TODAY'S BIBLE READING
Today's Bible Reading
August 30
21 Once more Jesus said to them,
“I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your
sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied.
26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.
28 So Jesus said, “When you have
lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do
nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are
Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you
say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.
38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did.
40 As it is, you are looking for a
way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
Abraham did not do such things.
41 You are doing the works of
your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested.
“The only Father we have is God himself.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God
were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I
have not come on my own; God sent me.
43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
44 You belong to your father, the
devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a
murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a
liar and the father of lies.
45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?
47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.
50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.
51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
52 At this they exclaimed, “Now
we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the
prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste
death.
53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify
myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God,
is the one who glorifies me.
55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
1 Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the Name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself.
2 He conscripted 70,000 men as carriers and 80,000 as stonecutters in the hills and 3,600 as foremen over them.
3 Solomon sent this message to
Hiram king of Tyre: “Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David
when you sent him cedar to build a palace to live in.
4 Now I am about to build a
temple for the Name of the LORD my God and to dedicate it to him for
burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated
bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and
evening and on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed
festivals of the LORD our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.
5 “The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods.
6 But who is able to build a
temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot
contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place
to burn sacrifices before him?
7 “Send me, therefore, a man
skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple,
crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work
in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled workers, whom my father David
provided.
8 “Send me also cedar, juniper
and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled
in cutting timber there. My servants will work with yours
9 to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent.
10 I will give your servants, the
woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground wheat,
twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty
thousand baths of olive oil.”
11 Hiram king of Tyre replied by letter to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you their king.”
12 And Hiram added: “Praise be to
the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth! He has given
King David a wise son, endowed with intelligence and discernment, who
will build a temple for the LORD and a palace for himself.
13 “I am sending you Huram-Abi, a man of great skill,
14 whose mother was from Dan and
whose father was from Tyre. He is trained to work in gold and silver,
bronze and iron, stone and wood, and with purple and blue and crimson
yarn and fine linen. He is experienced in all kinds of engraving and can
execute any design given to him. He will work with your skilled workers
and with those of my lord, David your father.
15 “Now let my lord send his servants the wheat and barley and the olive oil and wine he promised,
16 and we will cut all the logs
from Lebanon that you need and will float them as rafts by sea down to
Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.”
17 Solomon took a census of all
the foreigners residing in Israel, after the census his father David had
taken; and they were found to be 153,600.
18 He assigned 70,000 of them to
be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600
foremen over them to keep the people working.
1 Then Solomon began to build the
temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had
appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah
the Jebusite, the place provided by David.
2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
3 The foundation Solomon laid for
building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide
(using the cubit of the old standard).
4 The portico at the front of the
temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the building and
twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.
5 He paneled the main hall with juniper and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs.
6 He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim.
7 He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 He built the Most Holy Place,
its length corresponding to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long
and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents
of fine gold.
9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.
10 For the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold.
11 The total wingspan of the
cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits
long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five
cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub.
12 Similarly one wing of the
second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall,
and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first
cherub.
13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.
14 He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.
15 For the front of the temple he
made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits long, each
with a capital five cubits high.
16 He made interwoven chains and
put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and
attached them to the chains.
17 He erected the pillars in the
front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to
the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.
1 When all the work Solomon had
done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things
his father David had dedicated—the silver and gold and all the
furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.
1 A prophecy: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.
2 “I have loved you,” says the
LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s
brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob,
3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
4 Edom may say, “Though we have
been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the LORD
Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called
the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD.
5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the LORD—even beyond the borders of Israel!’
6 “A son honors his father, and a
slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a
master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty. “It is
you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we
shown contempt for your name?’
7 “By offering defiled food on my
altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the
LORD’s table is contemptible.
8 When you offer blind animals
for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased
animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he
be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.
9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the LORD Almighty.
10 “Oh, that one of you would
shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my
altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will
accept no offering from your hands.
11 My name will be great among
the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place
incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will
be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.
12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’
13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’
and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the LORD Almighty. “When you
bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices,
should I accept them from your hands?” says the LORD.
14 “Cursed is the cheat who has
an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices
a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the LORD
Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
1 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you.
2 If you do not listen, and if
you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will
send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have
already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.
3 “Because of you I will rebuke
your descendants ; I will smear on your faces the dung from your
festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.
4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD Almighty.
5 “My covenant was with him, a
covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for
reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.
6 True instruction was in his
mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in
peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
7 “For the lips of a priest ought
to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty
and people seek instruction from his mouth.
8 But you have turned from the
way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated
the covenant with Levi,” says the LORD Almighty.
9 “So I have caused you to be
despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not
followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.
2 He made the Sea of cast metal,
circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits
high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.
3 Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it—ten to a cubit. The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.
4 The Sea stood on twelve bulls,
three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three
facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were
toward the center.
5 It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.
6 He then made ten basins for
washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them
the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the Sea
was to be used by the priests for washing.
7 He made ten gold lampstands
according to the specifications for them and placed them in the temple,
five on the south side and five on the north.
8 He made ten tables and placed
them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He
also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.
9 He made the courtyard of the priests, and the large court and the doors for the court, and overlaid the doors with bronze.
10 He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.
11 And Huram also made the pots
and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work he had
undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of God:
12 the two pillars; the two
bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network
decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;
13 the four hundred pomegranates
for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network,
decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);
14 the stands with their basins;
15 the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;
16 the pots, shovels, meat forks
and all related articles. All the objects that Huram-Abi made for King
Solomon for the temple of the LORD were of polished bronze.
17 The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan.
18 All these things that Solomon made amounted to so much that the weight of the bronze could not be calculated.
19 Solomon also made all the
furnishings that were in God’s temple: the golden altar; the tables on
which was the bread of the Presence;
20 the lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;
21 the gold floral work and lamps and tongs (they were solid gold);
22 the pure gold wick trimmers,
sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold doors of the temple:
the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and the doors of the main hall.
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