Isaiah 63-66
1 Who is this who comes from Edom with red garments from Bozrah, so beautiful in His apparel, with force of strength? “I speak of righteousness and saving judgment.” 2 Why are Your garments red and Your apparel as one who treads in a winepress? 3 “I am full of the treading of grapes, and there is no man with Me among the nations. I trampled them in My anger, and crushed them like earth, and brought down their blood to the ground. 4 For the day of recompense has come upon them, and the year of redemption has arrived. 5 I looked, but there was no helper; and I observed, but there was no one to help; therefore, My arm delivered them, and My anger was suddenly present. 6 So I trampled them in My wrath and brought their blood down to the ground.”
7 I remembered the Lord’s mercy, the praises of the Lord in all things in which the Lord recompenses us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel, and He deals with us according to His mercy, and according to the multitude of His righteousness. 8 He said, “Surely My people, My children, have not rejected Me?” So He became their salvation. 9 Not an elder or an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them from all their tribulation, because He loved them and spared them. He redeemed and took them up, and lifted them up all the days of old. 10 Yet they disobeyed Him and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned against them with hostility and waged war on them. 11 Then He remembered the days of old, He who brought up the shepherd of His sheep from the land. Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in them? 12 Where is He who led Moses with His right hand, the arm of His glory? He overpowered the water by His presence to make for Himself an everlasting name. 13 He brought them through the deep, like a horse through the desert, yet they did not grow weary. 14 Like cattle through the plain, the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them. Thus You led Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name.
15 Return from heaven, and look from Your holy and glorious dwelling-place. Where are Your zeal and Your strength; where is the multitude of Your mercy and Your compassion, so as to be patient with us? 16 You are our Father, although Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us; but You, O Lord, are our Father. You delivered us, and from the beginning Your name was upon us. 17 Why have you led us astray, O Lord, from Your path, and hardened our hearts so as not to fear You? Return for the sake of Your servants, for the sake of the tribes of Your inheritance, 18 that we may inherit a small portion of Your holy mountain. 19 For our adversaries trampled down Your sanctuary, and we have become as we were from the beginning, when You did not rule us, neither did we call upon Your name. 20 If You open heaven, trembling shall take hold of the mountains before You, and they shall melt as wax melts before the fire.
1 The fire shall burn up the adversaries, and the Lord’s name shall be manifest among the adversaries; and the nations shall be troubled by Your presence. 2 When You do glorious things, trembling shall take hold of the mountains because of You. 3 From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen any God but You, and Your works which You shall do for those who wait for Your mercy. 4 For mercy shall meet with those who do righteousness, and they shall remember your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned; therefore, we went astray. 5 We all are become as unclean, and all our righteousness is like a filthy rag. We fall off like leaves because of our wrongdoings; thus the wind will carry us away. 6 There is no one who calls upon Your name and who remembers to take hold of You; for You turned away Your face from us, and delivered us over because of our sins. 7 And now, O Lord, You are our Father, and all we are clay, the work of Your hands. 8 Do not be exceedingly angry with us, and do not remember our sins in an opportune time. And now look upon us, for we are all Your people. 9 The city of Your holy place has become a desert. Zion is like a desert, and Jerusalem is for a curse. 10 The house, our holy place and the glory our father blessed, has been burnt with fire, and all our glorious things have become extinct. 11 You tolerated all this, O Lord, and were silent; and You humbled us exceedingly.
1 “I was manifest to those who did not seek Me; I was found by those who did not ask for Me. I said, ‘Behold, I am here,’ to a nation that did not call on My name. 2 I stretched out My hands the whole day long to a people who disobeyed and contradicted Me, who did not walk in the true way, but after their sins. 3 This is a people who provoke Me continually to My face. They sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on bricks to the demons, which do not exist; 4 and they sleep in graves and caves for the sake of dreams, they who eat swine’s flesh and the sauce of their sacrifices, which defiles all their vessels; 5 who say, ‘Stay away from me; do not come near me, for I am clean.’ This is the smoke of My anger; a fire burns in it all day long. 6 Behold, it is written before Me: I will not be silent,” says the Lord, “until I repay into their bosom their sins and the sins of their fathers, 7 who burned incense on the mountains and reproached Me on the hills. I will repay their works into their bosom.”
8 Thus says the Lord: “As the grape shall be found in a cluster, and they shall say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing from the Lord in it,’ so shall I do for the sake of him who serves Me. For his sake I will not destroy them all. 9 I will bring forth the seed of Jacob and the seed of Judah, and they shall inherit My holy mountain. My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 10 There shall be in the forest a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor shall be for the resting place of herds for My people who sought Me. 11 But you are those who forsook Me, and forget My holy mountain, and prepare a table for the devil, and fill a drink-offering to Fortune. 12 I will deliver you to the sword, and all of you shall fall in the slaughter; because I called you, but you did not obey; I spoke, but you refused to listen. You did evil in My sight, and did not choose the things I willed.”
13 Therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall hunger. Behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall thirst. Behold, My servants shall be glad, but you shall be ashamed. 14 Behold, My servants shall rejoice exceedingly in gladness, but you shall cry out because of the pain in your heart; and you shall wail from the crushing of your spirit. 15 For you shall leave your name as an example of excess to My elect, and the Lord shall destroy you. But those who serve Him shall be called by a new name, 16 which shall be blessed upon the earth. For they shall bless the true God, and those who swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God; for they shall forget their former tribulation, and it shall not come into their heart.
17 “For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and they shall not remember the former things, nor shall these things come into their heart. 18 But they shall find gladness and exceeding joy in her, for behold, I will make Jerusalem an exceeding joy, and My people gladness. 19 I will rejoice exceedingly in Jerusalem, and I will be glad in My people. There shall no longer be heard in her a voice of weeping, nor a voice of crying. 20 There shall not be the untimely death of a child there, nor shall there be an old man who does not fulfill his time. For a young man shall be a hundred years old, but a sinner who dies at a hundred years old shall be cursed. 21 They shall build houses and dwell in them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat their produce. 22 But they shall not build, and others inhabit; and they shall not plant, and others eat. For according to the days of the tree of life, so shall be the days of My people, and the works of their labors shall not grow old. 23 My elect shall not labor in vain, nor shall they bear children to be a curse; for they are a seed blessed by God; and their offspring shall be with them. 24 It shall be, before they cry out, I will listen to them; while they are still speaking, I will say, ‘What is it?’ 25 The wolves and lambs shall feed together, and the lion, like the ox, shall eat chaff; and the serpent, the ground as bread. They shall not injure, neither destroy in My holy mountain,” says the Lord.
1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or what kind is the place of My rest? 2 For My hand made all these things, and all these things are Mine,” says the Lord; “and upon whom will I show respect, but to the humble and the peaceful and to him who trembles at My words. 3 But the lawless man who sacrifices a calf is as he who kills a dog; and he who offers a grain offering, as he who offers the blood of a pig; and he who offers incense for a memorial, as he who is a blasphemer. These chose their ways and their abominations, which their soul willed. 4 But I will choose their mockeries, and I will repay them; because I called, but they did not obey Me; I spoke, but they did not listen; but they did evil in My sight, and things I did not will, they chose.”
5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word. Speak, our brethren, to those who hate us and detest us, that the Lord’s name may be glorified and seen in their gladness, so they may be ashamed. 6 A voice of crying from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord is fully repaying His enemies. 7 “Before she travails in labor to give birth, before the pain of birth pangs comes on, she escapes it and bears a male. 8 Who has heard such a thing, and who has seen anything like this? Has the earth travailed in one day, or has a nation given birth at once? For Zion travailed and gave birth to her children. 9 But I raised this expectation, yet you did not remember Me,” says the Lord. “Behold, do I not cause one woman to beget, but another to be sterile?” says God. 10 “Be glad, O Jerusalem, and celebrate holy days in her. All you who love her, rejoice exceedingly, and all you who mourn over her; 11 that you may nurse and be satisfied by the breast of her consolation; that you may take pleasure in nursing because of the entrance of her glory.” 12 For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will turn to them like a river of peace and like a brook, to flood them with the glory of the Gentiles. Their children shall be taken up on shoulders and comforted on knees. 13 Like someone a mother comforts, so also will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” 14 You shall see, and your heart will rejoice. Your bones shall rise up like a pasture, and the Lord’s hand shall be known by those who fear Him; but He shall threaten the disobedient.
15 For behold, the Lord shall come like a fire, and His chariots like a sudden blast of wind, to render His vengeance with anger and His renunciation with a flame of fire. 16 For all the earth shall be judged in the fire of the Lord, and all flesh with His sword; and many shall be wounded by the Lord. 17 “Those who purify and cleanse themselves in the gardens and porches, who eat the meat of a pig or any abomination, they shall be destroyed together at the same time,” says the Lord; 18 “and I know their works and their reasoning. I am coming to gather all the nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory. 19 And I will leave signs upon them, and those among them who are saved, I will send forth to the Gentiles: to Tarshish, and Pul and Lud and Tubal, and to Greece and to the coastlands far off, to those who have not heard My name, nor seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. 20 They shall bring your brethren from among all the Gentiles as a gift to the Lord, with horses and chariots, in litters drawn by mules and covered with sunshades, to the holy city of Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the children of Israel would bring Me their sacrifices with psalms into the house of the Lord. 21 I shall take some of them to be My priests and Levites,” says the Lord. 22 “For just as the new heaven and the new earth which I make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “so shall your seed and your name remain. 23 It shall come to pass from month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall worship before Me in Jerusalem,” says the Lord. 24 “They shall go forth and see the dead bodies of the men who transgressed against Me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished; and they shall be a vision to all flesh.”
Psalm 106:31–43
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His mercies
And His wonders to the sons of men;
32 Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
And praise Him in the seat of the elders.
33 He turned rivers into a desert
And streams of water into dry ground,
34 A fruitful land into salt water,
Because of the evils of those living there.
35 He turned the desert into pools of water,
And a land without water into streams of water;
36 Then He caused the hungry to dwell there
And established a city for habitation;
37 They sowed fields and planted vineyards,
And produced much fruit;
38 So He blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly,
And their cattle did not diminish.
39 But they were diminished and maltreated
By the affliction of evils and pain.
40 Contempt was poured out on princes,
And He made them wander in an impassible place, where there was no road.
41 Yet He helped the poor man out of his poverty,
And made his families like a flock.
42 The righteous shall see this and be glad,
And all lawlessness shall stop its mouth.
43 Who is wise and shall keep these things,
And shall understand the mercies of the Lord?
Proverbs 23:28–32
28 Who has woe? Who has tumult? Who has condemnation?
Who has unpleasantness and gossip?
Who has afflictions with no purpose?
Whose eyes are pale?
29 Is it not those who linger long with wines?
Is it not those who hunt for the whereabouts of drinking parties?
30 Do not be drunk with wine, but keep company with righteous men,
And keep company in public walks;
31 For if you set your eyes to the bowls and cups,
Afterward you will walk about more naked than ground meat.
32 And at last, he stretches himself out as one bitten by a serpent,
And the venom spreads through him as one bitten by a horned serpent.
Hebrews 7
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,”
3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.
5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham;
6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.
8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,
10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
Need for a New Priesthood
(Ps. 110:4)
11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest
16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.
17 For He testifies:
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness,
19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
Greatness of the New Priest
20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath
21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him:
“The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
‘You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”),
22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing.
24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.