GALATIANS 1:1-24
PSALM 58:1-11
PROVERBS 23:12
ISAIAH 15:1-18:7
This message came to me concerning Moab: In one night your cities of Ar and Kir will be destroyed. 2 Your people in Dibon will mourn at their temples and shrines, weeping for the fate of Nebo and Medeba. They will shave their heads in sorrow and cut off their beards. 3 They will wear sackcloth as they wander the streets. From every home will come the sound of weeping. 4 The cries from the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh will be heard far away, even in Jahaz! The bravest warriors of Moab will cry out in utter terror.5 My heart weeps for Moab. Its people flee to Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah. Weeping, they climb the road to Luhith. Their crying can be heard all along the road to Horonaim. 6 Even the waters of Nimrim are dried up! The grassy banks are scorched, and the tender plants are gone. 7 The desperate refugees take only the possessions they can carry and flee across the Ravine of Willows. 8 The whole land of Moab is a land of weeping from one end to the other--from Eglaim to Beer-elim. 9 The stream near Dibon runs red with blood, but I am still not finished with Dibon! Lions will hunt down the survivors, both those who try to run and those who remain behind. 16:1 MOAB'S refugees at Sela send lambs to Jerusalem as a token of alliance with the king of Judah. 2 The women of Moab are left like homeless birds at the shallow crossings of the Arnon River. 3 " Help us," they cry. " Defend us against our enemies. Protect us from their relentless attack. Do not betray us. 4 Let our outcasts stay among you. Hide them from our enemies until the terror is past." When oppression and destruction have ceased and enemy raiders have disappeared, 5 then David's throne will be established by love. From that throne a faithful king will reign, one who always does what is just and right. 6 Is this Moab, the proud land we have heard so much about? Its pride and insolence are all gone now! 7 The entire land of Moab weeps. Yes, you people of Moab, mourn for the delicacies of Kir-hareseth. 8 Weep for the abandoned farms of Heshbon and the vineyards at Sibmah. The wine from those vineyards used to make the rulers of the nations drunk. Moab was once like a spreading grapevine. Her tendrils spread out as far as Jazer and trailed out into the desert. Her shoots once reached as far as the Dead Sea. 9 But now the enemy has completely destroyed that vine. So I wail and lament for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah. My tears will flow for Heshbon and Elealeh, for their summer fruits and harvests have all been destroyed. 10 Gone now is the gladness; gone is the joy of harvest. The happy singing in the vineyards will be heard no more. The treading out of grapes in the winepresses has ceased forever. I have ended all their harvest joys. 11 I will weep for Moab. My sorrow for Kir-hareseth will be very great. 12 On the hilltops the people of Moab will pray in anguish to their idols, but it will do them no good. They will cry to the gods in their temples, but no one will come to save them. 13 The LORD has already said this about Moab in the past. 14 But now the LORD says, " Within three years, without fail, the glory of Moab will be ended, and few of its people will be left alive."17:1 THIS message came to me concerning Damascus: " Look, Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins. 2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted. Sheep will graze in the streets and lie down unafraid. There will be no one to chase them away. 3 The fortified cities of Israel will also be destroyed, and the power of Damascus will end. The few left in Aram will share the fate of Israel's departed glory," says the LORD Almighty. 4 " In that day the glory of Israel will be very dim, for poverty will stalk the land. 5 Israel will be abandoned like the grainfields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest. 6 Only a few of its people will be left, like the stray olives left on the tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five out on the tips of the limbs. Yes, Israel will be stripped bare of people," says the LORD, the God of Israel. 7 Then at last the people will think of their Creator and have respect for the Holy One of Israel. 8 They will no longer ask their idols for help or worship what their own hands have made. They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles or burn incense on the altars they built. 9 Their largest cities will be as deserted as overgrown thickets. They will become like the cities the Amorites abandoned when the Israelites came here so long ago. 10 Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you--the Rock who can hide you. You may plant the finest imported grapevines, 11 and they may grow so well that they blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and incurable pain. 12 Look! The armies rush forward like waves thundering toward the shore. 13 But though they roar like breakers on a beach, God will silence them. They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind or like dust whirling before a storm. 14 In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn its enemies are dead. This is the just reward of those who plunder and destroy the people of God.18:1 DESTRUCTION is certain for the land of Ethiopia, which lies at the headwaters of the Nile. Its winged sailboats glide along the river, 2 and ambassadors are sent in fast boats down the Nile. Go home, swift messengers! Take a message to your land divided by rivers, to your tall, smooth-skinned people, who are feared far and wide for their conquests and destruction. 3 When I raise my battle flag on the mountain, let all the world take notice. When I blow the trumpet, listen! 4 For the LORD has told me this: " I will watch quietly from my dwelling place--as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day, or as the dew forms on an autumn morning during the harvest." 5 Even before you begin your attack, while your plans are ripening like grapes, the LORD will cut you off as though with pruning shears. He will snip your spreading branches. 6 Your mighty army will be left dead in the fields for the mountain birds and wild animals to eat. The vultures will tear at corpses all summer. The wild animals will gnaw at bones all winter.7 But the time will come when the LORD Almighty will receive gifts from this land divided by rivers, from this tall, smooth-skinned people, who are feared far and wide for their conquests and destruction. They will bring the gifts to the LORD Almighty in Jerusalem, the place where his name dwells.
GALATIANS 1:1-24
This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group or by human authority. My call is from Jesus Christ himself and from God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. 2 All the brothers and sisters* here join me in sending greetings to the churches of Galatia. 3 May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 He died for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 That is why all glory belongs to God through all the ages of eternity. Amen.6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way 7 that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ. 8 Let God's curse fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other message than the one we told you about. Even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed. 9 I will say it again: If anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God's curse fall upon that person. 10 Obviously, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ's servant. 11 Dear brothers and sisters, I solemnly assure you that the Good News of salvation which I preach is not based on mere human reasoning or logic. 12 For my message came by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ himself. No one else taught me. 13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion--how I violently persecuted the Christians. I did my best to get rid of them. 14 I was one of the most religious Jews of my own age, and I tried as hard as possible to follow all the old traditions of my religion. 15 But then something happened! For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and call me, even before I was born! What undeserved mercy! 16 Then he revealed his Son to me so that I could proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. When all this happened to me, I did not rush out to consult with anyone else; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. No, I went away into Arabia and later returned to the city of Damascus. 18 It was not until three years later that I finally went to Jerusalem for a visit with Peter and stayed there with him for fifteen days. 19 And the only other apostle I met at that time was James, our Lord's brother. 20 You must believe what I am saying, for I declare before God that I am not lying. 21 Then after this visit, I went north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And still the Christians in the churches in Judea didn't know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, " The one who used to persecute us now preaches the very faith he tried to destroy!" 24 And they gave glory to God because of me.
PSALM 58:1-11
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be sung to the tune " Do Not Destroy!"
1 Justice--do you rulers know the meaning of the word?
Do you judge the people fairly?
2 No, all your dealings are crooked;
you hand out violence instead of justice.
3 These wicked people are born sinners;
even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.
4 They spit poison like deadly snakes;
they are like cobras that refuse to listen,
5 ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers,
no matter how skillfully they play.
6 Break off their fangs, O God!
Smash the jaws of these lions, O LORD!
7 May they disappear like water into thirsty ground.
Make their weapons useless in their hands.
8 May they be like snails that dissolve into slime,
like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.
9 God will sweep them away, both young and old,
faster than a pot heats on an open flame.
10 The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged.
They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Then at last everyone will say,
" There truly is a reward for those who live for God;
surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth."
PROVERBS 23:12
Commit yourself to instruction; attune your ears to hear words of knowledge.
