Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 06 September 2020

 Warm greetings on the Lord's Day.  My hope is that all who pass by here are doing well and will be doing well in the future.  My hope.  Sadly, we know that there are and will be some bumps on the road.  I know of some recent deaths in the families of those we know.  I know of at least one of my co-workers who is in a terminal state of Stage IV pancreatic cancer.  And there are others who are probably in as bad a condition but don't know it yet.  Worse, some of them we will not be seeing in Heaven, they have elected a rather different eternal destination.  That is distressing, as it should be.

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ISAIAH 13

An Oracle against Babylon

1An oracle  against Babylon  that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

2Lift up a banner on a barren mountain. 

Call out to them.

Wave your hand, and they will go

through the gates of the nobles.

3I have commanded My chosen ones;

I have also called My warriors,

who exult in My triumph,

to execute My wrath. 

4Listen, a tumult on the mountains,

like that of a mighty people!

Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,

like nations being gathered together!

The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

5They are coming from a far land,

from the distant horizon —

the Lord and the weapons of His wrath —

to destroy the whole country. 

6Wail! For the day of the Lord is near. 

It will come like destruction from the Almighty. 

7Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,

and every man’s heart will melt.

8They will be horrified;

pain and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. 

They will look at each other,

their faces flushed with fear.

9Look, the day  of the Lord is coming —

cruel, with rage and burning anger —

to make the earth a desolation

and to destroy the sinners on it. 

10Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations 

will not give their light.

The sun will be dark when it rises,

and the moon will not shine. 

11I will bring disaster on the world,

and their own iniquity,  on the wicked.

I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant 

and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

12I will make man scarcer than gold,

and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir. 

13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will shake from its foundations 

at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,

on the day of His burning anger.

14Like wandering gazelles

and like sheep without a shepherd, 

each one will turn to his own people,

each one will flee to his own land.

15Whoever is found will be stabbed,

and whoever is caught will die by the sword.

16Their children will be smashed to death before their eyes; 

their houses will be looted,

and their wives raped.

17Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them, 

who cannot be bought off with  silver

and who have no desire for gold.

18Their bows will cut young men to pieces.

They will have no compassion on little ones;

they will not look with pity on children.

19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,

the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them. 

20It will never be inhabited

or lived in from generation to generation; 

a nomad will not pitch his tent there,

and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.

21But desert creatures will lie down there,

and owls will fill the houses.

Ostriches will dwell there,

and wild goats will leap about. 

22Hyenas will howl in the fortresses,

and jackals, in the luxurious palaces.

Babylon’s time is almost up;

her days are almost over.

ISAIAH 14

Israel’s Return

1For the Lord will have compassion  on Jacob and will choose Israel again.  He will settle them on their own land.  The foreigner will join them and be united with the house of Jacob.  2The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land.  They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.

Downfall of the King of Babylon

3When the Lord gives you rest from your pain,  torment, and the hard labor  you were forced to do, 4you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon  and say:

How the oppressor has quieted down,

and how the raging  has become quiet!

5The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers.

6It struck the peoples in anger

with unceasing blows.

It subdued the nations in rage

with relentless persecution.

7All the earth is calm and at rest;

people shout with a ringing cry.

8Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon

rejoice over you: 

“Since you have been laid low,

no woodcutter has come against us.”

9Sheol below is eager to greet your coming.

He stirs up the spirits of the departed for you —

all the rulers  of the earth.

He makes all the kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

10They all respond to you, saying:

“You too have become as weak as we are;

you have become like us!

11Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol,

along with the music of your harps.

Maggots are spread out under you,

and worms cover you.”

12Shining morning star,  

how you have fallen from the heavens! 

You destroyer of nations,

you have been cut down to the ground.

13You said to yourself:

“I will ascend to the heavens; 

I will set up my throne

above the stars of God. 

I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,

in the remotest parts of the North.  

14I will ascend above the highest clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

15But you will be brought down to Sheol

into the deepest regions of the Pit. 

16Those who see you will stare at you;

they will look closely at you:

“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,

who shook the kingdoms,

17who turned the world into a wilderness, 

who destroyed its cities

and would not release the prisoners to return home? ”

18All the kings of the nations

lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.

19But you are thrown out without a grave,

like a worthless branch,

covered by those slain with the sword

and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.

20You will not join them in burial,

because you destroyed your land

and slaughtered your own people.

The offspring of evildoers

will never be remembered. 

21Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,

because of the iniquity  of their fathers.

They will never rise up to possess a land

or fill the surface of the earth with cities.

22“I will rise up against them” — this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts — “and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity” — this is the Lord’s declaration. 23“I will make her a swampland and a region for screech owls,  and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction.”

This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

Assyria Will Be Destroyed

24The Lord of Hosts has sworn:

As I have purposed, so it will be;

as I have planned it, so it will happen. 

25I will break Assyria  in My land;

I will tread him down on My mountain.

Then his yoke will be taken from them,

and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.

26This is the plan  prepared

for the whole earth,

and this is the hand stretched out

against all the nations.

27The Lord of Hosts Himself has planned it;

therefore, who can stand in its way?

It is His hand that is outstretched,

so who can turn it back?

An Oracle against Philistia

28In the year that King Ahaz died,  this oracle came: 

29Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia,

because the rod of the one who struck you  is broken.

For a viper will come from the root  of a snake,

and from its egg comes a flying serpent. 

30Then the firstborn  of the poor will be well fed,

and the impoverished will lie down in safety,

but I will kill your root with hunger,

and your remnant will be slain. 

31Wail, you gates!  Cry out, city!

Tremble with fear,  all Philistia!

For a cloud of dust is coming from the north, 

and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.

32What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?

The Lord has founded Zion, 

and His afflicted people find refuge in her.