Day 312 – November 8, 2022

Isaiah 48-51

​¹ “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and have come forth from Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord God of Israel, mentioning it, but not with truth nor with righteousness, ² and who are devoted to the name of the holy city, and lean on the God of Israel for support—the Lord of hosts is His name. ³ I still declare the former things that went forth from My mouth, and they became well known. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. ⁴ I know you are stubborn, and your neck is an iron nerve; and your forehead is made of bronze. ⁵ Yet I told you long ago, before it came to pass. I made it well known to you, lest you should say, ‘My idols did them’; and lest you should say, ‘My carved images and my molten images commanded them for me.’ ⁶ You heard all this, yet you knew not what you heard. But I also made new things known to you, things about to happen from that present time; yet you said not so. ⁷ Now they come to pass, and not long ago, but you did not listen to these things in former days. You do not say, ‘Yes, I know this.’ ⁸ You neither know nor understand, nor have I opened your ears from the beginning. For I knew you would deal treacherously and reject them, and would be called lawless from the womb. ⁹ For My name’s sake, I will show you My anger, and I will bring before you my glorious acts, so as not to utterly destroy you. ¹⁰ Behold, I sold you, but not for silver; and I delivered you from the furnace of poverty. ¹¹ For My own sake, I will do this for you, because My name is profaned; and I will not give My glory to another. ¹² Listen to Me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I call: I am the first, and I am forever. ¹³ My hand also laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand established heaven. I shall call them, and they will stand together. ¹⁴ All shall be gathered and hear: Who declared these things to them? Because I love you, I did your will against Babylon, to slay the seed of the Chaldeans. ¹⁵ I have spoken, I have called him, I have brought him, and made his way prosper. ¹⁶ Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, nor did I speak in a dark place of the earth. When it took place, I was there, and now the Lord and His Spirit have sent Me.” ¹⁷ Thus says the Lord who delivers you, the Holy One of Israel: “I am your God, who showed you how to find the way wherein you should walk. ¹⁸ If only you had heeded My commandments, then your peace would be like a river, and your righteousness as a wave of the sea. ¹⁹ Your seed would also be like the sand, and the offspring of your womb like the dust of the ground. Neither would you be utterly destroyed now, nor would your name perish before Me.”
  ²⁰ Go forth from Babylon, you who are fleeing from the Chaldeans. Proclaim a voice of gladness and let it become well known. Proclaim it to the end of the earth, and say, “The Lord delivered His servant Jacob.” ²¹ If they shall thirst, He will lead them through the desert, and water shall flow from the rock for them. He will split the rock, the water shall flow, and My people will drink. ²² “There is no rejoicing,” says the Lord, “for the ungodly.”
​¹ “Listen to Me, O coastlands, and take heed, you Gentiles. It will stand for a long time,” says the Lord. “He called My name from My mother’s womb. ² He made My mouth like a sharp sword, and hid Me under the shadow of His hand. He made Me as a chosen arrow and covered Me in His quiver. ³ He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ ⁴ Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain and spent My strength for nothing. Therefore My judgment is from the Lord, and my labor is before My God.’ ⁵ Now thus says the Lord—who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, and to bring Jacob and Israel back to Him (for I shall gather and glorify them before the Lord, and My God shall be My strength)— ⁶ indeed He says, ‘It is a great thing for You to be called My Servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the dispersion of Israel. Behold, I give You as the covenant of a race and as the light of the Gentiles, that You should be the salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
⁷ Thus says the Lord, who delivers You, the God of Israel: “Sanctify Him who despises His life, who is abhorred by the nations and by the servants of rulers. Kings shall see Him and rise, and rulers also shall worship Him for the Lord’s sake. For the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and He chose You.” ⁸ Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I heard You, and in the day of salvation I helped You. I give You as a covenant to the Gentiles, to establish the earth and to inherit the inheritance of the desert; ⁹ saying to those in bonds, ‘Go forth,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Reveal yourselves.’ They shall feed along all their roads, and their pasture shall be along all the paths. ¹⁰ They shall not hunger, neither shall they thirst, nor shall the burning heat of the sun strike them; but He who has mercy on them will comfort them; and He shall lead them by the fountains of waters. ¹¹ I will make every mountains as a road, and every path as a pasture for them. ¹² Behold, these come from afar, these from the north and these from the sea, and the others from the land of the Persians.” ¹³ Be glad, O heavens, and rejoice exceedingly, O earth. Let the mountains break out in gladness, and the hills in righteousness. For the Lord had mercy on His people, and comforted the humble of His people.
¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord forsook me, and the Lord forgot me.” ¹⁵ “Will a woman forget her child, so as not to have mercy on the offspring of her womb? But even if a woman should forget these things, nevertheless, I shall not forget you,” says the Lord. ¹⁶ “Behold, I painted your walls on My hands, and you are continually before Me. ¹⁷ It will be rebuilt quickly by your destroyers, and those who laid you waste shall go away from you. ¹⁸ Lift up your eyes round about, and look on them. Behold, they gather together and come to you. As I live,” says the Lord, “you shall clothe yourselves with them, and put them on as a bride’s attire. ¹⁹ For your deserts and your ruined and fallen places will now be too confined because of the inhabitants; and those who swallowed you up will go far away. ²⁰ For your children, whom you lost, will say in your ears, ‘The place is too narrow for me. Make me a place where I may dwell.’ ²¹ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? For I am childless and a widow, but who reared these for me? I was left alone, but these, where are they from?’ ”
²² Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I lift My hand to the Gentiles, and I will set up My signal to the islands. They shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. ²³ Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you upon the face of the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know I am the Lord, and you will not be ashamed. ²⁴ Will someone take spoils from a mighty man? If anyone should take someone captive unjustly, will that one be saved?” ²⁵ Thus says the Lord: “If someone should take a mighty man captive, he will also take his spoils; and he will also save the one taken captive by that strong man. For I will plead your cause and deliver your children. ²⁶ Those who oppressed you will eat their own flesh and drink their own blood as new wine; and all flesh shall perceive that I am the Lord, who delivers you and supports the strength of Jacob.”
  ​¹ Thus says the Lord: “Of what quality is your mother’s certificate of divorce, by which I put her away? Or to which debtor have I sold you? Behold, you are sold for your sins, and for your lawlessness I put away your mother. ² Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to obey? Is My hand unable to deliver? Or have I no strength to deliver? Behold, with My rebuke I dry up the sea, and I turn rivers into deserts; and because there is no water, their fish dry up and die of thirst. ³ I clothe heaven with darkness and make its covering like sackcloth.”
⁴ “The Lord gives Me the tongue of the learned, so as to know when to speak a word at a fitting time; and He causes My ear to listen each morning. ⁵ The Lord’s instruction opens My ears, and I am not disobedient, nor do I contradict Him.
⁶ “I gave My back to whips, and My cheeks to blows; and I turned not away My face from the shame of spitting. ⁷ The Lord became My helper; therefore, I was not disgraced. But I made My face like a solid rock and knew I would not be ashamed. ⁸ For He who pronounces Me righteous draws near. Who is he who judges Me? Let him oppose Me at the same time. Who is he who judges Me? Let him come near Me. ⁹ Behold, the Lord will help Me. Who will harm Me? Behold, all of you will grow old like a garment, and old age will devour you, as a moth does a garment.
¹⁰ “Who among you fears the Lord? Let him listen to the voice of His Servant. You who walk in darkness and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon God. ¹¹ Behold, all of you kindle a fire and feed a flame. Walk in the light of your fire and the flame you kindled. This happened to you for My sake, and you shall lie down in sorrow.
​¹ “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord. Look to the solid rock which you hewed, and to the hole of the pit which you dug. ² Look to Abraham our father and to Sarah who bore you, for he was first, and I called and blessed him, and loved and multiplied him. ³ And now I will comfort you, O Zion, and I comforted all her desert places; and I shall make her desert places like the Garden of the Lord. In it they shall find gladness and exceeding joy, and thanksgiving and the voice of praise. ⁴ Listen to Me, listen, O My people and kings, give ear to Me, for law shall proceed from Me, and My judgment as the light of the Gentiles. ⁵ My righteousness draws near quickly, and My salvation will go forth as light, and the Gentiles will hope in My arm, and the coastlands shall wait for Me and hope in My arm. ⁶ Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look to the earth below, for heaven is solid as smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment; and the inhabitants of the earth shall die, as do these things. But My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness will not fail. ⁷ Listen to Me, My people who know judgment, in whose heart is My law. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be overcome by their contempt. ⁸ For as a garment will be devoured by time, and as wool will be devoured by a moth, so shall they be devoured. But My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.”
⁹ Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of your arm. Awake as in the beginning of days, as in the generations of old. ¹⁰ Are You not He who dried up the sea, the abundant water of the deep, and made the depths of the sea a road of passage for those who were delivered and redeemed? ¹¹ For with the Lord’s help, they shall return and come to Zion with gladness and everlasting joy; for exceeding joy. Praise and gladness shall come on them, and pain, grief, and sighing shall depart from them. ¹² “I Am, I am the Lord who comforts you. Know who it is you feared, for you were fearful of mortal man and the son of man, those who wither like grass. ¹³ You forgot the God who made you, who made heaven and laid the foundations of the earth, but all your days you feared the angry face of him who oppressed you. For he plotted to take you away, but now where is the anger of him who oppressed you? ¹⁴ For when you are saved, he will not stand still nor tarry. ¹⁵ For I am your God who troubles the sea and causes the waves to roar. The Lord of hosts is My name. ¹⁶ I will put My words in your mouth, and protect you under the shadow of My hand, with which I established heaven, and laid the foundation of the earth. I will say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’
  ¹⁷ Awake, awake, rise up, O Jerusalem, who drank the cup of anger from the Lord’s hand, for you drank the cup of destruction, the drinking-vessel of My anger, and emptied it out. ¹⁸ There was no one to comfort you from all the children you bore, and there was no one to take hold of your hand, not even from among all the children you reared. ¹⁹ These two things are against you. Who will sympathize with you in your grief? Misfortune and affliction, famine and sword! Who will comfort you? ²⁰ Your sons are at a loss, and they lie asleep at the end of every street like a half-boiled beet, full of the Lord’s anger and forsaken because of the Lord God. ²¹ Therefore listen, you who are humbled and drunk, but not from wine. ²² Thus says the Lord God who judges His people: “Behold, I took the cup of destruction, the cup of My anger, from your hand, and it shall no longer be imposed on you to drink from it. ²³ I will put it into the hands of those who wronged and humbled you, those who said to your soul, ‘Bow down as we pass by.’ So you put your back parallel with the ground to those who passed by.”

Psalm 105:32–48

³² They also provoked Him to anger at the water of Rebellion,
And Moses was afflicted because of them;
³³ For they embittered his spirit,
And he spoke offensively with his lips;
³⁴ They did not destroy the nations the Lord said to destroy,
³⁵ But mingled with the nations
And learned their works;
³⁶ And they served their graven images,
And this became a snare for them;
³⁷ They also sacrificed their sons
And their daughters to demons,
³⁸ And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the graven images of Canaan;
So the land was polluted with their blood;
³⁹ It was also defiled by their works;
Thus they acted unfaithfully in their ways of living.
⁴⁰ And the Lord was very angry with His people,
And He abhorred His inheritance;
⁴¹ Then He delivered them into the hands of the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
⁴² Their enemies also afflicted them,
And they were humbled under their hands.
⁴³ He delivered them many times,
But they rebelled against Him with their counsel,
And were humbled by their transgressions.
⁴⁴ And He saw them in their afflictions;
He listened to their supplications,
⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant,
And felt regret according to the multitude of His mercy;
⁴⁶ So He aroused compassion for them
Among all who made them captives.
⁴⁷ Save us, O Lord our God,
And gather us from the nations,
So we may give thanks to Your holy name,
And boast in Your praise.
⁴⁸ Bless the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting.
And all the people shall say, “Amen! Amen!”

Proverbs 23:13–18

¹³ Do not withhold instruction from a child,
For if you should strike him with a rod, he would not die;
¹⁴ For you shall strike him with a rod
And deliver his soul from death.
¹⁵ My son, if your heart becomes wise,
You will also gladden my heart;
¹⁶ And your lips shall spend time with the words on my lips,
If they be upright.
¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But be in fear of the Lord the whole day long.
¹⁸ For if you keep these words, you shall have offspring,
And your hope will not depart from you.

Hebrews 4

​¹ Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
² For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
³ For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
⁴ For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
⁵ and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
⁶ Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
⁷ again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”
⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
⁹ There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
¹⁰ For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
The Word Discovers Our Condition
¹¹ Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
¹² For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Our Compassionate High Priest
¹⁴ Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.