Ezekiel 38-39 381 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords; 5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with you. 7 “ ‘ “Be prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be a guard to them. 8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought out of the peoples, and they will dwell securely, all of them. 9 You will ascend. You will come like a storm. You will be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.” 10 “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “It will happen in that day that things will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan. 11 You will say, ‘I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, 12 to take the plunder and to take prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.’ 13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions of it, will ask you, ‘Have you come to take the plunder? Have you assembled your company to take the prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’ 14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, will you not know it? 15 You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. 16 You will come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land. It will happen in the latter days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when I am sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.” 17 “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you against them? 18 It will happen in that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that my wrath will come up into my nostrils. 19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 20 so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth will shake at my presence. Then the mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, with great hailstones, fire, and sulfur. 23 I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ 391 “You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around, and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring you onto the mountains of Israel. 3 I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4 You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to be devoured. 5 You will fall on the open field; for I have spoken it,” says the Lord Yahweh. 6 “I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in the islands. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. 7 “ ‘ “I will make my holy name known among my people Israel. I won’t allow my holy name to be profaned any more. Then the nations will know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel. 8 Behold, it comes, and it will be done,” says the Lord Yahweh. “This is the day about which I have spoken. 9 “ ‘ “Those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out, and will make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs and the spears, and they will make fires with them for seven years; 10 so that they will take no wood out of the field, and not cut down any out of the forests; for they will make fires with the weapons. They will plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them,” says the Lord Yahweh. 11 “ ‘ “It will happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it will stop those who pass through. They will bury Gog and all his multitude there; and they will call it ‘The valley of Hamon Gog’. 12 “ ‘ “The house of Israel will be burying them for seven months, that they may cleanse the land. 13 Yes, all the people of the land will bury them; and they will become famous in the day that I will be glorified,” says the Lord Yahweh. 14 “ ‘ “They will set apart men of continual employment, who will pass through the land. Those who pass through will go with those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it. After the end of seven months they will search. 15 Those who pass through the land will pass through; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog. 16 Hamonah will also be the name of a city. Thus they will cleanse the land.” ’ 17 “You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, “Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat meat and drink blood. 18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 You shall eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20 You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ 21 “I will set my glory among the nations. Then all the nations will see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. 22 So the house of Israel will know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward. 23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I did to them according to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions. I hid my face from them. 25 “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Now I will reverse the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They will bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they dwell securely in their land, and no one will make them afraid, 27 when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations. 28 They will know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land. Then I will leave none of them captive any more. 29 I won’t hide my face from them any more; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

Job 14 141 “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. 2 He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue. 3 Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you? 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. 5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass; 6 Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day. 7 “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. 8 Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground, 9 yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant. 10 But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he? 11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up, 12 so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep. 13 “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me! 14 If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come. 15 You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands. 16 But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin? 17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity. 18 “But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place; 19 The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man. 20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away. 21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them. 22 But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”

John 11:17-27 1117 So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. 19 Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 20 Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. 21 Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

1 John 4:7-16 47 Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. 8 He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. 9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16 We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?