Today's Readings and Stuff -- Wednesday, 16 December 2020

 Midweek now.  And into the 2nd half of Decembrrrrr.  Less than a week now until the Winter Solstice.  NOT my favorite time of the year, but it is what we have.

Yesterday marked my birthday, a low-key matter to be sure.  Today, we "got" to go "watch" wife's nephew's kids, while nephew took his wife to the radiologist for the consult before the beginning of the radiation treatments for her aggressive breast cancer.  The one kid is 14, the other is 9.  Stuck in the "virtual learning" school mode.  We helped a little bit, mostly just made sure they stayed on track and did their work.  We may be called upon to do it again on Friday.  Maybe.  And they told her today that when the radiation treatments begin, it will be an every day procedure, a change from the every-three-days schedule when Dear Wife had the thyroid cancer ordeal many years ago, like more than 20 years.  So we may get "volunteered" to step in for that period also.

Snow fell today, still is.  More tonight and tomorrow as well, and perhaps more on Friday.  We shall see.  Wife has a prescription waiting over Across The Line at our pharmacy, they notified her of it this afternoon.  She'll need it on Saturday, so I'll be watching the weather and the roads.  We shall see.  Next-door nephew-in-law is planning to grab our car in the morning.  He bought some used-but-in-good-condition tires for us, and is planning to swap them -- the rear ones anyway -- tomorrow.  Since we bought these tires, all four, in early 2014, I can't gripe about them, but they're getting a bit "smooth" for use on ice and snow.  So we're grateful.

As we can see, the world is in an uproar, and my belief is that it will be getting worse.  LOTS worse.  Hence, today's song:  Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult.  True, and worth hanging on to.

=================================

MICAH 1

1The word of the Lord that came  to Micah  the Moreshite  — what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham,  Ahaz,  and Hezekiah,  kings of Judah.

Coming Judgment on Israel

2Listen, all you peoples; 

pay attention, earth  and everyone in it! 

The Lord God will be a witness against you, 

the Lord, from His holy temple. 

3Look, the Lord is leaving His place 

and coming down to trample

the heights  of the earth. 

4The mountains will melt beneath Him,

and the valleys will split apart,

like wax near a fire, 

like water cascading down a mountainside.

5All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion

and the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the rebellion of Jacob?

Isn’t it Samaria? 

And what is the high place of Judah? 

Isn’t it Jerusalem?

6Therefore, I will make Samaria

a heap of ruins  in the countryside,

a planting area  for a vineyard.

I will roll her stones  into the valley

and expose her foundations. 

7All her carved images will be smashed  to pieces;

all her wages  will be burned in the fire,

and I will destroy all her idols.

Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, 

they will be used again for a prostitute.

Micah’s Lament

8Because of this I will lament and wail;

I will walk barefoot and naked. 

I will howl like the jackals 

and mourn like ostriches. 

9For her wound is incurable 

and has reached even Judah; 

it has approached the gate of my people, 

as far as Jerusalem.

10Don’t announce it in Gath, 

don’t weep at all.

Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.

11Depart in shameful nakedness, 

you residents of Shaphir;

the residents of Zaanan  will not come out.

Beth-ezel is lamenting;

its support  is taken from you.

12Though the residents of Maroth

anxiously wait for something good, 

disaster has come from the Lord 

to the gate of Jerusalem.

13Harness the horses to the chariot,

you residents of Lachish. 

This was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion,

because Israel’s acts of rebellion  can be traced to you.

14Therefore, send farewell gifts  to Moresheth-gath;

the houses of Achzib  are a deception 

to the kings of Israel.

15I will again bring a conqueror

against you who live in Mareshah. 

The nobility  of Israel will come to Adullam. 

16Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair 

in sorrow for your precious children;

make yourselves as bald as an eagle,

for they have been taken from you into exile. 

MICAH 2

Oppressors Judged

1Woe to those who dream up wickedness

and prepare evil plans  on their beds!

At morning light  they accomplish it

because the power is in their hands. 

2They covet fields  and seize them; 

they also take houses.

They deprive a man of his home, 

a person of his inheritance. 

3Therefore, the Lord says:

I am now planning  a disaster

against this nation; 

you cannot free your necks from it. 

Then you will not walk so proudly 

because it will be an evil time. 

4In that day one will take up  a taunt against you,

and lament mournfully,  saying,

“We are totally ruined! 

He measures out the allotted land of my people.

How He removes it from me!

He allots our fields  to traitors.”

5Therefore, there will be no one

in the assembly of the Lord

to divide the land by casting lots.  

God’s Word Rejected

6“Quit your preaching,”  they  preach.

“They should not preach these things; 

shame will not overtake us.”  

7House of Jacob, should it be asked,

“Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient? 

Are these the things He does? ”

Don’t My words bring good 

to the one who walks uprightly? 

8But recently My people have risen up

like an enemy: 

You strip off the splendid robe 

from those who are passing through confidently, 

like those returning from war.

9You force  the women of My people

out of their comfortable homes,

and you take My blessing  

from their children forever.

10Get up and leave,

for this is not your place of rest, 

because defilement  brings destruction —

a grievous destruction! 

11If a man of wind  comes

and invents lies: 

“I will preach to you about wine and beer,” 

he would be just the preacher for this people! 

The Remnant Regathered

12I will indeed gather  all of you, Jacob;

I will collect the remnant of Israel. 

I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,

like a flock in the middle of its fold.

It will be noisy with people. 

13One who breaks open the way

will advance before them;

they will break out, pass through the gate,

and leave by it.

Their King will pass through before them,

the Lord as their leader.

==========================

REVELATION 13

The Beast from the Sea

1And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea.  He  had 10 horns and seven heads. On his horns were 10 diadems,  and on his heads were blasphemous names.   2The beast I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like a bear’s, and his mouth was like a lion’s mouth.  The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3One of his heads appeared to be fatally wounded,  but his fatal wound was healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast.   4They worshiped the dragon  because he gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast?  Who is able to wage war against him? ”

5A mouth was given to him to speak boasts and blasphemies.  He was also given authority to act   for 42 months.  6He began to speak  blasphemies against God: to blaspheme His name and His dwelling — those who dwell in heaven. 7And he was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them.  He was also given authority  over every tribe, people, language, and nation.  8All those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book  of life  of the Lamb who was slaughtered.  

9If anyone has an ear, he should listen: 

10If anyone is destined for captivity,

into captivity he goes.

If anyone is to be killed  with a sword,

with a sword he will be killed. 

This demands the perseverance  and faith of the saints. 

The Beast from the Earth

11Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; he had two horns like a lamb,   but he sounded like a dragon. 12He exercises all the authority of the first beast on his behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13He also performs great signs,  even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people.  14He deceives those who live on the earth  because of the signs that he is permitted to perform on behalf of the beast,  telling those who live on the earth to make an image  of the beast who had the sword wound and yet lived. 15He was permitted to give a spirit  to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.  16And he requires everyone — small and great, rich and poor, free and slave — to be given a mark  on his right hand or on his forehead,  17so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of his name.

18Here is wisdom:   The one who has understanding must calculate  the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man.  His number is 666.