If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
Isaiah 34-36
Isaiah 34
God’s Judgments on the Nations
1 Come near, you nations, to hear!
Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and all it contains hear,
the world and everything that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and angry with all their armies.
He has utterly destroyed them.
He has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain will also be cast out,
and the stench of their dead bodies will come up.
The mountains will melt in their blood.
4 All of the stars of the heavens will be dissolved.
The sky will be rolled up like a scroll,
and all its stars will fade away,
like a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
it will come down on Edom
and on the people whom I have destined for destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood.
It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams;
for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 The wild oxen will come down with them,
and the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
and their land will be drunken with blood,
and their dust made greasy with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of retribution for the cause of Zion.
9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch.
10 It will not be quenched night nor day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation, it will lie waste.
No one will ever pass through it again.
11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it.
The owl and the raven will dwell in it.
He will stretch the line of confusion over it
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
but none shall be there;
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its palaces,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses,
and it will be a habitation of jackals,
a court for ostriches.
14 The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves,
and the wild goat will cry to his fellow.
Yes, the night creature shall settle there
and shall find herself a place of rest.
15 The arrow snake will make her nest there,
and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade.
Yes, the kites will be gathered there,
every one with her mate.
16 Search in the book of the Lord and read:
not one of these will be missing.
None will lack her mate.
For my mouth has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever.
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Isaiah 35
The Glory of Zion
1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad.
The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
2 It will blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
Lebanon’s glory will be given to it,
the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the excellence of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the feeble knees firm.
4 Tell those who have a fearful heart,
“Be strong! Do not be afraid!
Your God will come with vengeance,
the retribution of the Lord.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing,
for waters will break out in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Grass with reeds and rushes
will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.
8 A highway will be there, a road,
and it will be called “The Holy Way”.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
but it will be for those who walk in the Way.
Wicked fools shall not go there.
9 No lion will be there,
nor will any ravenous animal go up on it.
They will not be found there,
but the redeemed will walk there.
10 Then the ransomed ones of the Lord will return,
and come with singing to Zion,
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 36
Sennacherib Invades Judah
1 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.
4 Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
6 You trust in the staff of this bruised reed, in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is that not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?
8 Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Have I come up now without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make your peace with me and come out to me, and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20 Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
21 But they remained silent and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Galatians 5:16-26
Living by the Spirit
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, heresies, 21 envy, murder, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, of which I warned you, as I have warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.
Psalm 64
The Hurtful Tongue
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer.
Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from wicked mobs,
3 who sharpen their tongue like a sword,
and aim the arrows of deadly words,
4 to shoot the innocent from secret places.
They shoot at him without warning or fear.
5 They encourage themselves in evil plans.
They talk about laying snares secretly.
They say, “Who will see them?”
6 They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!”
Surely the heart and mind of man are cunning.
7 But God will shoot at them with an arrow,
and suddenly, they shall be wounded.
8 Their own tongues shall ruin them.
All who see them will shake their heads.
9 All mankind shall fear.
They shall declare the work of God,
and shall ponder what he has done.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the Lord
and will trust in him.
All the upright in heart shall praise him!
Proverbs 23:23
23 Buy the truth and do not sell it.
Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.