The Berean Pursuit
"Woe to the rebellious children,"
declares the LORD,
"to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,
who form an alliance, but against My will,
heaping up sin upon sin.
They set out to go down to Egypt
without asking My advice,
to seek shelter under Pharaoh's protection
and take refuge in Egypt's shade.
But Pharaoh's protection will become your shame,
and the refuge of Egypt's shade your disgrace.
For though their princes are at Zoan
and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
everyone will be put to shame
because of a people useless to them.
They cannot be of help;
they are good for nothing but shame and reproach."
This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev:
Through a land of hardship and distress,
of lioness and lion,
of viper and flying serpent,
they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people of no profit to them.
Egypt's help is futile and empty;
therefore I have called her
Rahab Who Sits Still.
Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence
and inscribe it on a scroll;
it will be for the days to come,
a witness forever and ever.
These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to obey the LORD's instruction.
They say to the seers,
"Stop seeing visions!"
and to the prophets,
"Do not prophesy to us the truth!
Speak to us pleasant words;
prophesy illusions.
Get out of the way; turn off the road.
Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!"
Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
"Because you have rejected this message,
trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,
this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,
a bulge in a high wall,
whose collapse will come suddenly-
in an instant!
It will break in pieces like a potter's jar,
shattered so that no fragment can be found.
Not a shard will be found in the dust
large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth
or to skim the water from a cistern."
For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:
"By repentance and rest
you would be saved;
your strength would lie in quiet confidence-
but you were not willing."
"No," you say, "we will flee on horses."
Therefore you will flee!
"We will ride swift horses,"
but your pursuers will be faster.
A thousand will flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you will all flee,
until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.
Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
therefore He rises to show you compassion,
for the LORD is a just God.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.
O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself-with your own eyes you will see Him.
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: "This is the way. Walk in it." So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, "Be gone!"
Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall. The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter-like the light of seven days-on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.
Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense smoke.
His lips are full of fury,
and His tongue is like a consuming fire.
His breath is like a rushing torrent
that rises to the neck.
He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;
He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.
You will sing
as on the night of a holy festival,
and your heart will rejoice
like one who walks to the music of a flute,
going up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the Rock of Israel.
And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard
and His mighty arm to be revealed,
striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,
and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD;
He will strike them with His scepter.
And with every stroke of the rod of punishment
that the LORD brings down on them,
the tambourines and lyres will sound
as He battles with weapons brandished.
For Topheth has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,
with plenty of fire and wood.
The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
who trust in their abundance of chariots
and in their multitude of horsemen.
They do not look to the Holy One of Israel;
they do not seek the LORD.
Yet He too is wise and brings disaster;
He does not call back His words.
He will rise up against the house of the wicked
and against the allies of evildoers.
But the Egyptians are men, not God;
their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out His hand,
the helper will stumble,
and the one he helps will fall;
both will perish together.
For this is what the LORD has said to me:
"Like a lion roaring
or a young lion over its prey-
and though a band of shepherds is called out against it,
it is not terrified by their shouting
or subdued by their clamor-
so the LORD of Hosts will come down
to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.
Like birds hovering overhead,
so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem.
He will shield it and deliver it;
He will pass over it and preserve it."
Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel. For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.
"Then Assyria will fall,
but not by the sword of man;
a sword will devour them,
but not one made by mortals.
They will flee before the sword,
and their young men will be put to forced labor.
Their rock will pass away for fear,
and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,"
declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule with justice.
Each will be like a shelter from the wind,
a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry land,
like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.
Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
The mind of the rash will know and understand,
and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently.
No longer will a fool be called noble,
nor a scoundrel be respected.
For a fool speaks foolishness;
his mind plots iniquity.
He practices ungodliness
and speaks falsely about the LORD;
he leaves the hungry empty
and deprives the thirsty of drink.
The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive;
he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies,
even when the plea of the needy is just.
But a noble man makes honorable plans;
he stands up for worthy causes.
Stand up, you complacent women;
listen to me.
Give ear to my word,
you overconfident daughters.
In a little more than a year you will tremble,
O secure ones.
For the grape harvest will fail
and the fruit harvest will not arrive.
Shudder, you ladies of leisure;
tremble, you daughters of complacency.
Strip yourselves bare
and put sackcloth around your waists.
Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vines,
and for the land of my people,
overgrown with thorns and briers-
even for every house of merriment
in this city of revelry.
For the palace will be forsaken,
the busy city abandoned.
The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever-
the delight of wild donkeys
and a pasture for flocks-
until the Spirit is poured out
upon us from on high.
Then the desert will be an orchard,
and the orchard will seem like a forest.
Then justice will inhabit the wilderness,
and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.
The work of righteousness will be peace;
the service of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.
Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place,
in safe and secure places of rest.
But hail will level the forest,
and the city will sink to the depths.
Blessed are those who sow beside abundant waters,
who let the ox and donkey range freely.