You Cannot Go Where I Am
Going
John 8 21Jesus
also told them, "I am going away, and you will look
for me. But you cannot go where I am going, and you will
die with your sins unforgiven."
22The
people asked, "Does he intend to kill himself? Is
that what he means by saying we cannot go where he is
going?"
23Jesus
answered, "You are from below, but I am from above.
You belong to this world, but I don't. 24That
is why I said you will die with your sins unforgiven. If
you don't have faith in me for who I am, you will die,
and your sins will not be forgiven."
25"Who
are you?" they asked Jesus.
Jesus
answered, "I am exactly who I told you at the
beginning. 26There is a lot more I could say
to condemn you. But the one who sent me is truthful, and
I tell the people of this world only what I have heard
from him."
27No
one understood that Jesus was talking to them about the
Father.
28Jesus
went on to say, "When you have lifted up the Son of
Man, you will know who I am. You will also know that I
don't do anything on my own. I say only what my Father
taught me. 29The one who sent me is with me. I
always do what pleases him, and he will never leave
me."
30After
Jesus said this, many of the people put their faith in
him.
The Truth Will Set You Free
31Jesus
told the people who had faith in him, "If you keep
on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. 32You
will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free."
33They
answered, "We are Abraham's children! We have never
been anyone's slaves. How can you say we will be set
free?"
34Jesus
replied:
I tell you for certain that anyone who
sins is a slave of sin! 35And slaves don't
stay in the family forever, though the Son will
always remain in the family. 36If the Son
gives you freedom, you are free! 37I know
that you are from Abraham's family. Yet you want to
kill me, because my message isn't really in your
hearts. 38I am telling you what my Father
has shown me, just as you are doing what your father
has taught you.
Your Father Is the Devil
39The
people said to Jesus, "Abraham is our father!"
Jesus
replied, "If you were Abraham's children, you would
do what Abraham did. 40Instead, you want to
kill me for telling you the truth that God gave me.
Abraham never did anything like that. 41But
you are doing exactly what your father does."
"Don't
accuse us of having someone else as our father!"
they said. "We just have one father, and he is
God."
42Jesus
answered:
If God were your Father, you would love
me, because I came from God and only from him. He
sent me. I did not come on my own. 43Why
can't you understand what I am talking about? Can't
you stand to hear what I am saying? 44Your
father is the devil, and you do exactly what he
wants. He has always been a murderer and a liar.
There is nothing truthful about him. He speaks on his
own, and everything he says is a lie. Not only is he
a liar himself, but he is also the father of all
lies.
45Everything I have told
you is true, and you still refuse to have faith in
me. 46Can any of you accuse me of sin? If
you cannot, why won't you have faith in me? After
all, I am telling you the truth. 47Anyone
who belongs to God will listen to his message. But
you refuse to listen, because you don't belong to
God.
Solomon's Work Force
2 Chronicles 2 17Solomon
counted all the foreigners who were living in Israel,
just as his father David had done when he was king, and
the total was 153,600. 18He assigned 70,000 of
them to carry building supplies and 80,000 of them to cut
stone from the hills. He chose 3,600 others to supervise
the workers and to make sure the work was completed.
The Temple Is Built
(1 Kings 6.1-38)
2 Chronicles 3 1-2Solomon's
workers began building the temple in Jerusalem on the
second day of the second month, four years after Solomon
had become king of Israel. It was built on Mount Moriah
where the LORD had appeared to
David at the threshing place that had belonged to Araunah
from Jebus.
3The
inside of the temple was ninety feet long and thirty feet
wide, according to the older standards. 4Across
the front of the temple was a porch thirty feet wide and
thirty feet high. The inside walls of the porch were
covered with pure gold.
5Solomon
had the inside walls of the temple's main room paneled
first with pine and then with a layer of gold, and he had
them decorated with carvings of palm trees and designs
that looked like chains. 6He used precious
stones to decorate the temple, and he used gold imported
from Parvaim 7to decorate the ceiling beams,
the doors, the door frames, and the walls. Solomon also
had the workers carve designs of winged creatures into
the walls.
8The
most holy place was thirty feet square, and its walls
were covered with almost twenty-five tons of fine gold. 9More
than a pound of gold was used to cover the heads of the
nails. The walls of the small storage rooms were also
covered with gold.
10Solomon
had two statues of winged creatures made to put in the
most holy place, and he covered them with gold. 11-13Each
creature had two wings and was fifteen feet from the tip
of one wing to the tip of the other wing. Solomon set
them next to each other in the most holy place, facing
the doorway. Their wings were spread out and reached all
the way across the thirty foot room.
14A
curtain was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple,
and red wool, and embroidered with designs of winged
creatures.
The Two Columns
(1 Kings 7.15-22)
15Two
columns were made for the entrance to the temple. Each
one was fifty-two feet tall and had a cap on top that was
seven and a half feet high. 16The top of each
column was decorated with designs that looked like chains
and with a hundred carvings of pomegranates. 17Solomon
had one of the columns placed on the south side of the
temple's entrance; it was called Jachin. The other one
was placed on the north side of the entrance; it was
called Boaz.
The Furnishings for the Temple
(1 Kings 7.23-51)
2 Chronicles 4 Solomon
had a bronze altar made that was thirty feet square and
fifteen feet high. 2He also gave orders to
make a large metal bowl called the Sea. It was fifteen
feet across, about seven and a half feet deep, and
forty-five feet around. 3Its outer edge was
decorated with two rows of carvings of bulls, ten bulls
to every eighteen inches, all made from the same piece of
metal as the bowl. 4The bowl itself sat on top
of twelve bronze bulls, with three bulls facing outward
in each of four directions. 5The sides of the
bowl were four inches thick, and its rim was in the shape
of a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl
held about fifteen thousand gallons.
6He
also made ten small bowls and put five on each side of
the large bowl. The small bowls were used to wash the
animals that were burned on the altar as sacrifices, and
the priests used the water in the large bowl to wash
their hands.
7Ten
gold lampstands were also made according to the plans.
Solomon placed these lampstands inside the temple, five
on each side of the main room. 8He also made
ten tables and placed them in the main room, five on each
side. And he made a hundred small gold sprinkling bowls.
9Solomon
gave orders to build two courtyards: a smaller one that
only priests could use and a larger one. The doors to
these courtyards were covered with bronze. 10The
large bowl called the Sea was placed near the southeast
corner of the temple.
11Huram
made shovels, sprinkling bowls, and pans for hot ashes.
Here is a list of the other furnishings he made for God's
temple: 12two columns, two bowl-shaped caps
for the tops of these columns, two chain designs on the
caps, 13four hundred pomegranates for the
chain designs, 14the stands and the small
bowls, 15the large bowl and the twelve bulls
that held it up, 16pans for hot ashes, as well
as shovels and meat forks.
Huram
made all these things out of polished bronze 17by
pouring melted bronze into the clay molds he had set up
near the Jordan River, between Succoth and Zeredah.
18There
were so many bronze furnishings that no one ever knew how
much bronze it took to make them.
19Solomon
also gave orders to make the following temple furnishings
out of gold: the altar, the tables that held the sacred
loaves of bread, 20the lampstands and the
lamps that burned in front of the most holy place, 21flower
designs, lamps and tongs, 22lamp snuffers,
small sprinkling bowls, ladles, fire pans, and the doors
to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.
2 Chronicles 5 After
the LORD's temple was finished,
Solomon put in its storage rooms everything that his
father David had dedicated to the LORD,
including the gold and silver, and the objects used in
worship.
MALACHI
Malachi 1 I am
Malachi. And this is the message that the LORD
gave me for Israel.
The LORD's
Love for Israel
2Israel,
I, the LORD, have loved you. And
yet you ask in what way have I loved you. Don't forget
that Esau was the brother of your ancestor Jacob, but I
chose Jacob 3instead of Esau. And I turned
Esau's hill country into a barren desert where jackals
roam. 4Esau's descendants may say,
"Although our nation Edom is in ruins, we will
rebuild."
But
I, the LORD All-Powerful, promise
to tear down whatever they build. Then everyone will know
that I will never stop being angry with them as long as
they are so sinful.
5Israel,
when you see this, you will shout, "The LORD's great reputation reaches beyond our
borders."
Judgment against Priests
6I,
the LORD All-Powerful, have
something to say to you priests. Children respect their
fathers, and servants respect their masters. I am your
father and your master, so why don't you respect me? You
priests have insulted me, and now you ask, "How did
we insult you?"
7You
embarrass me by offering worthless food on my altar. Then
you ask, "How have we embarrassed you?" You
have done it by saying, "What's so great about the LORD's altar?"
8But
isn't it wrong to offer animals that are blind, crippled,
or sick? Just try giving those animals to your governor.
That certainly wouldn't please him or make him want to
help you. 9I am the LORD
God All-Powerful, and you had better try to please me.
You have sinned. Now see if I will have mercy on any of
you.
10I
wish someone would lock the doors of my temple, so you
would stop wasting time building fires on my altar. I am
not pleased with you priests, and I refuse to accept any
more of your offerings. 11From dawn until dusk
my name is praised by every nation on this earth, as they
burn incense and offer the proper sacrifices to me. 12But
even you priests insult me by saying, "There's
nothing special about the LORD's
altar, and these sacrifices are worthless."
13You
get so disgusted that you even make vulgar signs at me.
And for an offering, you bring stolen animals or those
that are crippled or sick. Should I accept these? 14Instead
of offering the acceptable animals you have promised, you
bring me those that are unhealthy. I will punish you for
this, because I am the great King, the LORD
All-Powerful, and I am worshiped by nations everywhere.
True and False Priests
Malachi 2 I, the
LORD All-Powerful, have something
else to say to you priests. 2You had better
take seriously the need to honor my name. Otherwise, when
you give a blessing, I will turn it into a curse. In
fact, I have already done this, because you haven't taken
to heart your duties as priests. 3I will
punish your descendants and rub your faces in the manure
from your animal sacrifices, and then be done with you.
4I
am telling you this, so I can continue to keep my
agreement with your ancestor Levi. 5I blessed
him with a full life, as I had promised, and he kept his
part of the agreement by honoring me and respecting my
name. 6He taught the truth and never told
lies, and he led a lot of people to turn from sin,
because he obeyed me and lived right.
7You
priests should be eager to spread knowledge, and everyone
should come to you for instruction, because you speak for
me, the LORD All-Powerful. 8But
you have turned your backs on me. Your teachings have led
others to do sinful things, and you have broken the
agreement I made with your ancestor Levi. 9So
I caused everyone to hate and despise you, because you
disobeyed me and failed to treat all people alike.
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