Isaiah 31-33 311 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh! 2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. 3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together. 4 For Yahweh says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so Yahweh of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights. 5 As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.” 6 Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you. 8 “The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor. 9 His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. 321 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. 2 A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land. 3 The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4 The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly. 5 The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected. 6 For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against Yahweh, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. 7 The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. 8 But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue in noble things. 9 Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech! 10 For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage will fail. The harvest won’t come. 11 Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 13 Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. 14 For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks, 15 until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest. 16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. 17 The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. 18 My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places, 19 though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely. 20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey. 331 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed, and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal, you will be betrayed. 2 Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. 3 At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered. 4 Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap. 5 Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. 6 There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure. 7 Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. 8 The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man. 9 The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare. 10 “Now I will arise,” says Yahweh. “Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted. 11 You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. 12 The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire. 13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.” 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? 15 He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil— 16 he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure. 17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land. 18 Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers? 19 You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t understand. 20 Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won’t be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. 21 But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of wide rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there. 22 For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us. 23 Your rigging is untied. They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great plunder was divided. The lame took the prey. 24 The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

Proverbs 24:11-22 2411 Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! 12 If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work? 13 My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste; 14 so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul. If you have found it, then there will be a reward: Your hope will not be cut off. 15 Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place; 16 for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity. 17 Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown, 18 lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. 19 Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked; 20 for there will be no reward to the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out. 21 My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious; 22 for their calamity will rise suddenly. Who knows what destruction may come from them both?

Luke 22:63-71 2263 The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. 64 Having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck you?” 65 They spoke many other things against him, insulting him. 66 As soon as it was day, the assembly of the elders of the people were gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away into their council, saying, 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe, 68 and if I ask, you will in no way answer me or let me go. 69 From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” 70 They all said, “Are you then the Son of God?” He said to them, “You say it, because I am.” 71 They said, “Why do we need any more witness? For we ourselves have heard from his own mouth!”

Hebrews 7:20-28 720 Inasmuch as he was not made priest without the taking of an oath 21 (for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’ ” 22 By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. 23 Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death. 24 But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. 25 Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them. 26 For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27 who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!