Day 336 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 22:24–29

²⁴Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, ²⁵or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. ²⁶Do not be one who gives pledges, who puts up security for debts. ²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you? ²⁸Do not move an ancient boundary stone which your fathers have placed. ²⁹Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will be stationed in the presence of kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

New Testament·1 Peter 4

¹Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin. ²Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God. ³For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. ⁴Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you. ⁵But they will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶That is why the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. ⁷The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray. ⁸Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹Show hospitality to one another without complaining. ¹⁰As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. ¹¹If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. ¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory. ¹⁴If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler. ¹⁶But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear that name. ¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? ¹⁸And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” ¹⁹So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Old Testament·Ezekiel 41–42

¹Then the man brought me into the outer sanctuary and measured the side pillars to be six cubits wide on each side. ²The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side. He also measured the length of the outer sanctuary to be forty cubits, and the width to be twenty cubits. ³And he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the side pillars at the entrance to be two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the walls on each side were seven cubits wide. ⁴Then he measured the room adjacent to the inner sanctuary to be twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. And he said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.” ⁵Next he measured the wall of the temple to be six cubits thick, and the width of each side room around the temple was four cubits. ⁶The side rooms were arranged one above another in three levels of thirty rooms each. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports would not be fastened into the wall of the temple itself. ⁷The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive level, because the structure surrounding the temple ascended by stages corresponding to the narrowing of the temple wall as it rose upward. And so a stairway went up from the lowest story to the highest, through the middle one. ⁸I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the full length of a rod, six long cubits. ⁹The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick, and the open area between the side rooms of the temple ¹⁰and the outer chambers was twenty cubits wide all around the temple. ¹¹The side rooms opened into this area, with one entrance on the north and another on the south. The open area was five cubits wide all around. ¹²Now the building that faced the temple courtyard on the west was seventy cubits wide, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, with a length of ninety cubits. ¹³Then he measured the temple to be a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. ¹⁴The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits. ¹⁵Next he measured the length of the building facing the temple courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary, and the porticoes facing the court, ¹⁶as well as the thresholds and the beveled windows and the galleries all around with their three levels opposite the threshold, were overlaid with wood on all sides. They were paneled from the ground to the windows, and the windows were covered. ¹⁷In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary on all the walls, spaced evenly around the inner and outer sanctuary, ¹⁸were alternating carved cherubim and palm trees. Each cherub had two faces: ¹⁹the face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion was toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved all the way around the temple. ²⁰Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary from the floor to the space above the entrance. ²¹The outer sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe, and the doorframe of the sanctuary was similar. ²²There was an altar of wood three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. And the man told me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.” ²³Both the outer sanctuary and the inner sanctuary had double doors, ²⁴and each door had two swinging panels. There were two panels for one door and two for the other. ²⁵Cherubim and palm trees like those on the walls were carved on the doors of the outer sanctuary, and there was a wooden canopy outside, on the front of the portico. ²⁶There were beveled windows and palm trees on the sidewalls of the portico. The side rooms of the temple also had canopies.

42Then the man led me out northward into the outer court, and he brought me to the group of chambers opposite the temple courtyard and the outer wall on the north side. ²The building with the door facing north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide. ³Gallery faced gallery in three levels opposite the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court. ⁴In front of the chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long. Their doors were on the north. ⁵Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building. ⁶For they were arranged in three stories, and unlike the courts, they had no pillars. So the upper chambers were set back further than the lower and middle floors. ⁷An outer wall in front of the chambers was fifty cubits long and ran parallel to the chambers and the outer court. ⁸For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those facing the temple were a hundred cubits long. ⁹And below these chambers was the entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court. ¹⁰On the south side along the length of the wall of the outer court were chambers adjoining the courtyard and opposite the building, ¹¹with a passageway in front of them, just like the chambers that were on the north. They had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. ¹²And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, there was a door in front of the walkway that was parallel to the wall extending eastward. ¹³Then the man said to me, “The north and south chambers facing the temple courtyard are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy. ¹⁴Once the priests have entered the holy area, they must not go out into the outer court until they have left behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the places that are for the people.” ¹⁵Now when the man had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faced east, and he measured the area all around: ¹⁶With a measuring rod he measured the east side to be five hundred cubits long. ¹⁷He measured the north side to be five hundred cubits long. ¹⁸He measured the south side to be five hundred cubits long. ¹⁹And he came around and measured the west side to be five hundred cubits long. ²⁰So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.