Day 307 – November 3, 2022

Isaiah 27-30

​¹ In that day, God will bring His holy, great, and strong sword upon the fleeing dragon serpent, the perverse dragon serpent that flees; and He shall destroy the dragon. ² In that day, there shall be a beautiful vineyard, and a desire to begin a hymn against a city: ³ “I am a strong city, a besieged city; I water it in vain; for it shall be taken at night, and its wall shall fall by day. ⁴ There is no woman who has not taken hold of it. Who will appoint me to guard straw in a field? I rejected it because of this enemy. For that very reason therefore, the Lord God did all the things He ordered. I am burned down.” ⁵ Those who dwell in it will cry out, “Let us make peace with Him, let us make peace.” ⁶ Those who come are the children of Jacob. Israel shall bud and put forth flowers, and the inhabited earth shall be filled with its fruit. ⁷ As he struck, shall he not be thus struck? As he slew, shall he not be thus slain? ⁸ Fighting and denouncing he shall send them away. Did you not think with a harsh spirit about killing them in a spirit of anger? ⁹ Therefore the lawlessness of Jacob will be removed; and this is his blessing when I take away his sin, when they make all the stones of the altars beaten like fine dust. Their trees do not remain, and their idols shall be cut down like a distant forest. ¹⁰ The flock that dwelt there shall be left like an abandoned flock, and for a long time the field will be for pasture; and there flocks shall lie down to rest. ¹¹ And after a time, there will be nothing green in it because of the withering. Come here, you women who come from that sight. For it is a people of no understanding; therefore He who made them will have no compassion on them, neither He who formed them; and He will show them no mercy. ¹² And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will close it from the channel of the river to the Brook of Egypt. And you will gather the sons of Israel one by one. ¹³ So it shall be in that day that they shall blow the great trumpet, and the lost ones in the country of the Assyrians and in Egypt will come, and they shall worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
  ​¹ Woe to the crown of arrogance, the hirelings of Ephraim, the flower that fell from the glory on top of the fertile mountain, those who are drunk without wine. ² Behold, the anger of the Lord is a strong and harsh thing, like a falling hail where there is no shelter, falling violently like a great force of water, sweeping away the country. He shall bring relief for the earth with His hands. ³ The crown of arrogance, the hirelings of Ephraim, will be trampled underfoot. ⁴ But the flower that fell from the hope of the glory on the top of the high mountain shall be like the forerunner of the fig. He who sees it wishes to swallow it before he gets it in his hand. ⁵ In that day, the Lord of hosts shall be the crown of hope, woven of glory, to the remnant of My people. ⁶ They shall be left in a spirit of judgment upon judgment and for the strength of those who prevent slaying. ⁷ For these are led astray with wine and are deceived by strong drink. Priest and prophet are out of their minds by reason of wine; they stagger because of drunkenness; they go astray. This is delusion. ⁸ A curse will devour this counsel, for this counsel was for the sake of covetousness. ⁹ To whom have we reported evils and declared a message? Those weaned from milk and withdrawn from the breasts. ¹⁰ Expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope, yet a little, yet a little. ¹¹ By reason of the contempt of lips and another tongue they will speak to this people, ¹² saying to them, “This is the rest for the hungry, and this is the affliction,” but they would not listen. ¹³ The teaching of the Lord God will be for them affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope, yet a little, yet a little, so they may go and fall backward; and they will be in danger, crushed and conquered. ¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you afflicted men and rulers of this people in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Because you said, “We made a covenant with Hades, and are in agreement with death, and if the rushing storm passes through, it will not come upon us, for we made falsehood our hope, and in falsehood we shall be protected”; ¹⁶ therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold, I lay for the foundations of Zion a costly stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone for its foundations, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. ¹⁷ I will also cause judgment to be for hope, and My mercy to be for a standard. The sudden blast of wind will not pass by you who trust vainly in falsehood, ¹⁸ except it also take away your covenant of death. Your hope in Hades will also not stand when the rushing storm passes through, for you will be beaten down by it. ¹⁹ When it passes through, it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through by day, and by night there will be an evil hope.” Learn to listen, ²⁰ you in difficult straits. We cannot fight, and we ourselves are too weak to gather ourselves together. ²¹ As the mountain of the ungodly will rise up and be in the valley of Gibeon, He will do His deeds in anger, a work of bitterness. His anger will behave strangely, and His bitterness will be strange. ²² So do not be glad, neither let your bands become strong; because I heard from the Lord of hosts the things He will perform upon all the earth. ²³ Give ear and hear my voice. Listen and hear my words. ²⁴ Will the plowman plow all day? Or will he prepare the seed before he cultivates the ground? ²⁵ When he levels its surface, does he not then sow the small black cummin, and afterward sow the wheat, the barley, and the one-seeded wheat in your borders? ²⁶ So you will be chastised by the judgment of your God and be gladdened by it. ²⁷ For the black cummin is not cleansed with harshness, nor will the wheel of a wagon roll over the cummin; but the black cummin is threshed with a stick, and the cummin ²⁸ will be eaten with bread. For I will not be angry with you forever, nor will the voice of my bitterness trample you underfoot. ²⁹ These signs came forth from the Lord of hosts. Take counsel; exalt vain comfort.
​¹ Woe to the city of Ariel, against which David waged war! Gather fruits year by year, for you will eat with Moab. ² For I will afflict Ariel, and her strength and wealth will be mine. ³ I will encircle you as David did, and I will put a barricade around you, and place towers around you. ⁴ Your words will be humbled to the earth, and your words will sink into the earth. Your speech shall be like those calling out of the ground, and your voice weakened to the ground. ⁵ Moreover the wealth of the ungodly shall be like the dust of a wheel and like dirt carried away. It shall be as though in an instant and suddenly ⁶ from the Lord of hosts; for there will be a visitation with thunder and earthquake and a great noise, and a sudden blast of wind and a devouring flame of fire. ⁷ The wealth of all the nations, as many as fought against Ariel, and all who wage war against Jerusalem, and all who gather against her and afflict her, shall be as one who dreams in the night. ⁸ They shall be like those who eat and drink in a dream, and when they awake their dream was useless, and as a thirsty man dreams, as if he is drinking but is still thirsty when he wakes, and his soul hoped in vain, so will be the wealth of all the nations that fought against Mount Zion. ⁹ Faint and be amazed; be overpowered, not with strong drink nor with wine, ¹⁰ for the Lord made you drink a spirit of deep sleep, and He shall close their eyes and the eyes of their prophets and rulers, who see secret things. ¹¹ All these things shall be to you as the words of this sealed book, which if they should give to a learned man, saying, “Read this,” then he will say, “I cannot read this, for it is sealed.” ¹² This book shall also be placed in the hands of an unlearned man, and one shall say to him, “Read this,” then he will say, “I do not understand writings.”
¹³ So the Lord said, “These people draw near to Me and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and they worship Me in vain, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men. ¹⁴ Therefore behold, I will proceed to remove this people, and I shall remove them. I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and hide the understanding of the intelligent.” ¹⁵ Woe to those who deepen their counsel, but not through the Lord! Woe to those who take counsel in secret and whose works are in darkness! They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us or what we do?” ¹⁶ Shall you not be considered as the clay of the potter? Shall what is molded of clay say to him who molded it, “You did not create me”? Or shall the work say to him who made it, “You did not make me wisely”? ¹⁷ Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be changed like Mount Carmel, and Mount Carmel be considered a forest? ¹⁸ In that day, the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of those in darkness and in a fog shall see. ¹⁹ The poor also shall rejoice exceedingly in gladness because of the Lord, and the hopeless among men shall be filled with gladness. ²⁰ The lawless man has come to an end, and the arrogant man has perished. Those who act lawlessly in malice are utterly destroyed, ²¹ as well as those who cause men to sin in word. They shall make all who condemn at the gates an offense, because they turned aside the righteous man with wrongdoing. ²² Therefore the Lord says this concerning the house of Jacob, whom He set apart out of Abraham: “Now Jacob shall not be ashamed, nor shall Israel now change his countenance. ²³ But when their children see My works, they shall sanctify My name for My sake, and will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and fear the God of Israel. ²⁴ And those who erred in spirit shall know understanding, and those who complained will learn to obey, and the stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace.”
​¹ “Woe to the apostate children,” says the Lord! “You made counsel, but not through Me, and covenants, but not of My Spirit, so as to add sins to sins. ² You proceeded to go down to Egypt, but did not ask Me, so as to be helped by Pharaoh and protected by the Egyptians. ³ For the protection of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and there shall be disgrace for those who trust in Egypt. ⁴ For there are rulers at Tanis, evil messengers. In vain shall they labor ⁵ in seeking a people who will not profit, help or benefit them, but they shall be for them a shame and a disgrace.”
  ⁶ The vision of the quadrupeds in the desert:
In affliction and distress they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and camels—amid lions and lion’s cubs, and vipers and the offspring of flying vipers—to a nation that will not profit or benefit them, but will be for them a shame and a disgrace. ⁷ For the Egyptians shall help you utterly in vain. Tell them, “This consolation of yours is in vain.”
⁸ Now therefore, sit and write these things on a tablet in a book, for these things shall be for the time to come, even forever. ⁹ For this is a disobedient people, false children, children who are unwilling to hear the law of God. ¹⁰ They say to the prophets, “Do not report to us”; and to those who see visions, “Do not speak to us, but speak and declare to us another deception. ¹¹ Turn us aside from this way; remove this path from us, and take away from us the Holy One of Israel.” ¹² Therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: “Because you disobeyed these words, and hoped in falsehood and grumbled and were confident in this respect; ¹³ therefore, this sin shall be to you like a wall ready to fall when a strong city is taken, whose fall is immediately present. ¹⁴ Its fall shall be like the breaking of a clay vessel, like that of a small jar, so as not to find among them even a fragment with which to take away fire, or draw a little water.” ¹⁵ For thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: “When you return and groan, then you will be saved and know where you were. When you trusted in vain things, vain was your strength, and you did not will to listen.” ¹⁶ But you said, “We will flee on horses”—therefore you shall flee. You also said, “We will ride on swift horses”—therefore those who pursue you shall be swift. ¹⁷ One thousand shall flee at the voice of one; at the voice of five, many shall flee, until you are left as a pole upon a mountain, and as one holding a banner on a hill. ¹⁸ And again God will wait, that He may have compassion on you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you, because the Lord our God is a judge, and where will you leave behind your glory? Blessed are all those who abide in Him.
¹⁹ For a holy people shall dwell in Zion; and Jerusalem cried with wailing, “Have mercy on me.” He will have mercy on you at the sound of your cry. When He sees this, He will listen to you. ²⁰ The Lord will give you the bread of affliction and scant water; and those leading you astray will no longer approach you, but your eyes shall see those leading you astray. ²¹ Your ears shall hear words behind you leading you astray, saying, “This is the way; let us walk in it,” either to the right hand or to the left. ²² You will also remove your idols plaited with silver and covered with gold. You will grind them to powder and scatter them like the water of an indisposed woman, and thrust them away like dung. ²³ Then there will be rain for the seed of your land, and the bread of produce of your land’s increase will be plenteous and rich. In that day your cattle will feed in rich and large pastures. ²⁴ Your bulls and the oxen that work the ground will eat straw prepared with winnowed barley. ²⁵ On every high mountain and on every high hill there will be streams in that day, when many perish and the towers fall. ²⁶ In that day, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, when the Lord heals the wound of His people and the pain of your plague.
²⁷ Behold, the name of the Lord comes after a long time, a burning anger. The teaching of His lips is with glory, a revelation full of wrath, and the wrath of His anger shall devour like fire. ²⁸ His breath, like an overflowing stream in a valley, shall reach up to the neck and be divided, to trouble the nations for their vain error; and error shall pursue and overtake them. ²⁹ Must you always be glad, and go into My holy places continually, as those who keep a feast, and must you always go with a flute, as those who are glad when they go into the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel? ³⁰ God will cause His glorious voice to be heard, and He will show the anger of His arm with anger and wrath, and the flame of a devouring fire. He shall strike violently with thunderbolts, and His wrath shall be as water and violent hail. ³¹ For through the voice of the Lord, the Assyrians will be defeated, as He strikes them with the rod. ³² And it shall happen to him on every side, that those from whom his hope of assistance was, and in whom he trusted, shall themselves, in turn, make war on him with flutes and harps. ³³ For you will be required before many days: Was it prepared for you also to reign? No, God prepared for you a deep valley, wood laid down, fire and much wood. The anger of the Lord shall be as a valley burning with brimstone.

 Psalm 104:1–15

¹ Alleluia.
Give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name;
Report His works among the Gentiles;
² Sing to Him, and play a stringed instrument to Him;
Describe all His wonderful works.
³ Praise His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad;
⁴ Seek the Lord and be strengthened;
Seek His face continually.
⁵ Remember the wonders He performed,
Of His marvels and the judgments of His mouth,
⁶ O seed of Abraham, His servants,
O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.
⁷ He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
⁸ Remember His covenant forever,
And His word He commanded for a thousand generations,
⁹ Which He established with Abraham,
And His oath with Isaac;
¹⁰ And He established it as an ordinance with Jacob
  And as an everlasting covenant with Israel,
¹¹ Saying, “I shall give you the land of Canaan
As the portion of your inheritance.”
¹² When they were few in number,
The smallest and sojourners in the land,
¹³ And passed through from nation to nation,
From a kingdom to a different people,
¹⁴ He allowed no man to wrong them;
And He reproved kings on their behalf:
¹⁵ “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do not act wickedly towards My prophets.”

 Proverbs 22:16–20

¹⁶ The mouth of a lawless man is a deep pit,
And the man hated by the Lord shall fall into it.
¹⁷ Evil ways are before a man,
And he does not love to turn away from them,
But it is necessary to turn away from a crooked and evil way.
¹⁸ Folly fastens itself to the heart of a child,
For the rod and instruction are far from him.
¹⁹ He who oppresses a poor man increases his possessions,
Yet he gives them to a rich man to lessen them.
²⁰ Incline your ear to the words of the wise and hear my word,
And establish your heart, that you may know they are good.

Titus 3

​¹ Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work,
² to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.
³ For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
⁷ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
⁸ This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
Avoid Dissension
⁹ But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.
¹⁰ Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition,
¹¹ knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.
Final Messages
¹² When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.
¹³ Send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste, that they may lack nothing.
¹⁴ And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.
Farewell
¹⁵ All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.