ISAIAH 33-35

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The Judgment of God33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer,

While you were not destroyed;

And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.

As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;

As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.

2 O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.

Be their strength every morning,

Our salvation also in the time of distress.

3 At the sound of the tumult peoples flee;

At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse.

4 Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

5 The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high;

He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 And He will be the stability of your times,

A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;

The fear of the LORD is his treasure.

7 Behold, their brave men cry in the streets,

The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased,

He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,

He has no regard for man.

9 The land mourns and pines away,

Lebanon is shamed and withers;

Sharon is like a desert plain,

And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.

10 “Now I will arise,” says the LORD,

“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.

11 “You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble;

My breath will consume you like a fire.

12 “The peoples will be burned to lime,

Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

13 “You who are far away, hear what I have done;

And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

14 Sinners in Zion are terrified;

Trembling has seized the godless.

“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?

Who among us can live with continual burning?”

15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,

He who rejects unjust gain

And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;

He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed

And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;

16 He will dwell on the heights,

His refuge will be the impregnable rock;

His bread will be given him,

His water will be sure.

17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;

They will behold a far-distant land.

18 Your heart will meditate on terror:

“Where is he who counts?

Where is he who weighs?

Where is he who counts the towers?”

19 You will no longer see a fierce people,

A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,

Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;

Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation,

A tent which will not be folded;

Its stakes will never be pulled up,

Nor any of its cords be torn apart.

21 But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us

A place of rivers and wide canals

On which no boat with oars will go,

And on which no mighty ship will pass--

22 For the LORD is our judge,

The LORD is our lawgiver,

The LORD is our king;

He will save us--

23 Your tackle hangs slack;

It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,

Nor spread out the sail.

Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided;

The lame will take the plunder.

24 And no resident will say, “I am sick”;

The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

God’s Wrath against Nations34:1 Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!

Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

2 For the LORD’S indignation is against all the nations,

And His wrath against all their armies;

He has utterly destroyed them,

He has given them over to slaughter.

3 So their slain will be thrown out,

And their corpses will give off their stench,

And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.

4 And all the host of heaven will wear away,

And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;

All their hosts will also wither away

As a leaf withers from the vine,

Or as one withers from the fig tree.

5 For My sword is satiated in heaven,

Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom

And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood,

It is sated 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 Wild oxen will also fall with them

And young bulls with strong ones;

Thus their land will be soaked with blood,

And their dust become greasy with fat.

8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance,

A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,

And its loose earth into brimstone,

And its land will become burning pitch.

10 It will not be quenched night or day;

Its smoke will go up forever.

From generation to generation it will be desolate;

None will pass through it forever and ever.

11 But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,

And owl and raven will dwell in it;

And He will stretch over it the line of desolation

And the plumb line of emptiness.

12 Its nobles--there is no one there

Whom they may proclaim king--

And all its princes will be nothing.

13 Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,

Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;

It will also be a haunt of jackals

And an abode of ostriches.

14 The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,

The hairy goat also will cry to its kind;

Yes, the night monster will settle there

And will find herself a resting place.

15 The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,

And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.

Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,

Every one with its kind.

    16 Seek from the book of the LORD, and read:

Not one of these will be missing;

None will lack its mate.

For His 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 by line.

They shall possess it forever;

From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Zion’s Happy Future35:1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,

And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;

Like the crocus

2 It will blossom profusely

And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the glory of the LORD,

The majesty of our God.

3 Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.

4 Say to those with anxious heart,

“Take courage, fear not.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance;

The recompense of God will come,

But He will 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 will leap like a deer,

And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the wilderness

And streams in the Arabah.

7 The scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground springs of water;

In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,

Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

8 A highway will be there, a roadway,

And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it,

But it will be for him who walks that way,

And fools will not wander on it.

9 No lion will be there,

Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;

These will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walk there,

10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

With everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will find gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

1 CORINTHIANS 6

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Lawsuits Discouraged  6:1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
    7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.
    9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
The Body Is the Lord’s    12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.