ISAIAH 28:14-30:11
GALATIANS 3:23-4:31
PSALM 62:1-12
PROVERBS 23:19-21
ISAIAH 28:14-30:11
Therefore, listen to this message from the LORD, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem. 15 You boast that you have struck a bargain to avoid death and have made a deal to dodge the grave. You say, " The Assyrians can never touch us, for we have built a strong refuge made of lies and deception." 16 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: " Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem. It is firm, a tested and precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never run away again. 17 " I will take the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness to check the foundation wall you have built. Your refuge looks strong, but since it is made of lies, a hailstorm will knock it down. Since it is made of deception, the enemy will come like a flood to sweep it away. 18 I will cancel the bargain you made to avoid death, and I will overturn your deal to dodge the grave. When the terrible enemy floods in, you will be trampled into the ground. 19 Again and again that flood will come, morning after morning, day and night, until you are carried away." This message will bring terror to your people. 20 For you have no place of refuge--the bed you have made is too short to lie on. The blankets are too narrow to cover you. 21 The LORD will come suddenly and in anger, as he did against the Philistines at Mount Perazim and against the Amorites at Gibeon. He will come to do a strange, unusual thing: He will destroy his own people! 22 So scoff no more, or your punishment will be even greater. For the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has plainly told me that he is determined to crush you.23 Listen to me; listen as I plead! 24 Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting it? 25 Does he not finally plant his seeds for dill, cumin, wheat, barley, and spelt, each in its own section of his land? 26 The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding. 27 He doesn't thresh all his crops the same way. A heavy sledge is never used on dill; rather, it is beaten with a light stick. A threshing wheel is never rolled on cumin; instead, it is beaten softly with a flail. 28 Bread grain is easily crushed, so he doesn't keep on pounding it. He threshes it under the wheels of a cart, but he doesn't pulverize it. 29 The LORD Almighty is a wonderful teacher, and he gives the farmer great wisdom. 29:1 " DESTRUCTION is certain for Ariel, the City of David. Year after year you offer your many sacrifices. 2 Yet I will bring disaster upon you, and there will be much weeping and sorrow. For Jerusalem will become as her name Ariel means--an altar covered with blood. 3 I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers around it and will destroy it. 4 Your voice will whisper like a ghost from the earth where you will lie buried. 5 " But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be driven away like chaff before the wind. 6 In an instant, I, the LORD Almighty, will come against them with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire. 7 All the nations fighting against Jerusalem will vanish like a dream! Those who are attacking her walls will vanish like a vision in the night. 8 A hungry person dreams of eating but is still hungry. A thirsty person dreams of drinking but is still faint from thirst when morning comes. In the same way, your enemies will dream of a victorious conquest over Jerusalem, but all to no avail."9 Are you amazed and incredulous? Do you not believe it? Then go ahead and be blind if you must. You are stupid, but not from wine! You stagger, but not from beer! 10 For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries. 11 All these future events are a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, " We can't read it because it is sealed." 12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, " Sorry, we don't know how to read." 13 And so the Lord says, " These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote. 14 Because of this, I will do wonders among these hypocrites. I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding." 15 Destruction is certain for those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do! " The LORD can't see us," you say to yourselves. " He doesn't know what is going on!" 16 How stupid can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you. You are only the jars he makes! Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, " He didn't make us"? Does a jar ever say, " The potter who made me is stupid"? 17 Soon--and it will not be very long--the wilderness of Lebanon will be a fertile field once again. And the fertile fields will become a lush and fertile forest. 18 In that day deaf people will hear words read from a book, and blind people will see through the gloom and darkness. 19 The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the LORD. Those who are poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20 Those who intimidate and harass will be gone, and all those who plot evil will be killed. 21 Those who make the innocent guilty by their false testimony will disappear. And those who use trickery to pervert justice and tell lies to tear down the innocent will be no more.22 That is why the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel, " My people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed. 23 For when they see their many children and material blessings, they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Israel. They will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 24 Those in error will then believe the truth, and those who constantly complain will accept instruction. 30:1 " DESTRUCTION is certain for my rebellious children," says the LORD. " You make plans that are contrary to my will. You weave a web of plans that are not from my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. 2 For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt to find help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh for his protection. 3 But in trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated and disgraced. 4 For though his power extends to Zoan and Hanes, 5 it will all turn out to your shame. He will not help you even one little bit." 6 Look at the animals moving slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt--donkeys and camels loaded with treasure to pay for Egypt's aid. On through the wilderness they go, where lions and poisonous snakes live. All this, and Egypt will give you nothing in return. 7 Egypt's promises are worthless! I call her the Harmless Dragon.8 Now go and write down these words concerning Egypt. They will then stand until the end of time as a witness to Israel's unbelief. 9 For these people are stubborn rebels who refuse to pay any attention to the LORD's instructions. 10 They tell the prophets, " Shut up! We don't want any more of your reports." They say, " Don't tell us the truth. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. 11 Forget all this gloom. We have heard more than enough about your ` Holy One of Israel.' We are tired of listening to what he has to say."
GALATIANS 3:23-4:31
Until faith in Christ was shown to us as the way of becoming right with God, we were guarded by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until we could put our faith in the coming Savior. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God. 25 But now that faith in Christ has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. 26 So you are all children* of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians--you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.4:1 THINK of it this way. If a father dies and leaves great wealth for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that's the way it was with us before Christ came. We were slaves to the spiritual powers of this world. 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.* 6 And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child.* And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you. 8 Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. 9 And now that you have found God (or should I say, now that God has found you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual powers of this world? 10 You are trying to find favor with God by what you do or don't do on certain days or months or seasons or years. 11 I fear for you. I am afraid that all my hard work for you was worth nothing. 12 Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles were--free from the law. You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. 13 Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News of Christ. 14 But even though my sickness was revolting to you, you did not reject me and turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where is that joyful spirit we felt together then? In those days, I know you would gladly have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible. 16 Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth? 17 Those false teachers who are so anxious to win your favor are not doing it for your good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay more attention to them. 18 Now it's wonderful if you are eager to do good, and especially when I am not with you. 19 But oh, my dear children! I feel as if I am going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. 20 How I wish I were there with you right now, so that I could be more gentle with you. But at this distance I frankly don't know what else to do. 21 Listen to me, you who want to live under the law. Do you know what the law really says? 22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave-wife and one from his freeborn wife. 23 The son of the slave-wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise.24 Now these two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. Hagar, the slave-wife, represents Mount Sinai where people first became enslaved to the law. 25 And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery. 26 But Sarah, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. And she is our mother. 27 That is what Isaiah meant when he prophesied, " Rejoice, O childless woman!
Break forth into loud and joyful song,
even though you never gave birth to a child.
For the woman who could bear no children
now has more than all the other women!"
28 And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. 29 And we who are born of the Holy Spirit are persecuted by those who want us to keep the law, just as Isaac, the child of promise, was persecuted by Ishmael, the son of the slave-wife. 30 But what do the Scriptures say about that? " Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the family inheritance with the free woman's son." 31 So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, obligated to the law. We are children of the free woman, acceptable to God because of our faith.
PSALM 62:1-12
For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of David.
1 I wait quietly before God,
for my salvation comes from him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will never be shaken.
3 So many enemies against one man--
all of them trying to kill me.
To them I'm just a broken-down wall
or a tottering fence.
4 They plan to topple me from my high position.
They delight in telling lies about me.
They are friendly to my face,
but they curse me in their hearts.
Interlude5 I wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
8 O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him,
for God is our refuge.
Interlude9 From the greatest to the lowliest--
all are nothing in his sight.
If you weigh them on the scales,
they are lighter than a puff of air.
10 Don't try to get rich
by extortion or robbery.
And if your wealth increases,
don't make it the center of your life.
11 God has spoken plainly,
and I have heard it many times:
Power, O God, belongs to you;
12 unfailing love, O Lord, is yours.
Surely you judge all people
according to what they have done.
PROVERBS 23:19-21
My child, listen and be wise. Keep your heart on the right course. Do not carouse with drunkards and gluttons, for they are on their way to poverty. Too much sleep clothes a person with rags.
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