Bible Reading Plan – Day 178

₁When King Ahaz, the son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, ruled Judah, war broke out. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, attacked Jerusalem, but were unable to capture it.

₂When word reached the king of Judah that the armies of Syria were already in the territory of Israel, he and all his people were so terrified that they trembled like trees shaking in the wind.

₃The LORD said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear Jashub, and go to meet King Ahaz. You will find him on the road where the cloth makers work, at the end of the ditch that brings water from the upper pool. ₄Tell him to keep alert, to stay calm, and not to be frightened or disturbed. The anger of King Rezin and his Syrians and of King Pekah is no more dangerous than the smoke from two smouldering sticks. ₅Syria, together with Israel and its king, has made a plot. ₆They intend to invade Judah, terrify the people into joining their side, and then put Tabeel's son on the throne.

₇“But I, the LORD, declare that this will never happen. ₈Why? Because Syria is no stronger than Damascus, its capital city, and Damascus is no stronger than King Rezin. As for Israel, within 65 years it will be too shattered to survive as a nation. ₉Israel is no stronger than Samaria, its capital city, and Samaria is no stronger than King Pekah.

“If your faith is not enduring, you will not endure.”

₁₀The LORD sent another message to Ahaz: ₁₁“Ask the LORD your God to give you a sign. It can be from deep in the world of the dead or from high up in heaven.”

₁₂Ahaz answered, “I will not ask for a sign. I refuse to put the LORD to the test.”

₁₃To that Isaiah replied, “Listen, now, descendants of King David. It's bad enough for you to wear out the patience of people — must you wear out God's patience too? ₁₄Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman who is pregnant will have a son and will name him ‘Immanuel.’ ₁₅By the time he is old enough to make his own decisions, people will be drinking milk and eating honey. ₁₆Even before that time comes, the lands of those two kings who terrify you will be deserted.

₁₇“The LORD is going to bring on you, on your people, and on the whole royal family, days of trouble worse than any that have come since the kingdom of Israel separated from Judah — he is going to bring the king of Assyria.

₁₈“When that time comes, the LORD will whistle as a signal for the Egyptians to come like flies from the farthest branches of the Nile, and for the Assyrians to come from their land like bees. ₁₉They will swarm in the rugged valleys and in the caves in the rocks, and they will cover every thorn bush and every pasture.

₂₀“When that time comes, the Lord will hire a barber from across the Euphrates — the emperor of Assyria! — and he will shave off your beards, and the hair on your heads and your bodies.

₂₁“When that time comes, even if a farmer has been able to save only one young cow and two goats, ₂₂they will give so much milk that he will have all he needs. Yes, the few survivors left in the land will have milk and honey to eat.

₂₃“When that time comes, the fine vineyards, each with a thousand vines and each worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be overgrown with thorn bushes and briars. ₂₄People will go hunting there with bows and arrows. Yes, the whole country will be full of briars and thorn bushes. ₂₅All the hills where crops used to grow will be so overgrown with thorns that no one will go there. It will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.”

₁The LORD said to me, “Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: ‘Quick Loot, Fast Plunder’. ₂Get two reliable men, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to serve as witnesses.”

₃Some time later my wife became pregnant. When our son was born, the LORD said to me, “Name him ‘Quick-Loot-Fast-Plunder’. ₄Before the boy is old enough to say ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’, all the wealth of Damascus and all the loot of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

₅The LORD spoke to me again. ₆He said, “Because these people have rejected the quiet waters from the brook of Shiloah, and tremble before King Rezin and King Pekah, ₇I, the Lord, will bring the emperor of Assyria and all his forces to attack Judah. They will advance like the flood waters of the River Euphrates, overflowing all its banks. ₈They will sweep through Judah in a flood, rising shoulder high and covering everything.”

God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land.

₉Gather together in fear, you nations! Listen, you distant parts of the earth. Get ready to fight, but be afraid! Yes, get ready, but be afraid! ₁₀Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk as much as you like! But it is all useless, because God is with us.

₁₁With his great power the LORD warned me not to follow the path which the people were following. He said, ₁₂“Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear. ₁₃Remember that I, the LORD Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear. ₁₄Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem. ₁₅Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap.”

₁₆You, my disciples are to guard and preserve the messages that God has given me. ₁₇The LORD has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.

₁₈Here I am with the children the LORD has given me. The LORD Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.

₁₉But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortune tellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, “After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.”

₂₀You are to answer them, “Listen to what the LORD is teaching you! Don't listen to mediums — what they tell you cannot keep trouble away.”

₂₁The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky ₂₂or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honour to this region, from the Mediterranean eastwards to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.

₈The Lord has pronounced judgement on the kingdom of Israel, on the descendants of Jacob. ₉All the people of Israel, everyone who lives in the city of Samaria, will know that he has done this. Now they are proud and arrogant. They say, ₁₀“The brick buildings have fallen down, but we will replace them with stone buildings. The beams of sycomore wood have been cut down, but we will replace them with the finest cedar.”

₁₁The LORD has stirred up their enemies to attack them. ₁₂Syria on the east and Philistia on the west have opened their mouths to devour Israel. Yet even so the LORD's anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

₁₃The people of Israel have not repented; even though the LORD Almighty has punished them, they have not returned to him. ₁₄In a single day the LORD will punish Israel's leaders and its people; he will cut them off, head and tail. ₁₅The old and honourable men are the head — and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies! ₁₆Those who lead these people have misled them and totally confused them. ₁₇And so the Lord will not let any of the young men escape, and he will not show pity to any of the widows and orphans, because all the people are godless and wicked and everything they say is evil. Yet even so the LORD's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

₁₈The wickedness of the people burns like a fire that destroys thorn bushes and thistles. It burns like a forest fire that sends up columns of smoke. ₁₉Because the LORD Almighty is angry, his punishment burns like a fire throughout the land and destroys the people, and it is everyone for himself. ₂₀Everywhere in the country people snatch and eat any bit of food they can find, but their hunger is never satisfied. They even eat their own children! ₂₁The people of Manasseh and the people of Ephraim attack each other, and together they attack Judah. Yet even so the LORD's anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

₁You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people. ₂That is how you prevent the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans. ₃What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth? ₄You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners. Yet even so the LORD's anger will not be ended; his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

₅The LORD said, “Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry. ₆I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample on the people like dirt in the streets.”

₇But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations. ₈He boasts, “Every one of my commanders is a king! ₉I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus. ₁₀I stretched out my hand to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria. ₁₁I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshipped there.”

₁₂But the Lord says, “When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride.”

₁₃The emperor of Assyria boasts, “I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled on the people who live there. ₁₄The nations of the world were like a bird's nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!”

₁₅But the LORD says, “Can an axe claim to be greater than the man who uses it? Is a saw more important than the man who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a man; a man lifts up a club.”

₁₆The LORD Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns. ₁₇God, the light of Israel, will become a fire. Israel's holy God will become a flame, which in a single day will burn up everything, even the thorns and thistles. ₁₈The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys a person. ₁₉There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.