Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - Isaiah 2 (Review)

AM Devotion/Prayer

Isaiah 2 (NKJV)

Isaiah 2 (MSG)

Isaiah 2New King James Version (NKJV) The Future House of God 2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. The Day of the Lord 5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord. 6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with eastern ways; They are soothsayers like the Philistines, And they are pleased with the children of foreigners. 7 Their land is also full of silver and gold, And there is no end to their treasures; Their land is also full of horses, And there is no end to their chariots. 8 Their land is also full of idols; They worship the work of their own hands, That which their own fingers have made. 9 People bow down, And each man humbles himself; Therefore do not forgive them. 10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty. 11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, 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 come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up— And it shall be brought low— 13 Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, And upon all the oaks of Bashan; 14 Upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills that are lifted up; 15 Upon every high tower, And upon every fortified wall; 16 Upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful sloops. 17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, 18 But the idols He shall utterly abolish. 19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks, And into the caves of the earth, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily. 20 In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver And his idols of gold, Which they made, each for himself to worship, To the moles and bats, 21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, And into the crags of the rugged rocks, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily. 22 Sever yourselves from such a man, Whose breath is in his nostrils; For of what account is he?

Isaiah 2The Message (MSG) Climb God’s Mountain 2 1-5 The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem: There’s a day coming     when the mountain of God’s House Will be The Mountain—     solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it,     people from all over set out for it. They’ll say, “Come,     let’s climb God’s Mountain,     go to the House of the God of Jacob. He’ll show us the way he works     so we can live the way we’re made.” Zion’s the source of the revelation.     God’s Message comes from Jerusalem. He’ll settle things fairly between nations.     He’ll make things right between many peoples. They’ll turn their swords into shovels,     their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation;     they won’t play war anymore. Come, family of Jacob,     let’s live in the light of God. 6-9 God, you’ve walked out on your family Jacob     because their world is full of hokey religion, Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,     a world rolling in wealth, Stuffed with things,     no end to its machines and gadgets, And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes.     These people make their own gods and worship what they make. A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.     Don’t bother with them! They’re not worth forgiving! Pretentious Egos Brought Down to Earth 10 Head for the hills,     hide in the caves From the terror of God,     from his dazzling presence. 11-17 People with a big head are headed for a fall,     pretentious egos brought down a peg. It’s God alone at front-and-center     on the Day we’re talking about, The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies     is matched against all big-talking rivals,     against all swaggering big names; Against all giant sequoias     hugely towering,     and against the expansive chestnut; Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,     against the ranges of Alps and Andes; Against every soaring skyscraper,     against all proud obelisks and statues; Against ocean-going luxury liners,     against elegant three-masted schooners. The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,     the pretentious egos brought down to earth, Leaving God alone at front-and-center     on the Day we’re talking about. 18 And all those sticks and stones     dressed up to look like gods     will be gone for good. 19 Clamber into caves in the cliffs,     duck into any hole you can find. Hide from the terror of God,     from his dazzling presence, When he assumes his full stature on earth,     towering and terrifying. 20-21 On that Day men and women will take     the sticks and stones They’ve decked out in gold and silver     to look like gods and then worshiped, And they will dump them     in any ditch or gully, Then run for rock caves     and cliff hideouts To hide from the terror of God,     from his dazzling presence, When he assumes his full stature on earth,     towering and terrifying. 22 Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,     so full of themselves, so full of hot air!     Can’t you see there’s nothing to them?

Monday, November 17, 2016 - Isaiah 4/ Review Isaiah 1

AM Devotion/Prayer

Isaiah 4

Isaiah 4 NIV

Isiah 4

Isaiah 4New International Version 4 1 In that day seven women     will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food     and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name.     Take away our disgrace!” The Branch of the Lord 2 In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 3 Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit[a] of judgment and a spirit[b] of fire. 5 Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory[c] will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

Isaiah 4The Message 4 That will be the day when seven women     will gang up on one man, saying, “We’ll take care of ourselves,     get our own food and clothes. Just give us a child. Make us pregnant     so we’ll have something to live for!” God’s Branch 2-4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment. 5-6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.

Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1  The Message (MSG)

Messages of Judgment

Quit Your Worship Charades

1 The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

2-4 Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.

    Listen to God’s case:

“I had children and raised them well,

    and they turned on me.

The ox knows who’s boss,

    the mule knows the hand that feeds him,

But not Israel.

    My people don’t know up from down.

Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,

    staggering under their guilt-baggage,

Gang of miscreants,

    band of vandals—

My people have walked out on me, their God,

    turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,

    walked off and never looked back.

5-9 “Why bother even trying to do anything with you

    when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?

You keep beating your heads against brick walls.

    Everything within you protests against you.

From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,

    nothing’s working right.

Wounds and bruises and running sores—

    untended, unwashed, unbandaged.

Your country is laid waste,

    your cities burned down.

Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,

    reduced to rubble by barbarians.

Daughter Zion is deserted—

    like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,

Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,

    like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.

If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,

    we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.

10 “Listen to my Message,

    you Sodom-schooled leaders.

Receive God’s revelation,

    you Gomorrah-schooled people.

11-12 “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”

    God’s asking.

“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,

    rams and plump grain-fed calves?

Don’t you think I’ve had my fill

    of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?

When you come before me,

    whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,

Running here and there, doing this and that—

    all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?

13-17 “Quit your worship charades.

    I can’t stand your trivial religious games:

Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—

    meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!

Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!

    You’ve worn me out!

I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,

    while you go right on sinning.

When you put on your next prayer-performance,

    I’ll be looking the other way.

No matter how long or loud or often you pray,

    I’ll not be listening.

And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing

    people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.

Go home and wash up.

    Clean up your act.

Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings

    so I don’t have to look at them any longer.

Say no to wrong.

    Learn to do good.

Work for justice.

    Help the down-and-out.

Stand up for the homeless.

    Go to bat for the defenseless.

Let’s Argue This Out

18-20 “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”

    This is God’s Message:

“If your sins are blood-red,

    they’ll be snow-white.

If they’re red like crimson,

    they’ll be like wool.

If you’ll willingly obey,

    you’ll feast like kings.

But if you’re willful and stubborn,

    you’ll die like dogs.”

That’s right. God says so.

Those Who Walk Out on God

21-23 Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city

    has become a whore!

She was once all justice,

    everyone living as good neighbors,

And now they’re all

    at one another’s throats.

Your coins are all counterfeits.

    Your wine is watered down.

Your leaders are turncoats

    who keep company with crooks.

They sell themselves to the highest bidder

    and grab anything not nailed down.

They never stand up for the homeless,

    never stick up for the defenseless.

24-31 This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

    the Strong One of Israel:

“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.

    I’ll get back at my enemies.

I’ll give you the back of my hand,

    purge the junk from your life, clean you up.

I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you

    just like it was back in the beginning.

Then you’ll be renamed

    City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”

God’s right ways will put Zion right again.

    God’s right actions will restore her penitents.

But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,

    a dead end for those who walk out on God.

“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines

    will leave you looking mighty foolish,

All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens

    that you thought was the latest thing.

You’ll end up like an oak tree

    with all its leaves falling off,

Like an unwatered garden,

    withered and brown.

‘The Big Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,

    and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire

That exposes man and work both

    as nothing but cinders and smoke.”

Tuesday, Nov 1, 2016 - Isaiah 3

AM Devotion/Prayer

Isaiah 3 (MSG)

Isaiah 3 (NKJV)

Isaiah 3The Message (MSG) Jerusalem on Its Last Legs 3 1-7 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,     is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities,     plain bread and water to begin with. He’s withdrawing police and protection,     judges and courts,     pastors and teachers,     captains and generals,     doctors and nurses,     and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades. He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city.     Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. People will be at each other’s throats,     stabbing one another in the back: Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,     the no-account against the well-respected. One brother will grab another and say,     ‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders. Do something!     Get us out of this mess.’ And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue.     Don’t put me in charge of anything.’ 8-9 “Jerusalem’s on its last legs.     Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do     is at cross-purposes with God,     a slap in my face. Brazen in their depravity,     they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed;     now they’ll sleep in it. 10-11 “Reassure the righteous     that their good living will pay off. But doom to the wicked! Disaster!     Everything they did will be done to them. 12 “Skinny kids terrorize my people.     Silly girls bully them around. My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.     They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.” A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows 13-15 God enters the courtroom.     He takes his place at the bench to judge his people. God calls for order in the court,     hauls the leaders of his people into the dock: “You’ve played havoc with this country.     Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor. What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,     grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?” That’s what the Master,     God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says. 16-17 God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,     prancing around in their high heels, Making eyes at all the men in the street,     swinging their hips, Tossing their hair,     gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.” The Master will fix it so those Zion women     will all turn bald— Scabby, bald-headed women.     The Master will do it. 18-23 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design. 24 Instead of wearing seductive scents,     these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages; Instead of modeling flowing gowns,     they’ll be sporting rags; Instead of their stylish hairdos,     scruffy heads; Instead of beauty marks,     scabs and scars. 25-26 Your finest fighting men will be killed,     your soldiers left dead on the battlefield. The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted     with people mourning their dead— A city stooped under the weight of her loss,     brought to her knees by her sorrows.

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem 3 For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah The stock and the store, The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water; 2 The mighty man and the man of war, The judge and the prophet, And the diviner and the elder; 3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the skillful artisan, And the expert enchanter. 4 “I will give children to be their princes, And babes shall rule over them. 5 The people will be oppressed, Every one by another and every one by his neighbor; The child will be insolent toward the elder, And the base toward the honorable.” 6 When a man takes hold of his brother In the house of his father, saying, “You have clothing; You be our ruler, And let these ruins be under your power,”[a] 7 In that day he will protest, saying, “I cannot cure your ills, For in my house is neither food nor clothing; Do not make me a ruler of the people.” 8 For Jerusalem stumbled, And Judah is fallen, Because their tongue and their doings Are against the Lord, To provoke the eyes of His glory. 9 The look on their countenance witnesses against them, And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves. 10 “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe to 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! Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths.” Oppression and Luxury Condemned 13 The Lord stands up to plead, And stands to judge the people. 14 The Lord will enter into judgment With the elders of His people And His princes: “For you have eaten up the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the faces of the poor?” Says the Lord God of hosts. 16 Moreover the Lord says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with outstretched necks And wanton eyes, Walking and mincing as they go, Making a jingling with their feet, 17 Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, And the Lord will uncover their secret parts.” 18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery: The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents; 19 The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils; 20 The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands; The perfume boxes, the charms, 21 and the rings; The nose jewels, 22 the festal apparel, and the mantles; The outer garments, the purses, 23 and the mirrors; The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes. 24 And so it shall be: Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench; Instead of a sash, a rope; Instead of well-set hair, baldness; Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty. 25 Your men shall fall by the sword, And your mighty in the war. 26 Her gates shall lament and mourn, And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.