Today's Readings -- 24 September 2010

a happy Friday to all to whom these presents shall come. Welcome.
We have been topsy-turvey around here lately. Apologies. We've had a variety of problems, computer ones being prominent among them. We're trying to get things back in order but it will be a bit messy for a while. Pardon our dust.

This morning's reading is chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Isaiah. You want prophecy? We got prophecy.

Isaiah 1

1	The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2	Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3	The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4	Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5	Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6	From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7	Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8	And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9	Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10	Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11	To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12	When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13	Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14	Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15	And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16	Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17	Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18	Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19	If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20	But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
21	How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
22	Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
23	Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
24	Therefore saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
25	And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
26	And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
27	Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.
28	And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
29	For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
30	For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
31	And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

Isaiah 2

	The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2	And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3	And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4	And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5	O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
6	Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
7	Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
8	Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
9	And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
10	Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
11	The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
12	For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13	And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14	And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15	And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
16	And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
17	And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
18	And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
19	And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
20	In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
21	To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
22	Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of ?

Isaiah 3

1	For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.
2	The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
3	The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
4	And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
5	And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
6	When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:
7	In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
8	For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9	The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
10	Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11	Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12	As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
13	The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
14	The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15	What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
16	Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
17	Therefore the LORD will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.
18	In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,
19	The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
20	The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,
21	The rings, and nose jewels,
22	The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,
23	The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
24	And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
25	Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
26	And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

This evening's reading is chapter 2 of the Epistle to the Galatians. Martin Luther found much of his doctrine in Galatians. You'll see

Galatians 2

1	Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.
2	And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
3	But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:
4	And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
5	To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
6	But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:
7	But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;
8	(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)
9	And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
10	Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
11	But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
12	For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
13	And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
14	But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
15	We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16	Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17	But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18	For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19	For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20	I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21	I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.