Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth. Psalm 54:2
Isaiah 6-7
Isaiah 6
Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord in His Glory
1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. 3 One called to another and said,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts!
The whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said,
“Woe is me! For I am undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell among a people of unclean lips:
for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said,
“This has touched your lips,
and your iniquity is taken away,
and your sin is forgiven.”
8 I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send?
Who will go for us?”
Then I said,
“Here I am. Send me!”
9 He said, “Go, and tell this people,
‘You hear indeed,
but do not understand.
You see indeed,
but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull.
Make their ears deaf and their eyes blind,
lest they see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and turn back and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”
He answered,
“Until cities are waste, without inhabitant,
houses, without man,
the land becomes utterly waste,
12 and the Lord has driven men far away,
and there is great desolation in the land.
13 If there is a tenth left in it,
that also will in turn be consumed,
as a terebinth, and as an oak,
whose stump remains when they are cut down,
so the holy seed is its stock.”
Isaiah 7
A Message to Ahab
1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but he could not prevail against it.
2 The house of David was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, like the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. 4 Tell him, ‘Be careful and keep calm. Do not be afraid, nor let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, because of the the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5 For Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, 6 “Let’s go up against Judah and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves and set up a king within it, the son of Tabeel.”
7 This is what the Lord God says:
“It shall not stand,
nor shall it happen.”
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within 65 years
Ephraim shall be broken in pieces,
so that it shall not be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established.’ ”
The Sign of Immanuel
10 The Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask for a sign of the Lord your God. Ask it from depths of Sheol or from the heights above.”
12 But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask. I will not tempt the Lord.”
13 He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you would try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call him Immanuel. 15 He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse evil and choose good. 16 For before the child knows to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.
Judgement to Come
17 The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come, since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah–the king of Assyria will come.
18 It will happen in that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 They shall come and shall all rest
in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks,
on all thorn hedges and on all pastures.
20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and it shall also consume the beard.
21 It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow and two sheep. 22 It shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter, for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left within the land.
23 It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns. 24 People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but it shall be for the sending out of oxen and for sheep to tread on.”
2 Corinthians 11:16-33
Paul’s Sufferings and Service
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if you do, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little. 17 That which I speak, I do not speak according to the Lord, but in foolishness, in this confident boasting. 18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast. 19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise. 20 You bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.
21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. 24 Five times I received 40 stripes minus one from the Jews. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; 27 in labor and travail, often without sleep, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fasting, and in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forevermore, knows that I do not lie. 32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me. 33 I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall, and escaped his hands.
Psalm 54
Vindicate Me in Your Might
For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Is David not hiding himself among us?”
1 Save me, O God, by your name.
Defend me by your strength.
2 Hear my prayer, O God.
Give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers have risen up against me.
And oppressors seek after my life.
They have not set God before them.
Selah.
4 God is my helper.
The Lord is among those who sustain me.
5 He will repay the evil to my enemies.
In your faithfulness, destroy them.
6 I will freely sacrifice to you.
I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me out of all trouble.
My eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.
Proverbs 23:1-3
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler,
consider diligently what is before you,
2 and put a knife to your throat
if you are a man given to appetite.
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
since it is the food of deceit.