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 25 through 27. Chapter 25 O
Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, I will
praise your name, for you have done wonderful
things. Your counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth, for you have made a city a ruin, a
fortified city a ruin. A palace of foreigners
to be a city no more. It will never be rebuilt.
Therefore the strong people will glorify you.
The city of the terrible nations will fear you.
For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength
to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the
storm, a shade from the heat. For the blast of
the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
He will reduce the noise of aliens as heat in
a dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud.
The song of the terrible ones will be diminished.
And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make
for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast
of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow,
of well -refined wines on the lees. And he will
destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering
cast over all people. and the veil that is spread
over all nations he will swallow up death forever
and the lord god will wipe away tears from all
faces the rebuke of his people he will take away
from all the earth for the lord has spoken and
it will be said in that day behold this is our
god we have waited for him and he will save us
this is the lord we have waited for him we will
be glad and rejoice in his salvation for on this
mountain the hand of the lord will rest And Moab
shall be trampled down under him, as straw is
trampled down for the refuse heap. And he will
spread out his hands in their midst as a swimmer
reaches out to swim. And he will bring down their
pride, together with the trickery of their hands,
the fortress of the high fort of your walls.
He will bring down, lay low, and bring to the
ground, down to the dust. Chapter 26 In that
day this song will be sung in the land of Judah.
We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation
for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that
the righteous nation which keeps the truth may
enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on you. Because he trusts
in you, trust in the Lord forever. For in Yah
the Lord is everlasting strength. For he brings
down those who dwell on high. The lofty city,
he lays it low. He lays it low to the ground.
He brings it down to the dust. The foot shall
tread it down, the feet of the poor and the steps
of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness.
O most upright, you weigh the path of the just.
Yes, in the way of your judgment. O Lord, we
have waited for you. The desire of our soul is
for your name and for the remembrance of you.
With my soul I have desired you in the night.
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early.
For when your judgments are in the earth, the
inhabitants of the world will learn. righteousness.
Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will
not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness
he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the
majesty of the Lord. Lord, when your hand is
lifted up, they will not see, but they will see
and be ashamed for their envy of people. Yes,
the fire of your enemies shall devour them. Lord,
you will establish peace for us, for you have
also done all our works in us. O Lord our God,
masters besides you have had dominion over us,
but by you only we make mention of your name.
They are dead, they will not live. They are deceased,
they will not rise. Therefore you have punished
and destroyed them, and made all their memory
to perish. You have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation. You are glorified,
you have expanded all the borders of the land.
Lord, in trouble they have visited you. They
poured out a prayer, when your chastening was
upon them. As a woman with child is in pain and
cries out in her pangs, when she draws near the
time of her delivery, so have we been in your
sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have
been in pain. We have, as it were, brought forth
wind. We have not accomplished any deliverance
in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the
world fallen. your dead shall live together with
my dead body they shall arise awake and sing
you who dwell in dust for your dew is like the
dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the
dead come my people enter your chambers and shut
your doors behind you hide yourself as it were
for a little moment until the indignation is
past for behold the lord comes out of his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their
iniquity the earth will also disclose her blood
and will no more cover her slain chapter twenty
seven in that day the lord with his severe sword
great and strong will punish leviathan the fleeing
serpent leviathan the twisted serpent and he
will slay the reptile that is in the sea in that
day sing to her a vineyard of red wine I, the
Lord, keep it. I water it every moment, lest
any hurt it. I keep it night and day. Fury is
not in me. Who would set briars and thorns against
me in battle? I would go through them, I would
burn them together. Or let him take hold of my
strength, that he may make peace with me, and
he shall make peace with me. Those who come,
he shall cause to take root in Jacob. Israel
shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the
world with fruit. Has he struck Israel as he
struck those who struck him? Or has he been slain
according to the slaughter of those who were
slain by him? In measure, by sending it away,
you contended with it. He removes it by his rough
wind, in the day of the east wind. Therefore
by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered.
And this is all the fruit of taking away his
sin. When he makes all the stones of the altar
like chalk stones that are beaten to dust, wooden
images and incense altars shall not stand. Yet
the fortified city will be desolate, the habitation
forsaken and left like a wilderness. There the
calf will feed, and there it will lie down and
consume its branches. When its bows are withered,
they will be broken off. The women come and set
them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding.
Therefore he who made them will not have mercy
on them, and he who formed them will show them
no favor. And it shall come to pass in that day
that the Lord will thresh from the channel of
the river to the brook of Egypt, and you will
be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.
So it shall be in that day the great trumpet
will be blown. They will come who are about to
perish in the land of Assyria. and they who are
outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship
the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. 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.