Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.  James 4:8

Ezekiel 40:28-41

Ezekiel 40

The Gates of the Inner Court

²⁸ Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate. He measured the south gate according to these measurements; ²⁹ with its gate chambers, its posts, and its arches, according to these measurements. There were windows in it and in its arches all around. It was 75 feet long, and 38 feet wide. ³⁰ There were arches all around, 38 feet long, and seven and a half feet wide. ³¹ Its arches were toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its posts. The ascent to it had eight steps.

³² He brought me into the inner court toward the east. He measured the gate according to these measurements; ³³ with its lodges, its posts, and its arches, according to these measurements. There were windows in it and in its arches all around. It was 75 feet long, and 38 feet wide. ³⁴ Its arches were toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its posts on each side. The ascent to it had eight steps.

³⁵ He brought me to the north gate, and he measured it according to these measurements; ³⁶ its lodges, its posts, and its arches. There were windows in it all around. The length was 75 feet and the width 38 feet. ³⁷ Its posts were toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its posts on each side. The ascent to it had eight steps.

Eight Tables for Sacrifices

³⁸ A room with its door was by the posts at the gates. They washed the burnt offering there. ³⁹ In the porch of the gate were two tables on one side, and two tables on the other side, on which to kill the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. ⁴⁰ On the one side outside, as one goes up to the entry of the gate toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side, which belonged to the porch of the gate, were two tables. ⁴¹ Four tables were on one side, and four tables on the other side, by the side of the gate: eight tables, on which they killed the sacrifices. ⁴² There were four tables for the burnt offering, of cut stone, 27 inches long, and 27 inches wide, and eighteen inches high. They laid the instruments with which they killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice on them. ⁴³ The hooks, a hand width long, were fastened within all around. The flesh of the offering was on the tables.

Rooms for the Priests

⁴⁴ Outside of the inner gate were rooms for the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate. They faced toward the south. One at the side of the east gate faced toward the north. ⁴⁵ He said to me, “This room, which faces toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the duty of the house. ⁴⁶ The room which faces toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the duty of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who from among the sons of Levi come near to the LORD to minister to him.”

The Inner Courtyard

⁴⁷ He measured the court, which was square, 150 feet long and 150 feet wide. The altar was before the house.

⁴⁸ Then he brought me to the porch of the house and measured each post of the porch, seven and a half feet on one side, and seven and a half feet on the other side. The width of the gate was four and a half feet on one side and four and a half feet on the other side. ⁴⁹ The length of the porch was 30 feet, and the width sixteen and a half; from the steps by which they went up to it. There were pillars by the posts, one on one side, and another on the other side.

Ezekiel 41

The Inner Temple

¹ He brought me to the temple and measured the posts, six cubits wide on the one side, and nine feet wide on the other side, which was the width of the tent. ² The width of the entrance was fifteen feet, and the sides of the entrance were seven and a half feet on the one side, and seven and a half feet on the other side. He measured its length, 60 feet, and the width, 30 feet.

³ Then he went inward and measured each post of the entrance, three feet, and the entrance, nine feet, and the width of the entrance, ten and a half feet. ⁴ He measured its length, 30 feet, and the width, 30 feet, before the temple. He said to me, “This is the most holy place.”

⁵ Then he measured the wall of the temple, nine feet thick; and the width of every side room, six feet, all around the temple on every side. ⁶ The side rooms were in three stories, one over the other, with 30 rooms in each story and they rested in offsets all around the walls that they might be supported, and not penetrate the wall of the temple. ⁷ The side rooms were wider on the higher levels because the walls were narrower at the higher levels. Therefore the width of the temple increased upward; and so one went up from the lowest level to the highest through the middle level.

⁸ I saw also that the temple had a raised base all around. The foundations of the side rooms were a full rod of nine feet. ⁹ The thickness of the wall, which was for the side rooms, on the outside, was seven and a half feet. That which was left was the place of the side rooms that belonged to the house. ¹⁰ Between the rooms was a width of 30 feet around the house on every side. ¹¹ The doors of the side rooms were toward an open area that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south. The width of the open area was seven and a half feet all around.

¹² The building that was before the separate place at the side toward the west was 105 feet wide; and the wall of the building was seven and a half feet thick all around, and its length 135 feet.

¹³ So he measured the house, 150 feet long; and the separate place, and the building, with its walls, 150 feet long, ¹⁴ also the width of the face of the house and of the separate place toward the east, 150 feet.

¹⁵ He measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at its back, and its galleries on each side were 150 feet from the inner temple, and the porches of the court ¹⁶ the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries around on their three stories, opposite the threshold, with wood ceilings all around, and from the ground up to the windows, (now the windows were covered), ¹⁷ to the space above the door, to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall all around inside and outside, by measure.

¹⁸ It was made with cherubim and palm trees. A palm tree was between each cherub, and every cherub had two faces ¹⁹ so that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. It was made like this throughout and all around the house. ²⁰ Cherubim and palm trees were made from the ground to above the door. The wall of the temple was like this.

²¹ As for the temple, the door posts were squared. As for the face of the sanctuary, its appearance was like the appearance of the temple. ²² The altar was wood, five feet high, and its length three feet. Its corners, its length, and its walls were wood. He said to me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.” ²³ The temple and the sanctuary had two doors. ²⁴ The doors had two leaves each, two turning leaves: two for the one door, and two leaves for the other. ²⁵ There were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees, like those made on the walls. There was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside. ²⁶ There were closed windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch. This is how the side rooms of the house and the thresholds were arranged.

James 4

Warning against Pride

¹ Where do wars and quarrels among you come from? Do they not come from your passions warring within you? ² You lust and do not have, so you murder and covet and cannot obtain it. You fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain that the Spirit who lives within us yearns jealously? ⁶ But he gives more grace. Therefore it says,

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ^a

Drawing Near to God

⁷ Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹ Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. ¹² Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

Do Not Boast about Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” ¹⁴ You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ For you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will both live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ To him therefore who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

^{a Proverbs 3:34}

Psalm 118:19-29

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness.
I will enter into them.
I will give thanks to the LORD.
²⁰ This is the gate of the LORD,
and the righteous will enter into it.
²¹ I will give thanks to you,
for you have answered me,
and have become my salvation.
²² The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
²³ This is the LORD’s doing.
It is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day that the LORD has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it!

²⁵ Save us now, LORD!
LORD, we ask you, send success now.
²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.
²⁷ The LORD is God, and he has given us light.
Bind the sacrifice with cord, to the horns of the altar.
²⁸ You are my God, and I will give thanks to you.
You are my God, I will exalt you.
²⁹ Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever.

Proverbs 28:3-5

³ A needy man who oppresses the poor
is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

⁴ Those who forsake the law praise the wicked,
but those who keep the law contend with them.

⁵ Evil men do not understand justice,
but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.

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