Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the book of
Isaiah chapter 14 and we're also going to be
starting the book of Micah chapters 1 and 2.
From the book of Isaiah chapter 14. For the Lord
will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose
Israel and settle them in their own land. The
strangers will be joined with them and they will
cling to the house of Jacob. Then people will
take them and bring them to their place, and
the house of Israel will possess them for servants
and maids in the land of the Lord. They will
take them captive whose captives they were, and
rule over their oppressors. It shall come to
pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from
your sorrow and from your fear and the hard bondage
in which you were made to serve, that you will
take up this proverb against the king of Babylon
and say, How the oppressor has ceased, the golden
city ceased. The Lord has broken the staff of
the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. He who
struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted
and no one hinders. The whole earth is at rest
and quiet. They break forth into singing. Indeed
the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars
of Lebanon, saying, Since you were cut down,
no woodsman has come up against us. Hell from
beneath is excited about you, to meet you at
your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all
the chief ones of the earth. It has raised up
from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
They all shall speak and say to you, Have you
also become as weak as we? Have you become like
us? Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the
sound of your stringed instruments. The maggot
is spread under you, and worms cover you. How
you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of
the morning! How you are cut down to the ground!
you who weaken the nations. For you have said
in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will
also sit on the mount of the congregation on
the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down
to Sheol, to the lowest depth of the pit. Those
who see you will gaze at you and consider you
saying, Is this the man who made the earth tremble?
who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness
and destroyed its cities, who did not open the
house of his prisoners. All the kings of the
nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone
in his own house. But you are cast out of your
grave like an abominable branch, like the garment
of those who are slain, thrust through with a
sword, who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a corpse trodden underfoot. You will not
be joined with them in burial. because you have
destroyed your land and slain your people. The
brood of evildoers shall never be named. Prepare
slaughter for his children because of the iniquity
of their fathers, lest they rise up and possess
the land, and fill the face of the world with
cities. For I will rise up against them, says
the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the
name and remnant, and offspring and posterity,
says the Lord. I will also make it a possession
for the porcupine, and marches of muddy water.
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,
says the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts has
sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so it
shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so
it shall stand, that I will break the Assyrian
in my land, and on my mountains tread him underfoot.
Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and
his burden removed from their shoulders. This
is the purpose that is purposed against the whole
earth, and this is the hand that is stretched
out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts
has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand
is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
This is the burden which came in the year that
king Ahaz died. Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
because the rod that struck you is broken. For
out of the serpent's roots will come forth a
viper. and its offspring will be a fiery flying
serpent. The firstborn of the poor will feed,
and the needy will lie down in safety. I will
kill your roots with famine, and it will slay
your remnant. Wail, O gate! Cry, O city! All
you of Philistia are dissolved, for smoke will
come from the north, and no one will be alone
in his appointed times. What will they answer
the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has
founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall
take refuge. in it. The Book of Micah Chapter
1 The mountains will melt under him, and the
valleys will split, like quacks before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place. All this
is for the transgression of Jacob, and for the
sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression
of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the
high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins
in the field, places for planting a vineyard.
I will pour down her stones into the valley.
and I will uncover her foundations. All her carved
images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her
pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire.
All her idols I will lay desolate, for she gathered
it from the pay of a harlot, and they shall return
to the pay of a harlot. Therefore I will wail
and howl, I will go stripped and naked, I will
make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning
like the ostriches, for her wounds are incurable,
for it has come to Judah, It has come to the
gate of my people, to Jerusalem. Tell it not
in Gath. Weep not at all in Beit Afra. Roll yourself
in the dust. Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant
of Shafir. The inhabitant of Zanan does not go
out. Beit Ezel mourns. Its place to stand is
taken away from you. For the inhabitant of Marot
pined for good. But disaster came down from the
Lord, to the gate of Jerusalem. O inhabitant
of Lashish! Harness the chariot to the swift
steeds. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter
of Zion. For the transgressions of Israel were
found in you. Therefore you shall give presents
to Moresheth Gad. The houses of Agzeeb shall
be a lie to the kings of Israel. I will yet bring
an heir to you, O inhabitant of Maresha. The
glory of Israel shall come to Adulam. Make yourself
bald and cut off your hair, because of your precious
children. Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
for they shall go from you into captivity. Chapter
2 Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work
out evil on their beds! At morning light they
practice it, because it is in the power of their
hand. They covet fields, and take them by violence,
also houses, and seize them. So they oppress
a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, against
this family I am devising disaster, from which
you cannot remove your necks, nor shall you walk
haughtily, for this is an evil time. In that
day one shall take up a proverb against you,
and lament with a bitter lamentation, saying,
We are utterly destroyed. He has changed the
heritage of my people. how he has removed it
from me, to a turncoat he has divided our fields.
Therefore you will have no one to determine boundaries
by lot in the assembly of the Lord. Do not prattle,
you say to those who prophesy, so they shall
not prophesy to you, they shall not return insult
for insult. You who are named the house of Jacob,
is the spirit of the Lord restricted? Are these
his doings? Do not my words do good to him who
walks uprightly? Lately my people have risen
up as an enemy. You pull off the robe with the
garment from those who trust you as they pass
by, like men returned from war. The women of
my people you cast out from their pleasant houses,
from their children you have taken away my glory
forever. Arise and depart, for this is not your
rest, because it is defiled, it shall destroy.
Yes, with utter destruction, if a man should
walk in a false spirit and speak a lie, saying,
I will prophesy to you of wine and drink, even
he would be the prattler of this people. I will
surely assemble all of you, O Jacob. I will surely
gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them
together like sheep of the fold, like a flock
in the midst of their pasture. They shall make
a loud noise because of so many people. The one
who breaks open will come up before them. They
will break out, pass through the gate, and go
out by it. Their king will pass before them with
the Lord at their head. I hope you enjoyed today's
reading as much as I did, and I look forward
to seeing you again tomorrow to continue on our
journey. God bless you and have a great day.