September 28: Isaiah 2–4; Hebrews 3:7–4:13; Psalm 82; Proverbs 24:17–18

Old Testament: Isaiah 2–4 Isaiah 2–4 (Listen) The Mountain of the Lord 2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2   It shall come to pass in the latter days    that the mountain of the house of the LORD  shall be established as the highest of the mountains,    and shall be lifted up above the hills;  and all the nations shall flow to it,3     and many peoples shall come, and say:  “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,    to the house of the God of Jacob,  that he may teach us his ways    and that we may walk in his paths.”  For out of Zion shall go forth the law,1    and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.4   He shall judge between the nations,    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;  and 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. 5   O house of Jacob,    come, let us walk    in the light of the LORD. The Day of the Lord 6   For you have rejected your people,    the house of Jacob,  because they are full of things from the east    and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,    and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.7   Their land is filled with silver and gold,    and there is no end to their treasures;  their land is filled with horses,    and there is no end to their chariots.8   Their land is filled with idols;    they bow down to the work of their hands,    to what their own fingers have made.9   So man is humbled,    and each one is brought low—    do not forgive them!10   Enter into the rock    and hide in the dust  from before the terror of the LORD,    and from the splendor of his majesty.11   The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,    and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,  and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. 12   For the LORD of hosts has a day    against all that is proud and lofty,    against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;13   against all the cedars of Lebanon,    lofty and lifted up;    and against all the oaks of Bashan;14   against all the lofty mountains,    and against all the uplifted hills;15   against every high tower,    and against every fortified wall;16   against all the ships of Tarshish,    and against all the beautiful craft.17   And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,    and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,    and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.18   And the idols shall utterly pass away.19   And people shall enter the caves of the rocks    and the holes of the ground,2  from before the terror of the LORD,    and from the splendor of his majesty,    when he rises to terrify the earth. 20   In that day mankind will cast away    their idols of silver and their idols of gold,  which they made for themselves to worship,    to the moles and to the bats,21   to enter the caverns of the rocks    and the clefts of the cliffs,  from before the terror of the LORD,    and from the splendor of his majesty,    when he rises to terrify the earth.22   Stop regarding man    in whose nostrils is breath,    for of what account is he? Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem 3   For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts    is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah  support and supply,3    all support of bread,    and all support of water;2   the mighty man and the soldier,    the judge and the prophet,    the diviner and the elder,3   the captain of fifty    and the man of rank,  the counselor and the skillful magician    and the expert in charms.4   And I will make boys their princes,    and infants4 shall rule over them.5   And the people will oppress one another,    every one his fellow    and every one his neighbor;  the youth will be insolent to the elder,    and the despised to the honorable. 6   For a man will take hold of his brother    in the house of his father, saying:  “You have a cloak;    you shall be our leader,  and this heap of ruins    shall be under your rule”;7   in that day he will speak out, saying:  “I will not be a healer;5    in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;  you shall not make me    leader of the people.”8   For Jerusalem has stumbled,    and Judah has fallen,  because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD,    defying his glorious presence.6 9   For the look on their faces bears witness against them;    they proclaim their sin like Sodom;    they do not hide it.  Woe to them!    For they have brought evil on themselves.10   Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,    for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.11   Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,    for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.12   My people—infants are their oppressors,    and women rule over them.  O my people, your guides mislead you    and they have swallowed up7 the course of your paths. 13   The LORD has taken his place to contend;    he stands to judge peoples.14   The LORD will enter into judgment    with the elders and princes of his people:  “It is you who have devoured8 the vineyard,    the spoil of the poor is in your houses.15   What do you mean by crushing my people,    by grinding the face of the poor?”      declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 16   The LORD said:  Because the daughters of Zion are haughty    and walk with outstretched necks,    glancing wantonly with their eyes,  mincing along as they go,    tinkling with their feet,17   therefore the Lord will strike with a scab    the heads of the daughters of Zion,    and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts. 18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; 20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; 21 the signet rings and nose rings; 22 the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils. 24   Instead of perfume there will be rottenness;    and instead of a belt, a rope;  and instead of well-set hair, baldness;    and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth;    and branding instead of beauty.25   Your men shall fall by the sword    and your mighty men in battle.26   And her gates shall lament and mourn;    empty, she shall sit on the ground. 4 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.” The Branch of the Lord Glorified 2 In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. 3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.9 5 Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain. Footnotes [1] 2:3 Or teaching [2] 2:19 Hebrew dust [3] 3:1 Hebrew staff [4] 3:4 Or caprice [5] 3:7 Hebrew binder of wounds [6] 3:8 Hebrew the eyes of his glory [7] 3:12 Or they have confused [8] 3:14 Or grazed over; compare Exodus 22:5 [9] 4:4 Or purging (ESV) New Testament: Hebrews 3:7–4:13 Hebrews 3:7–4:13 (Listen) A Rest for the People of God 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,   “Today, if you hear his voice,8   do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,    on the day of testing in the wilderness,9   where your fathers put me to the test    and saw my works for forty years.10   Therefore I was provoked with that generation,  and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;    they have not known my ways.’11   As I swore in my wrath,    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,   “Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. 4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.1 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,   “As I swore in my wrath,  ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,   “They shall not enter my rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,   “Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God2 would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Footnotes [1] 4:2 Some manuscripts it did not meet with faith in the hearers [2] 4:8 Greek he (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 82 Psalm 82 (Listen) Rescue the Weak and Needy A Psalm of Asaph. 82   God has taken his place in the divine council;    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:2   “How long will you judge unjustly    and show partiality to the wicked? Selah3   Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;    maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.4   Rescue the weak and the needy;    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 5   They have neither knowledge nor understanding,    they walk about in darkness;    all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6   I said, “You are gods,    sons of the Most High, all of you;7   nevertheless, like men you shall die,    and fall like any prince.”1 8   Arise, O God, judge the earth;    for you shall inherit all the nations! Footnotes [1] 82:7 Or fall as one man, O princes (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 24:17–18 Proverbs 24:17–18 (Listen) 17   Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,    and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,18   lest the LORD see it and be displeased,    and turn away his anger from him. (ESV)