Isaiah 31
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not trust in the Holy One of Israel, nor seek God!†
2 So He wisely brings evils upon them, and His word cannot be set aside, for He will rise up against the houses of evil men and against their vain hope.
3 Now an Egyptian is a man, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not a help. The Lord shall bring His hand against them, and those who help them shall become weary. All will perish together.
4 For thus the Lord said to me: “As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey, which he took and cries out upon it until the mountains are filled with his sound, and the animals are awestruck and terrified at the fierceness of his anger, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion, even upon her mountains.†
5 Like birds flying about, so will the Lord defend Jerusalem. He will deliver, preserve, and save it.”
6 Return, you who planned a deep and lawless counsel.
7 For in that day, men shall renounce their idols of silver and gold, which their hands made.
8 Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man shall devour him. He shall not flee from the sword, but his young men shall be overthrown.†
9 For they shall be surrounded by a rock as by a barricade, and he who flees shall be caught.
Psalms 77
38 But He is merciful And will atone for their sins, and not destroy them; And He will multiply them, and turn away His anger; And He will not kindle all His wrath.
39 For He remembered they are flesh, A spirit that is passing and not returning.
40 How many times did they rebel against Him in the desert, And provoke Him to wrath in the desert?
41 And they turned away and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His hand And the day He redeemed them from the hand of those afflicting them,
43 How He wrought His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the plains of Zoan,
44 And how He turned their rivers and rainfalls into blood, So they could not drink;
45 He sent them the dog-fly, and it devoured them, And the frog, and it destroyed them.
46 He gave their fruit to the mildew And their labors to the locust;
47 He killed their vineyard with hail And their mulberry trees with frost;
48 And He delivered their cattle to the hail And their property to the fire;
49 He sent forth the wrath of His anger to them, Anger and wrath and affliction, Sent forth through evil angels;
50 He made a path for His wrath; He did not spare their souls from death, And their cattle He enclosed in death;
51 And He struck every firstborn in Egypt, The firstfruit of their labor in the tents of Ham.
52 And He brought His people out like sheep, And He led them like a flock in the desert;
53 And He guided them in hope, and they were not afraid; And the sea covered up their enemies.
54 He brought them into the mountain of His holiness, This mountain His right hand acquired;
55 And He cast out the nations from before their face, And distributed them a measure of land as an inheritance; And He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
Proverbs of Solomon 16
16 Arrogance goes before destruction And folly before a fall.
17 A gentle mind with humility is better Than he who divides spoils with the arrogant.†
18 A man wise in his deeds is a discoverer of good things, But he who trusts in God is the most blessed.
19 Men call the wise and understanding worthless, But those pleasing in speech will increase in understanding.
20 Understanding is a fountain of life to those who possess it, But the instruction of those without discernment is evil.†
Ephesians 4
Live in Unity
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,†
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,†
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;†
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Use the Spiritual Gifts
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.†
8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” †
9 (Now this, “He ascended” —what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,†
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Put Off the Old, Put On the New
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,†
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.