Week 34, Day 5 in the LEB

Aug 23, 2024

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The reading for today is Isaiah 20-22; 1 Corinthians 2.

Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.

Isaiah 20

In the year the commander-in-chief came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and he took it, at that time, Yahweh had spoken by the hand of Isaiah son of Amoz, saying,

"Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins,
    and take off your sandals from your feet,"

and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.

Then Yahweh said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks, the shame of Egypt.

And they shall be dismayed,
    and they shall be ashamed
because of Cush, their hope,
    and because of Egypt, their pride.

And the inhabitant of the coastland will say this on that day:

‘Look! This is our hope to whom we fled for help, to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape?’"

Isaiah 21

The oracle of the wilderness of the sea:

As storm winds passing over in the Negev,

it comes from the desert,
    from a frightful land.

A hard revelation is told to me;

the treacherous deals treacherously,
    and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam;
    lay siege, Media!

I put an end to all of her sighing.

Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
    pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth.
I am too bent to hear,
    I am too dismayed to see.
My mind staggers; fear terrifies me;
    the twilight I desired brought me fear.
Set out the table in order!
    Spread out the rugs!
    Eat! drink!
Rise up, commanders;
    smear the shield!

For the Lord said this to me:

"Go, set a watchman in position.
    He must announce what he sees.
When he sees riders,
    a pair of horsemen,
riders of donkeys,
    riders of camels,
then he must listen attentively,
    paying attention, paying special attention."

Then the watchman called,

"Lord, I am standing on the watchtower continually by day,
    and I am standing at my post throughout the night.
And look at this! A man’s a chariot is coming,
    a pair of horsemen!"

Then he responded and said,

"It has fallen! Babylon has fallen!
    And all the images of her gods are smashed on the ground!"
My downtrodden people
    and the son of my threshing floor,

I will announce to you what I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel.

The oracle of Dumah:

One is calling to me from Seir,

"Watchman, what of the night?
    Watchman, what of the night?"

The watchman says,

"Morning comes,
    and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
    come back again."

An oracle concerning Arabia:

You will spend the night in the thicket in a desert-plateau,
    caravans of Dedanites.
When you happen to meet the thirsty, bring water.
    Inhabitants of the land of Tema came to meet the fugitive with his bread.
For they have fled from the swords,
    from the drawn sword and the bent bow,
    and from the heaviness of the battle.

For the Lord said this to me:

"In one more year, like the years of a hired worker,

all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
    And the remainder of the number of the bows of the warriors of the sons of Kedar will be few."

For Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.

Isaiah 22

The oracle of the valley of vision:

What business do you have going up, all of you, to the roofs,

noisy, tumultuous city,
    exultant town?
Your slain are not slain by the sword,
    nor are they dead from battle.
All of your rulers have fled together without a bow;
    all of you who were found were captured.
They were captured together;
    they had fled far away.

Therefore I said,

"Look away from me,
    let me weep bitterly;
you must not insist on comforting me
    for the destruction of the daughter of my people."
For the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision,
    a tearing down of walls and a cry for help to the mountains.
And Elam lifted up the quiver,
        with chariots of men and cavalry.
    And Kir uncovered the shield.

And this happened:

the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots,
    and the cavalry confidently stood at the gate.
        And he uncovered the covering of Judah.
And you looked, on that day, to the weapons of the House of the Forest,
    and you saw that the breaches in the walls of the city of David were many,
        and you gathered the waters of the lower pool.
And you counted the houses of Jerusalem,
    and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
        And you made a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the old pool,
but you did not look to its maker,
    and you did not see the one who created it long ago.

And the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, called on that day

for weeping and mourning,
    and for baldness and girding with sackcloth.
But look! Joy and gladness,
    the killing of oxen and the slaughtering of sheep,
the eating of meat and the drinking of wine!
    "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

And it was revealed in my ears by Yahweh of hosts:

"Surely this sin will not be atoned for you until you die!"
    says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

The Lord, Yahweh of hosts, says this:

"Go! Go to this steward, to Shebna,
    who is over the house:
‘What business do you have here,
    and who do you have here,
that you have cut a grave cutting here for yourself,
    carving his grave on the height,
    a dwelling place for him in the rock?
Look! Yahweh is about to really hurl you, man!
    And he is about to grasp you firmly;
        he will wind a winding tightly around you like a ball, to a wide land.
There you shall die,
    and there the chariots of your splendor will be,
        disgrace to your master’s house!
And I will push you from your office,
    and he will throw you down from your position.

And this shall happen:

On that day I will call to my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
    and I will clothe him with your tunic,
and I will bind your sash firmly about him,
    and I will put your authority into his hand,
and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and to the house of Judah.
And I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder,
    and he shall open and no one will be able to shut;
    and he shall shut and no one will be able to open.
And I will drive him in like a peg into a secure place,
    and he will become like a throne of glory to the house of his father.
And they will hang all of the heaviness of his father’s house on him,
    the offspring and the offshoot,
all of the small vessels,
    from the bowls to the jars.

On that day, declares Yahweh of hosts, the peg that was driven will move away into a secure place, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on her will be cut off. For Yahweh has spoken.’"

1 Corinthians 2

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling, and my speech and my preaching were not with the persuasiveness of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, in order that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but wisdom not of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing, but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it is written,

"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
    and have not entered into the heart of man,
all that God has prepared for those who love him."

For to us God has revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him? Thus also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order that we may know the things freely given to us by God, things which we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. Now the spiritual person discerns all things, but he himself is judged by no one. "For who has known the mind of the Lord; who has advised him?" But we have the mind of Christ.