Sermon Central
Ezekiel 45
The Lord Establishes Israel Again 1“People of Israel, you will divide up the land you will receive. When you do, give me my share of it. It will be a sacred area. It will be eight miles long and six and a half miles wide. The entire area will be holy. 2The temple area in it will be 875 feet long and 875 feet wide. An 88-foot strip around it will be open land. 3In the sacred area, measure off a large strip of land. It will be eight miles long and three and a third miles wide. The temple will be in it. It will be the most holy place of all. 4The large strip will be the sacred share of land for the priests. There they will serve in the temple. And they will approach me to serve me there. Their houses will be built on that land. The holy temple will also be located there.
5So the Levites will serve in the temple. They will have an area eight miles long and three and a third miles wide. The towns they live in will be located there.
6“Give the city an area one and two-thirds miles wide and eight miles long. It will be right next to the sacred area. It will belong to all the people of Israel. 7“The prince will have land on both sides of the sacred area and the city. Its border will run east and west along the land of one of the tribes.
8The prince will own this land in Israel. And my princes will not crush my people anymore. Instead, they will allow the people of Israel to receive their own share of land. It will be divided up based on their tribes.” 9The LORD and King says, “Princes of Israel, you have gone far enough! Stop hurting others. Do not crush them. Do what is fair and right. Stop taking my people’s land away from them,” announces the LORD and King. 10“Use weights and measures that are honest and exact. 11Use the same standard to measure dry and liquid products. Use a 6-bushel measure for dry products. And use a 60-gallon measure for liquids.
12Every amount of money must be weighed out in keeping with the standard weights. 13“You must offer a special gift. It must be six pounds out of every six bushels of grain. 14Give two and a half quarts out of every 60 gallons of olive oil. 15Also give one sheep from every flock of 200 sheep. Get them from the grasslands of Israel that receive plenty of water. Use them for grain offerings, burnt offerings and friendship offerings. They will be used to pay for the sin of the people,” announces the LORD and King. 16“All the people in the land will be required to give this special gift. They must give it to the prince in Israel.
17He must provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings. They will be for the yearly feasts, New Moon feasts and Sabbath days. So they will be for all the appointed feasts of the people of Israel. The prince will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings and friendship offerings. They will be used to pay for the sin of the Israelites.” 18The LORD and King says, “Get a young bull. It must not have any flaws. Use it to make the temple pure and ‘clean.’ Do this on the first day of the first month. 19The priest must get some of the blood from the sin offering. He must put some on the doorposts of the temple. He must apply some to the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar. He must put the rest on the gateposts of the inner courtyard.
20Do the same thing on the seventh day of the month. Do this for those who sin without meaning to. And do this for those who sin without realizing what they are doing. So you will make the temple pure and ‘clean.’ 21“Keep the Passover Feast on the 14th day of the first month. It will last for seven days. During that time you must eat bread made without yeast. 22The prince must provide a bull as a sin offering. It will be for him and all the people of the land. 23For each of the seven days of the feast he must provide seven bulls and seven rams. They must not have any flaws. They will be a burnt offering to me. The prince must also provide a male goat for a sin offering.
24He must bring 35 pounds for each bull or ram. He must also provide four quarts of olive oil for each of them. 25“The seven days of the feast begin on the 15th day of the seventh month. During those days the prince must provide the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and olive oil.”