ISAIAH 25

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Song of Praise for God’s Favor25:1 O LORD, You are my God;

I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;

For You have worked wonders,

Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

2 For You have made a city into a heap,

A fortified city into a ruin;

A palace of strangers is a city no more,

It will never be rebuilt.

3 Therefore a strong people will glorify You;

Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.

4 For You have been a defense for the helpless,

A defense for the needy in his distress,

A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;

For the breath of the ruthless

Is like a rain storm against a wall.

5 Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens;

Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.

6 The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;

A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,

And refined, aged wine.

7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,

Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death for all time,

And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,

And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;

For the LORD has spoken.

9 And it will be said in that day,

“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.

This is the LORD for whom we have waited;

Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

10 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,

And Moab will be trodden down in his place

As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.

11 And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it

As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,

But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.

12 The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,

Lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

ISAIAH 26

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Song of Trust in God’s Protection  26:1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

He sets up walls and ramparts for security.

2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,

The one that remains faithful.

3 “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,

Because he trusts in You.

4 “Trust in the LORD forever,

For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.

5 “For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city;

He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.

6 “The foot will trample it,

The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless.”

7 The way of the righteous is smooth;

O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.

8 Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O LORD,

We have waited for You eagerly;

Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.

9 At night my soul longs for You,

Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;

For when the earth experiences Your judgments

The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10 Though the wicked is shown favor,

He does not learn righteousness;

He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,

And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.

11 O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it.

They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;

Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.

12 LORD, You will establish peace for us,

Since You have also performed for us all our works.

13 O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;

But through You alone we confess Your name.

14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise;

Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,

And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.

15 You have increased the nation, O LORD,

You have increased the nation, You are glorified;

You have extended all the borders of the land.

16 O LORD, they sought You in distress;

They could only whisper a prayer,

Your chastening was upon them.

17 As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,

She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,

Thus were we before You, O LORD.

18 We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,

We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.

We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,

Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

19 Your dead will live;

Their corpses will rise.

You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,

For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,

And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

20 Come, my people, enter into your rooms

And close your doors behind you;

Hide for a little while

Until indignation runs its course.

21 For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place

To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

And the earth will reveal her bloodshed

And will no longer cover her slain.

PROVERBS 16

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Contrast the Upright and the Wicked16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man,

But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,

But the LORD weighs the motives.

3 Commit your works to the LORD

And your plans will be established.

4 The LORD has made everything for its own purpose,

Even the wicked for the day of evil.

5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD;

Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.

6 By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for,

And by the fear of the LORD one keeps away from evil.

7 When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD,

He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

8 Better is a little with righteousness

Than great income with injustice.

9 The mind of man plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps.

10 A divine decision is in the lips of the king;

His mouth should not err in judgment.

11 A just balance and scales belong to the LORD;

All the weights of the bag are His concern.

12 It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts,

For a throne is established on righteousness.

13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings,

And he who speaks right is loved.

14 The fury of a king is like messengers of death,

But a wise man will appease it.

15 In the light of a king’s face is life,

And his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain.

16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold!

And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.

17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil;

He who watches his way preserves his life.

18 Pride goes before destruction,

And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

19 It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly

Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

20 He who gives attention to the word will find good,

And blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.

21 The wise in heart will be called understanding,

And sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.

22 Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it,

But the discipline of fools is folly.

23 The heart of the wise instructs his mouth

And adds persuasiveness to his lips.

24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb,

Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

25 There is a way which seems right to a man,

But its end is the way of death.

26 A worker’s appetite works for him,

For his hunger urges him on.

27 A worthless man digs up evil,

While his words are like scorching fire.

28 A perverse man spreads strife,

And a slanderer separates intimate friends.

29 A man of violence entices his neighbor

And leads him in a way that is not good.

30 He who winks his eyes does so to devise perverse things;

He who compresses his lips brings evil to pass.

31 A gray head is a crown of glory;

It is found in the way of righteousness.

32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

33 The lot is cast into the lap,

But its every decision is from the LORD.

HEBREWS 3

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Jesus Our High Priest  3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house--whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
    7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,

8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME,

AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,

9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me,

AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.

10 “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION,

AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART,

AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;

11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,

‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”

The Peril of Unbelief12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, 15 while it is said,

“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,

DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.”

16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.