HABAKKUK 1:1-3:19
REVELATION 9:1-21
PSALM 137:1-9
PROVERBS 30:10
HABAKKUK 1:1-3:19
This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received from the LORD in a vision. 2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! " Violence!" I cry, but you do not come to save. 3 Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. 4 The law has become paralyzed and useless, and there is no justice given in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery. 5 The LORD replied, " Look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it. 6 I am raising up the Babylonians to be a new power on the world scene. They are a cruel and violent nation who will march across the world and conquer it. 7 They are notorious for their cruelty. They do as they like, and no one can stop them. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards. They are a fierce people, more fierce than wolves at dusk. Their horsemen race forward from distant places. Like eagles they swoop down to pounce on their prey. 9 " On they come, all of them bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a wind from the desert, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. 10 They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their defenses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! 11 They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god." 12 O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal--is your plan in all of this to wipe us out? Surely not! O LORD our Rock, you have decreed the rise of these Babylonians to punish and correct us for our terrible sins. 13 You are perfectly just in this. But will you, who cannot allow sin in any form, stand idly by while they swallow us up? Should you be silent while the wicked destroy people who are more righteous than they? 14 Are we but fish to be caught and killed? Are we but creeping things that have no leader to defend them from their enemies? 15 Must we be strung up on their hooks and dragged out in their nets while they rejoice? 16 Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. " These nets are the gods who have made us rich!" they will claim. 17 Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?2:1 I WILL climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the LORD will say to me and how he will answer my complaint. 2 Then the LORD said to me, " Write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet, so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. 3 But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. 4 " Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked; but the righteous will live by their faith. 5 Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. They range far and wide, with their mouths opened as wide as death, but they are never satisfied. In their greed they have gathered up many nations and peoples. 6 But the time is coming when all their captives will taunt them, saying, ` You thieves! At last justice has caught up with you! Now you will get what you deserve for your oppression and extortion!' 7 Suddenly, your debtors will rise up in anger. They will turn on you and take all you have, while you stand trembling and helpless. 8 You have plundered many nations; now they will plunder you. You murderers! You have filled the countryside with violence and all the cities, too. 9 " How terrible it will be for you who get rich by unjust means! You believe your wealth will buy security, putting your families beyond the reach of danger. 10 But by the murders you committed, you have shamed your name and forfeited your lives. 11 The very stones in the walls of your houses cry out against you, and the beams in the ceilings echo the complaint.12 " How terrible it will be for you who build cities with money gained by murder and corruption! 13 Has not the LORD Almighty promised that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes? They work so hard, but all in vain! 14 For the time will come when all the earth will be filled, as the waters fill the sea, with an awareness of the glory of the LORD. 15 " How terrible it will be for you who make your neighbors drunk! You force your cup on them so that you can gloat over their nakedness and shame. 16 But soon it will be your turn! Come, drink and be exposed! Drink from the cup of the LORD's judgment, and all your glory will be turned to shame. 17 You cut down the forests of Lebanon. Now you will be cut down! You terrified the wild animals you caught in your traps. Now terror will strike you because of your murder and violence in cities everywhere! 18 " What have you gained by worshiping all your man-made idols? How foolish to trust in something made by your own hands! What fools you are to believe such lies! 19 How terrible it will be for you who beg lifeless wooden idols to save you. You ask speechless stone images to tell you what to do. Can an idol speak for God? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside. 20 But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him."3:1 THIS prayer was sung by the prophet Habakkuk: 2 I have heard all about you, LORD, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. In this time of our deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by. Show us your power to save us. And in your anger, remember your mercy. 3 I see God, the Holy One, moving across the deserts from Edom and Mount Paran. His brilliant splendor fills the heavens, and the earth is filled with his praise! What a wonderful God he is! 4 Rays of brilliant light flash from his hands. He rejoices in his awesome power. 5 Pestilence marches before him; plague follows close behind. 6 When he stops, the earth shakes. When he looks, the nations tremble. He shatters the everlasting mountains and levels the eternal hills. But his power is not diminished in the least! 7 I see the peoples of Cushan and Midian trembling in terror.8 Was it in anger, LORD, that you struck the rivers and parted the sea? Were you displeased with them? No, you were sending your chariots of salvation! 9 You were commanding your weapons of power! You split open the earth with flowing rivers! 10 The mountains watched and trembled. Onward swept the raging waters. The mighty deep cried out, lifting its hands to the LORD. 11 The lofty sun and moon began to fade, obscured by brilliance from your arrows and the flashing of your glittering spear. 12 You marched across the land in awesome anger and trampled the nations in your fury. 13 You went out to rescue your chosen people, to save your anointed ones. You crushed the heads of the wicked and laid bare their bones from head to toe. 14 With their own weapons, you destroyed those who rushed out like a whirlwind, thinking Israel would be easy prey. 15 You trampled the sea with your horses, and the mighty waters piled high. 16 I trembled inside when I heard all this; my lips quivered with fear. My legs gave way beneath me, and I shook in terror. I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us. 17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains. (For the choir director: This prayer is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.)
REVELATION 9:1-21
Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I [John] saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air were darkened by the smoke. 3 Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass or plants or trees but to attack all the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with agony like the pain of scorpion stings. 6 In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee away! 7 The locusts looked like horses armed for battle. They had gold crowns on their heads, and they had human faces. 8 Their hair was long like the hair of a woman, and their teeth were like the teeth of a lion. 9 They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails that stung like scorpions, with power to torture people. This power was given to them for five months. 11 Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon--the Destroyer. 12 The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. 14 And the voice spoke to the sixth angel who held the trumpet: " Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River." 15 And the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. 16 They led an army of 200 million mounted troops--I heard an announcement of how many there were. 17 And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and sky blue and yellow. The horses' heads were like the heads of lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths. 18 One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues--by the fire and the smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses. 19 Their power was in their mouths, but also in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people. 20 But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to turn from their evil deeds. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood--idols that neither see nor hear nor walk! 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their immorality or their thefts.
PSALM 137:1-9
Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept
as we thought of Jerusalem.
2 We put away our lyres,
hanging them on the branches of the willow trees.
3 For there our captors demanded a song of us.
Our tormentors requested a joyful hymn:
" Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!"
4 But how can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I fail to remember you,
if I don't make Jerusalem my highest joy.
7 O LORD, remember what the Edomites did
on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem.
" Destroy it!" they yelled.
" Level it to the ground!"
8 O Babylon, you will be destroyed.
Happy is the one who pays you back
for what you have done to us.
9 Happy is the one who takes your babies
and smashes them against the rocks!
PROVERBS 30:10
Never slander a person to his employer. If you do, the person will curse you, and you will pay for it.
