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, chapters 22 and 30 through 32. Chapter
22 The Burden Against the Valley of Vision What
ails you now that you have all gone up to the
housetops? You who are full of noise, a tumultuous
city, a joyous city. Your slain men are not slain
with a sword, nor dead in battle. All your rulers
have fled together. They are captured by the
archers. All who are found in you are bound together.
They have fled from afar. Therefore I said, Look
away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not labor
to comfort me because of the plundering of the
daughter of my people. For it is a day of trouble
and treading down and perplexity by the Lord
God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking
down the walls, and of crying to the mountain.
Elam bore the quiver. with chariots of men and
horsemen, and care, uncover the shield. It shall
come to pass that your choicest valleys shall
be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set
themselves in array at the gate. He removed the
protection of Judah. He looked in that day to
the armor of the house of the forest. You also
saw the damage to the city of David, that it
was great, and you gathered together the waters
of the lower pool. You numbered the houses of
Jerusalem, and the houses you broke down. to
fortify the wall, you also made a reservoir between
the two walls, for the water of the old pool,
but you did not look to its maker, nor did you
have respect for him who fashioned it long ago.
And in that day the Lord God of hosts called
for weeping and for mourning, for baldness and
for girding with sackcloth, but instead joy and
gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating
meat and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die. Then it was revealed in
my hearing by the Lord of hosts, Surely for this
iniquity there will be no atonement for you,
even to your death, says the Lord God of hosts.
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, Go, proceed
to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house,
and say, What have you here, and whom have you
here, that you have hewn a sepulchre here, as
he who hews himself a sepulchre on high, who
carves a tomb for himself in a rock? Indeed,
the Lord will throw you away violently, O mighty
man, and will surely seize you. He will surely
turn violently and toss you like a ball into
a large country, that you shall die, and there
your glorious chariots shall be the shame of
your master's house. So I will drive you out
of your office, and from your position he will
pull you down. Then it shall be in that day that
I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.
I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen
him with your belt. I will commit your responsibility
into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. The key
of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder,
so he will open and no one shall shut, and he
shall shut and no one shall open. I will fasten
him as a peg in a secure place, and he will become
a glorious throne to his father's house. they
will hang on him all the glory of his father's
house the offspring and the posterity all vessels
of small quantity from the cups to all the pitchers
in that day says the lord of hosts the peg that
is fastened in the secure place will be removed
and be cut down and fall and the burden that
was on it will be cut off for the lord has spoken
chapter thirty woe to the rebellious children
says the lord who take counsel but not of me
and who devise plans but not of my spirit, that
they may add sin to sin, who walk to go down
to Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen
themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to
trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore the strength
of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and trust in
the shadow of Egypt shall be your humiliation.
For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors
came to Haines. they were all ashamed of a people
who could not benefit them or be help or benefit
but a shame and also a reproach the burden against
the beasts of the south through a land of trouble
and anguish from which came the lioness and lion
the viper and fiery flying serpent they will
carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels to
a people who shall not profit for the egyptians
shall help in vain and to no purpose Therefore
I have called her Rahab Haim Shebeth. Now go,
write it before them on a tablet, and note it
on a scroll, that it may be for time to come
forever and ever, that this is a rebellious people,
lying children, children who will not hear the
law of the Lord, who say to the seers, Do not
see, and to the prophets, Do not prophesy to
us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy
deceits, get out of the way, turn aside from
the path. caused the Holy One of Israel to cease
from before us. Therefore thus says the Holy
One of Israel, Because you despise this word,
and trust in oppression and perversity, and rely
on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to
you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a
high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an
instant. And he shall break it like the breaking
of the potter's vessel, which is broken in pieces.
He shall not spare. So there shall not be found
among its fragments a shard to take fire from
the heath, or to take water from the cistern.
For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
In returning and rest you shall be saved. In
quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
But you would not. And you said, No, for we will
flee on horses. Therefore you shall flee. And
we will ride on swift horses. Therefore those
who pursue you shall be swift. One thousand shall
flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five
you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on
top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill.
Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious
to you, and therefore he will be exalted that
he may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God
of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for
him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem.
You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious
to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears
it, he will answer you. And though the Lord gives
you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner
anymore. But your eyes shall see your teachers.
Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying,
This is the way, walk in it. Whenever you turn
to the right hand or whenever you turn to the
left, you will also defile the covering of your
images of silver and the ornament of your molded
images of gold. You will throw them away as an
unclean thing. you shall say to them, Get away.
Then he will give the rain for your seed, with
which you sow the ground, and bread of the increase
of the earth. It will be fat and plentiful. In
that day your cattle will feed in large pastures.
Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that
work the ground will eat cured fodder, which
have been winnowed with a shovel and fan. There
will be on every high mountain and on every high
hill rivers and streams of waters. in the day
of the great slaughter when the towers fall moreover
the light of the moon will be as the light of
the sun and the light of the sun will be sevenfold
as the light of seven days in the day that the
lord binds up the bruise of his people and heals
the stroke of their wound behold the name of
the lord comes from afar burning with his anger
and his burden is heavy his lips are full of
indignation and his tongue like a devouring fire
His breath is like an overflowing stream which
reaches up to the neck to sift the nations with
the sieve of futility and there shall be a brittle
in the jaws of the people causing them to err.
You shall have a song as in the night when a
holy festival is kept and gladness of heart as
when one goes with a flute to come into the mountain
of the Lord to the mighty one of Israel. The
Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard
and show the descent of his arm with the indignation
of his anger. and the flame of a devouring fire
with scattering tempest and hailstones for through
the voice of the lord assyria will be beaten
down as he strikes with the rod and in every
place where the staff of punishment passes which
the lord lays on him it will be with tambourines
and harps and in battles of brandishing he will
fight with it for tophet was established of old
yes for the king it is prepared he has made it
deep and large Its pyre is fire with much wood.
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
kindles it. Chapter 31 Woe to those who go down
to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust
in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen
because they are very strong, but who do not
look to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord.
Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster.
and will not call back his words, but will arise
against the house of evildoers and against the
help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians
are men and not God, and their horses are flesh
and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his
hand, both he who helps will fall and he who
is helped will fall down. They all will perish
together. For thus the Lord has spoken to me.
As a lion roars and a young lion over his prey,
when a multitude of shepherds is summoned against
him, Sin. Sin. which your own hands have made
for yourselves then assyria shall fall by a sword
not of man and a sword not of mankind shall devour
him but he shall flee from the sword and his
young men shall become forced labor he shall
cross over to his stronghold for fear and his
princes shall be afraid of the banner says the
lord whose fire is in zion and whose furnace
is in jerusalem chapter 32 behold a king will
reign in righteousness and princes will rule
with justice A man will be as a hiding place
from the wind, and a cover from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow
of a great rock in a weary land. The eyes of
those who see will not be dim, and the ears of
those who hear will listen. Also the heart of
the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue
of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
The foolish person will no longer be called generous,
nor the miser said to be bountiful. for the foolish
person will speak foolishness, and his heart
will work iniquity, to practice ungodliness,
to utter error against the Lord, to keep the
hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink
of the thirsty to fail. Also the schemes of the
schemer are evil. He devises wicked plans, to
destroy the poor with lying words, even when
the needy speaks justice. But a generous man
devises generous things, and by generosity he
shall stand. rise up you women who are at ease
hear my voice you complacent daughters give ear
to my speech in a year and some days you will
be troubled you complacent women for the vintage
will fail the gathering will not come tremble
you women who are at ease be troubled you complacent
ones strip yourselves make yourselves bare and
gird sackcloth on your waists people shall mourn
upon their breasts for the pleasant fields for
the fruitful vine On the land of my people will
come up thorns and briars, yes, on all the happy
homes in the joyous city, because the palaces
will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted,
the forts and towers will become lairs forever,
a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks, until
the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and
the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and
a fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then
justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness
remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness
will be peace, and the effect of righteousness
quietness and assurance forever. My people will
dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings,
and in quiet resting places. Though hail comes
down on the forest, and the city is brought low
in humiliation, blessed are you who sow beside
all waters, who send out freely the feet of the
ox and the donkey. 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.