Isaiah 6
1 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. The house was full of His glory.
2 Around Him stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And one cried to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 The lintel was lifted up by the voice of those who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 So I said, “Woe is me, because I am pierced to the heart, for being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips; for I saw the King, the Lord of hosts, with my eyes!”
6 Then one of the seraphim was sent to me. He had a live coal in his hand, which he took with tongs from the altar.†
7 He touched my mouth, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips. Your lawlessness is taken away, and your sin is cleansed.”
8 I also heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?” Then I said, “Behold, here am I, send me.”
9 So He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You shall hear indeed, but not understand; and you shall see indeed, but not perceive.’†
10 For the heart of this people has become insensitive, and their ears hear with difficulty. They have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and I should heal them.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” So He answered, “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without people, and the land shall be left desolate.
12 After this God will remove the people far away, and those left in the land shall multiply.
13 Yet a tenth shall be left in it, and again it shall be for plundering, like a terebinth tree or like an acorn when it falls from its case.”
Psalms 64
1 For the End; a psalm by David; an ode; sung by Jeremiah and Ezekiel regarding the situation of the sojourners, when they were about to depart. †
2 It is fitting to sing a hymn to You in Zion, O God, And a vow shall be rendered to You in Jerusalem.
3 Hear my prayer; To You all flesh shall come.
4 The words of lawless men overpowered us, And You will show mercy to our ungodliness.
5 Blessed is he whom You choose and help; He shall dwell in Your courts. We shall be filled with the good things of Your house; Holy is Your temple, wondrous in righteousness.
6 Hear us, O God our savior, The hope of all the ends of earth And of those far off at sea,
7 He who prepares mountains in His strength, Who is girded with power,
8 Who troubles the depth of the sea, The sounds of its waves. The nations shall be troubled,
9 And those who inhabit the ends of the earth Shall be afraid because of Your signs; You shall gladden the outgoings of morning and evening.
10 You visited the earth and watered it; You enriched it abundantly; The river of God is filled with waters; You prepared their food, for thus is Your preparation thereof.
11 Water its furrows; multiply its fruits; With its raindrops the earth will be gladdened when it produces fruits.
12 You will bless the crown of the year with Your goodness, And Your fields will be filled with fatness;
13 The desert fruits will be made fat, And the hills will be girded with rejoicing.
14 The rams of the sheep are clothed with wool, And the valleys shall abound in wheat; They will shout and truly sing hymns.
Proverbs of Solomon 13
6 Righteousness guards the simple, But sin makes the ungodly worthless.
7 There are those with nothing who make themselves rich, And there are those, though very rich, who humble themselves.
8 The ransom of a man’s soul is his own wealth, But the poor man does not withstand a threat.†
9 Light is with the righteous continually, But the light of the ungodly is extinguished.
10 Deceitful souls are led astray in sins, But the righteous have compassion and are merciful.†
2 Corinthians 3
Paul’s Letter of Recommendation
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?†
2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;†
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
Paul’s Sufficiency: The Life-Giving Spirit
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.†
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Paul’s Ministry: The Glory of God
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,†
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
Paul’s Relationship with God
12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—
13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.†
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.†
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.