease and bloodshed.
I will send torrential rain, hailstones fire, and burning sulfur.
In this way.
I will show my greatness and holiness, and I will make myself known to
all the nations of the world.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Son of man, prophesy against gog.
Give him this message from the sovereign Lord.
I am your enemy, oh Gog, ruler of the nations of Meshach and tubal.
I will turn you around and drive you toward the mountains of Israel,
bringing you from the distant north.
I will knock the bow from your left hand and the arrows from your right
hand, and I will leave you helpless.
You and your army and your allies will all die on the mountains.
I will feed you to the vultures and wild animals.
You will fall in the open fields.
I.
For I have spoken, says the sovereign Lord and I will reign down fire on
May Gog and on all your allies who live safely on the coasts, then
they will know that I am the Lord.
In this way, I will make known my holy name among my people of Israel.
I will not let anyone bring shame on it, and the nations too will know that
I am the Lord, the holy one of Israel.
That day of judgment will come, says the sovereign Lord.
Everything will happen just as I have declared it.
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.
They won't need to cut wood from the fields or forests for these weapons
will give them all the fuel they need.
They will plunder those who planned to plunder them, and they will rob those
who plan to rob them, says the sovereign Lord and I will make a vast graveyard
for Gog and his hordes in the Valley of the Travelers East of the Dead Sea.
It'll block the way of those who travel there and they will change the name of
the place to the Valley of Gogs hoards.
It'll take seven months for the people of Israel to bury the bodies.
And cleanse the land.
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.
After seven months, teams of men will be appointed to search the
land for skeletons to bury, so the land will be made clean again.
Whenever bones are found, a marker will be set up so the burial crews will take them
to be buried in the valley of Gogs Hoards.
There will be a town there named Harmon, which means horde.
And so the land will finally be cleansed.
And now, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says, call
all the birds and wild animals.
Say to them, gather together for my great sacrificial feast.
Come from far and near to the mountains of Israel and there,
eat flesh and drink blood.
Eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of princes as though they were rams.
Lambs goats and bulls all fattened animals from bian.
Gorge yourselves with flesh until you are glutted.
Drink blood until you are drunk.
This is the sacrificial feast I have prepared for you.
Feast at my banquet table.
Feast on Horses and charioteers un mighty men and all kinds of valiant warriors.
Says the sovereign Lord.
In this way, I will demonstrate my glory to the nations.
Everyone will see the punishment I have inflicted on them and the
power of my fist when I strike.
And from that time on, the people of Israel will know
that I am the Lord their God.
The nations will then know why Israel was sent away to exile.
It was punishment for sin, for they were unfaithful to their God.
Therefore, I turned away from them and let their enemies destroy them.
I turned my face away and punished them because of their
defilement and their sins.
So now this is what the sovereign Lord says, I will
end the captivity of my people.
I will have mercy on all Israel.
For I jealously guard my holy reputation, they will accept responsibility for
their past shame and unfaithfulness.
After they come home to live in peace in their own land with no one to bother them.
When I bring them home from the lands of their enemies, I will display my holiness
among them for all the nations to see.
Then my people will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away
to exile and brought them home again.
I will leave none of my people behind and I will never again turn my face from them.
For I will pour out my spirit upon the people of Israel.
I, the sovereign Lord, have spoken on April 28th during the 25th year
of our captivity, 14 years after the fall of Jerusalem, the Lord took
hold of me in a vision from God.
He took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain.
From there, I could see toward the south what appeared to be a city.
As he brought me near, I saw a man whose face shone like bronze,
standing beside a gateway entrance.
He was holding in his hand a linen measuring cord and a measuring rod.
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.
I could see a wall completely surrounding the temple area.
The man took a measuring rod that was 10 and a half feet long and measured
the wall, and the wall was 10 and a half feet thick and 10 and a half feet high.
Then he went over to the eastern gateway.
He climbed the steps and measured the threshold of the gateway.
It was 10 and a half feet front to back.
There were guard alcoves on each side built into the gateway passage.
Each of these alcoves was 10 and a half feet square with a distance
between them of eight and three quarters feet along the passage wall.
The gateway's inner threshold, which led to the entry room at the inner
end of the gateway passage was 10 and a half feet, front to back.
He also measured the entry room of the gateway.
It was 14 feet across with supporting columns three and a half feet thick.
This entry room was at the inner end of the gateway structure.
Facing toward the temple, 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.
The man measured the gateway entrance, which was 17 and a half feet wide
at the opening, and 22 and three quarters feet wide in the gateway
passage in front of each of the guard Alcoves was a 21 inch curb.
The alcoves themselves were 10 and a half feet on each side.
Then he measured the entire width of the gateway measuring the distance between
the back walls of facing guard El Coves.
This distance was 43 and three quarters feet.
He measured the dividing walls all along the inside of the gateway up
to the entry room of the gateway.
This distance was 105 feet.
The full length of the gateway passage was 87 and a half feet
from one end to the other.
There were recessed windows that narrowed inward through the walls of the guard
El Coves, and there are dividing walls.
There were also windows in the entry room.
The surfaces of the dividing walls were decorated with carved palm trees, and 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 30
rooms were built against the walls opening onto the pavement.
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 than the man measured across the
temple's, outer courtyard between the outer and inner gateways.
The distance was 175 feet.
The man measured the gateway on the north, just like the one on the east here too.
There were three guard alcoves on each side.
With dividing walls and an entry room, all the measurements
matched those of the East Gateway.
The gateway passage was 87 and a half feet long, and 43 and three quarters feet wide.
Between the back walls of facing guard El Coves.
The windows, the entry room, 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 entry room was
at the inner end of the gateway passage.
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.
Then the man took me around to the south gateway and measured
its various parts, and they were exactly the same as in the others.
It had windows along the walls of the others did, and there was an
entry room where the gateway passage opened into the outer courtyard.
Like the others.
The gateway passage was 87 and a half feet long, and 43 and three
quarters feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves.
This gateway also had a stairway of seven steps leading up to it and an entry
room at the inner end, and palm tree decorations along the dividing walls.
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.
Then the man took me to the south gateway, leading into the inner courtyard.
He measured it and it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
Its guard, alcoves, dividing walls, and entry room where the
same size as those in the others.
It also had windows along its walls and in the entry room.
And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 and a half feet long,
and 43 and three quarters feet wide.
The entry rooms of the gateways leading into the inner courtyard
were 14 feet across and 43 and three quarters feet wide.
The entry room to the south gateway faced into the outer courtyard.
It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight
steps leading to its entrance.
Then he took me to the east gateway, leading to the inner courtyard.
He measured it and it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
Its guard, coves, dividing walls, and entry room.
Were the same size as those of the others, and there were windows along the walls.
And in the entry room, the gateway passage measured 87 and a half feet long,
and 43 and three quarters feet wide.
Its entry room faced into the outer courtyard.
It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight
steps leading to its entrance.
Then he took me around to the north gateway, leading to the inner courtyard.
He measured it and it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
The guardhouse coves dividing walls and entry room of this gateway had the
same measurements as in the others, and the same window arrangements.
The gateway passage measured 87 and a half feet long, and 43
and three quarters feet wide.
Its entry room faced into the outer courtyard, and it had palm
tree decorations on the columns.
There were eight steps leading to its entrance.
A door led from the entry room of one of the inner gateways into a side room
where the meet for sacrifices was washed.
On each side of this entry room were two tables where the sacrificial animals
were slaughtered for the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.
Outside the entry room on each side of the stairs going up to the north
entrance, were two more tables, so there were eight tables in all four
inside and four outside where the sacrifices were cut up and prepared.
There were also four tables, the finished stone for preparation of the
burnt offerings, each 31 and a half inches square and 21 inches high.
These tables were placed the butchering knives and other implements for
slaughtering the sacrificial animals.
There were hooks each three inches long, fastened all around the foyer walls.
The sacrificial meat was laid on the tables inside the inner courtyard
were two rooms, one beside the north gateway facing south, and the other
beside the south gateway facing north.
And the man said to me, The room beside the north inner gate is for the priests
who supervise the temple maintenance.
The room beside the south inner gate is for the priests in charge of the
altar, the descendants of zadak.
For they alone of all the Levites may approach the Lord to minister to him.
Then the man measured the inner courtyard and it was a square 175 feet wide and
175 feet across the altar stood in the courtyard in front of the temple.
Then he brought me to the entry room of the temple.
He measured the walls on either side of the opening to the entry room, and they
were eight and three quarters feet thick.
The entrance itself was 24 and a half feet wide, and the walls on each side
of the entrance were an additional five and a quarter feet long.
The entry room was 35 feet wide and 21 feet deep.
There were 10 steps leading up to it with a column on each side.
After that, the man brought me into the sanctuary of the temple.
He measured the walls on either side of its doorway, and they
were 10 and a half feet thick.
The doorway was 17 and a half feet wide, and the walls on each side of it were
eight and three quarters feet long.
The sanctuary itself was 70 feet long and 35 feet wide.
Then he went beyond the sanctuary into the inner room.
He measured the walls on either side of its entrance.
And they were three and a half feet thick.
The entrance was 10 and a half feet wide, and the walls on each side of the
entrance were 12 and a quarter feet long.
The inner room of the sanctuary was 35 feet long and 35 feet wide.
This, he told me is the most holy place.
Then he measured the wall of the temple and it was 10 and a half feet thick.
There was a row of rooms along the outside wall.
Each room was seven feet wide.
These side rooms were built in three levels, one above the other
with 30 rooms on each level.
The supports for these side rooms rested on exterior ledges on the temple wall.
They did not extend into the wall.
Each level was wider than the one below it corresponding to
the narrowing of the temple wall.
As it rose higher, a stairway led up from the bottom level through
the middle level to the top level.
I saw that the temple was built on a terrace, which provided a
foundation for the side rooms.
This terrace was 10 and a half feet high.
The outer wall of the temple side rooms was eight and three quarters feet thick.
This left an open area between these side rooms and the row of rooms along
the outer wall of the inner courtyard.
This open area was 35 feet wide, and it went all the way around the temple.
Two doors opened from the side rooms into the terrace yard, which was
eight and three quarters feet wide.
One door faced north and the other south.
A large building stood on the west facing the temple courtyard.
It was 122 and a half feet wide and 157 and a half feet long, and its walls were
eight and three quarters feet thick.
Then the man measured the temple and it was 175 feet long.
The courtyard around the building, including its walls, was an
additional 175 feet in length.
The inner courtyard to the east of the temple was also 175 feet wide.
The building to the west, including its two walls, was also 175 feet wide.
The sanctuary, the inner room, and the entry room of the temple were
all paneled with wood as were the frames of the recessed windows.
The inner walls of the temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows.
The space above the door leading into the inner room and its walls
inside and out were also paneled.
All the walls were decorated with carvings of cherub, each with two
faces, and there was a carving of a palm tree between each of the cherub.
One face that of a man looked toward the palm tree on one side.
The other face that of a young lion looked toward the palm tree and the
other side, the figures were carved all along the inside of the temple
from the floor to the top of the walls, including the outer wall of the sanctuary.
There were square columns at the entrance to the sanctuary, and
the ones at the entrance of the most holy place were similar.
There was an altar made of wood, five and a quarter feet high,
and three and a half feet across.
Its corners, base, and sides were all made of wood.
This the man told me is the table that stands in the Lord's presence.
Both the sanctuary and the most holy place had double doorways
each with two swinging doors.
The doors leading into the sanctuary were decorated with carved cherub
and palm trees just as on the walls, and there was a wooden roof at the
front of the entry room to the temple.
On both sides of the entry room were recessed windows
decorated with carved palm trees.
The side rooms along the outside wall also had roofs.
Then the man led me out of the temple courtyard by way of the North gateway.
We entered the outer courtyard and came to a group of rooms against the
north wall of the inner courtyard.
This structure whose entrance opened toward the north was 175 feet
long and 87 and a half feet wide.
One block of rooms overlooked the 35 foot width of the inner courtyard.
Another block of rooms looked out onto the pavement of the outer courtyard.
The two blocks were built, three levels high and stood across from each other.
Between the two blocks of rooms, ran a walkway 17 and a half feet wide.
It extended the entire 175 feet of the complex and all the doors faced north.
Each of the two upper levels of rooms was narrower than the one beneath it.
The upper levels had to allow space for walkways in front of them.
Since there were three levels and they did not have supporting
columns as in the courtyards.
Each of the upper levels was set back from the level beneath it.
There was an outer wall that separated the rooms from the outer courtyard.
It was 87 and a half feet long.
This wall added length to the outer block of rooms, which extended
for only 87 and a half feet.
While the inner block, the rooms toward the temple extended for 175
feet, there was an eastern entrance from the outer courtyard to these
rooms on the south side of the temple.
There were two blocks of rooms just south of the inner courtyard between
the temple and the outer courtyard.
These rooms were arranged just like the rooms on the north.
There was a walkway between the two blocks of rooms, just like the complex
on the north side of the temple.
This complex of rooms was the same length and width as the other one, and
it had the same entrances and doors.
The dimensions of each were identical, so there was an entrance in the wall
facing the doors of the inner block of rooms and another on the east
at the end of the interior walkway.
Then the man told me, these rooms that overlook the temple from the
north and south are holy here.
The priests who offer sacrifices to the Lord will eat the most holy offerings.
Because these rooms are holy, they will be used to store the sacred
offerings, the grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.
When the priests leave the sanctuary, they must not go
directly to the outer courtyard.
They must first take off the clothes they wore while ministering.
Because these clothes are holy, they must put on other clothes
before entering the parts of the building complex open to the public.
When the man had finished measuring the inside of the temple area, he
led me out through the East Gateway to measure the entire perimeter.
He measured the east side with his measuring rod, and it was 875 feet long.
Then he measured the north side and it was also 875 feet.
The south side was also 875 feet, and the west side was also 875 feet.
So the area was 875 feet on each side with a wall all around it to separate
what was holy from what was common.
After this, the man brought me back around to the east gateway.
Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east.
The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters and the
whole landscape shown with his glory.
This vision was just like the others I had seen.
First by the Key Bar River, and then when he came to destroy Jerusalem,
I fell face down on the ground and the glory of the Lord came into the
temple through the East Gateway.
Then the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner courtyard, and the
glory of the Lord filled the temple.
And I heard someone speaking to me from within the temple while the man who
had been measuring stood beside me.
The Lord said to me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne and
the place where I will rest my feet.
I will live here forever.
Among the people of Israel, they and their kings will not defile my holy
name any longer by their adulterous worship of other gods, or by honoring
the relics of their kings who have died.
They put their idol altars right next to mine with only a wall between them and me.
They defiled my holy name by such detestable sin.
So I consume them in my anger.
Now, let them stop worshiping other gods and honoring the relics of their kings,
and I will live among them forever.
Son of man, describe to the people of Israel, the temple I have shown you.
So they will be ashamed of all their sins.
Let them study its plan, and they will be ashamed of what they have done.
Describe to them all the specifications of the temple.
Including its entrances and exits and everything else about it.
Tell them about its decrees and laws.
Write down all these specifications and decrees as they watch, so they will
be sure to remember and follow them.
And this is the basic law of the temple.
Absolute holiness.
The entire top of the mountain where the temple is built is holy.
Yes, this is the basic law of the temple.
These are the measurements of the altar.
There is a gutter all around the altar, 21 inches deep and 21 inches
wide with a curb nine inches wide around its edge, and this is the
height of the altar from the gutter.
The altar rises three and a half feet to a lower ledge that surrounds the altar
and is 21 inches wide from the lower ledge, the altar rises seven feet to the
upper ledge that is also 21 inches wide.
The top of the altar, the hearth rises another seven feet higher with a horn
rising up from each of the four corners.
The top of the altar is square, measuring 21 feet by 21 feet.
The upper ledge also forms a square measuring 24 and a half feet by 24 and a
half feet with a 21 inch gutter and a 10 and a half inch curb all around the edge.
There are steps going up the east side of the altar.
Then he said to me, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says,
these will be the regulations for the burning of offerings and the sprinkling
of blood when the altar is built.
At that time, the Levitical priests of the family of Zadak who minister before
me are to be given a young bull for a sin offering, says the sovereign Lord.
You will take some of its blood and smear it on the four horns of the altar, the
four corners of the upper ledge, and the curb that runs around that ledge.
This will cleanse and make atonement for the altar.
Then take the young bull for the sin offering and burn it at the appointed
place outside the temple area.
On the second day, sacrifice as a sin offering a young male goat
that has no physical defects.
Then cleanse and make atonement for the altar again.
Just as you did with the young bull.
When you have finished the cleansing ceremony, offer another young bull
that has no defects and a perfect ram.
From the flock, you are to present them to the Lord, and the priests are
to sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Every day For seven days, a male goat, a young bull, and a ram from the flock
will be sacrificed as a sin offering.
None of these animals may have physical defects of any kind.
Do this each day for seven days to cleanse and make atonement for the
altar, thus setting it apart for holy use on the eighth day and on each day
afterward, the priests will sacrifice on the altar, the burnt offerings
and peace offerings of the people.
Then I will accept you.
I the sovereign Lord, have spoken.
This concludes today's Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.