Highlights of

 

Todays Reading in:

Isaiah Speaks

Micah 4:4

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

Zechariah 3:10

In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.

"We have seen another state, founded on racial pride, suppression of freedom, and colossal armaments..."

Isaiah 1:2-4

A Rebellious Nation

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!

    For the Lord has spoken:

“I reared children and brought them up,

    but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its master,

    the donkey its owner’s manger,

but Israel does not know,

    my people do not understand.”

Woe to the sinful nation,

    a people whose guilt is great,

a brood of evildoers,

    children given to corruption!

They have forsaken the Lord;

    they have spurned the Holy One of Israel

    and turned their backs on him.

"Those who flout the will of God place themselves under his righteous judgement:"

Isaiah 1:20-31

but if you resist and rebel,

    you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

See how the faithful city

    has become a prostitute!

She once was full of justice;

    righteousness used to dwell in her—

    but now murderers!

Your silver has become dross,

    your choice wine is diluted with water.

Your rulers are rebels,

    partners with thieves;

they all love bribes

    and chase after gifts.

They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;

    the widow’s case does not come before them.

Therefore the Lord, the Lord Almighty,

    the Mighty One of Israel, declares:

“Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes

    and avenge myself on my enemies.

I will turn my hand against you;

    I will thoroughly purge away your dross

    and remove all your impurities.

 I will restore your leaders as in days of old,

    your rulers as at the beginning.

Afterward you will be called

    the City of Righteousness,

    the Faithful City.”

Zion will be delivered with justice,

    her penitent ones with righteousness.

But rebels and sinners will both be broken,

    and those who forsake the Lord will perish.

“You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks

    in which you have delighted;

you will be disgraced because of the gardens

    that you have chosen.

You will be like an oak with fading leaves,

    like a garden without water.

The mighty man will become tinder

    and his work a spark;

both will burn together,

    with no one to quench the fire.

Isaiah 2:12-19

The Lord Almighty has a day in store

    for all the proud and lofty,

for all that is exalted

    (and they will be humbled),

for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,

    and all the oaks of Bashan,

 for all the towering mountains

    and all the high hills,

15 for every lofty tower

    and every fortified wall,

for every trading ship

    and every stately vessel.

The arrogance of man will be brought low

    and human pride humbled;

the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

and the idols will totally disappear.

People will flee to caves in the rocks

    and to holes in the ground

from the fearful presence of the Lord

    and the splendor of his majesty,

    when he rises to shake the earth.

Isaiah 3:16-4:1

    “The women of Zion are haughty,

walking along with outstretched necks,

    flirting with their eyes,

strutting along with swaying hips,

    with ornaments jingling on their ankles.

Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion;

    the Lord will make their scalps bald.”

In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

Instead of fragrance there will be a stench;

    instead of a sash, a rope;

instead of well-dressed hair, baldness;

    instead of fine clothing, sackcloth;

    instead of beauty, branding.

Your men will fall by the sword,

    your warriors in battle.

The gates of Zion will lament and mourn;

    destitute, she will sit on the ground.

In that day seven women

    will take hold of one man

and say, “We will eat our own food

    and provide our own clothes;

only let us be called by your name.

    Take away our disgrace!”

Isaiah 5:1-24

The Song of the Vineyard

I will sing for the one I love

    a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

    on a fertile hillside.

He dug it up and cleared it of stones

    and planted it with the choicest vines.

He built a watchtower in it

    and cut out a winepress as well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,

    but it yielded only bad fruit.

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,

    judge between me and my vineyard.

What more could have been done for my vineyard

    than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes,

    why did it yield only bad?

Now I will tell you

    what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

    and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,

    and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland,

    neither pruned nor cultivated,

    and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds

    not to rain on it.”

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty

    is the nation of Israel,

and the people of Judah

    are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

    for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments

Woe to you who add house to house

    and join field to field

till no space is left

    and you live alone in the land.

The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:

“Surely the great houses will become desolate,

    the fine mansions left without occupants.

A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine;

    a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”

Woe to those who rise early in the morning

    to run after their drinks,

who stay up late at night

    till they are inflamed with wine.

They have harps and lyres at their banquets,

    pipes and timbrels and wine,

but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,

    no respect for the work of his hands.

Therefore my people will go into exile

    for lack of understanding;

those of high rank will die of hunger

    and the common people will be parched with thirst.

Therefore Death expands its jaws,

    opening wide its mouth;

into it will descend their nobles and masses

    with all their brawlers and revelers.

So people will be brought low

    and everyone humbled,

    the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,

    and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.

Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;

    lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,

    and wickedness as with cart ropes,

to those who say, “Let God hurry;

    let him hasten his work

    so we may see it.

The plan of the Holy One of Israel—

    let it approach, let it come into view,

    so we may know it.”

Woe to those who call evil good

    and good evil,

who put darkness for light

    and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

    and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

    and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

    and champions at mixing drinks,

who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

    but deny justice to the innocent.

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw

    and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,

so their roots will decay

    and their flowers blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty

    and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 9:8-10:4

The Lord’s Anger Against Israel

The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;

    it will fall on Israel.

All the people will know it—

    Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—

who say with pride

    and arrogance of heart,

“The bricks have fallen down,

    but we will rebuild with dressed stone;

the fig trees have been felled,

    but we will replace them with cedars.”

But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them

    and has spurred their enemies on.

Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west

    have devoured Israel with open mouth.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

But the people have not returned to him who struck them,

    nor have they sought the Lord Almighty.

So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail,

    both palm branch and reed in a single day;

the elders and dignitaries are the head,

    the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

Those who guide this people mislead them,

    and those who are guided are led astray.

Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,

    nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,

for everyone is ungodly and wicked,

    every mouth speaks folly.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

 Surely wickedness burns like a fire;

    it consumes briers and thorns,

it sets the forest thickets ablaze,

    so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

 By the wrath of the Lord Almighty

    the land will be scorched

and the people will be fuel for the fire;

    they will not spare one another.

 On the right they will devour,

    but still be hungry;

on the left they will eat,

    but not be satisfied.

Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring:

     Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;

    together they will turn against Judah.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

 Woe to those who make unjust laws,

    to those who issue oppressive decrees,

 to deprive the poor of their rights

    and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,

making widows their prey

    and robbing the fatherless.

 What will you do on the day of reckoning,

    when disaster comes from afar?

To whom will you run for help?

    Where will you leave your riches?

 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives

    or fall among the slain.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

Isaiah 28:14-22

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers

    who rule this people in Jerusalem.

You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death,

    with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement.

When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

    it cannot touch us,

for we have made a lie our refuge

    and falsehood our hiding place.”

So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,

    a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;

the one who relies on it

    will never be stricken with panic.

 I will make justice the measuring line

    and righteousness the plumb line;

hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,

    and water will overflow your hiding place.

 Your covenant with death will be annulled;

    your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,

    you will be beaten down by it.

 As often as it comes it will carry you away;

    morning after morning, by day and by night,

    it will sweep through.”

The understanding of this message

    will bring sheer terror.

 The bed is too short to stretch out on,

    the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

 The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,

    he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—

to do his work, his strange work,

    and perform his task, his alien task.

 Now stop your mocking,

    or your chains will become heavier;

the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me

    of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

More to follow I'm sure.

I love you so much honey.

TTYS.

You are so awesome my love:-)