Author: David Izquierdo (Page 1 of 10)

Isaiah 1 (ESV)

The Fullness and Fruit of Rebellion

1: The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.

3: The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”

4: Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.

5: Why will you still be struck down?
Why will you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.

6: From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
and raw wounds;
they are not pressed out or bound up
or softened with oil.

7: Your country lies desolate;
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
foreigners devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.

8: And the daughter of Zion is left
like a booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.

9: If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors,
we should have been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.

The Insufficiency of Sacrifice

10: Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

11: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.

12: When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?

13: Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

14: Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

15: When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.

16: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,

17: learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.

The Nature of Redemption

18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

19: If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;

20: but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Certainty of Vengeance

21: How the faithful city
has become a whore,
she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.

22: Your silver has become dross,
your best wine mixed with water.

23: Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless,
and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

24: Therefore the Lord declares,
the Lord of hosts,
the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies
and avenge myself on my foes.

25: I will turn my hand against you
and will smelt away your dross as with lye
and remove all your alloy.

26: And I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called
the city of righteousness,
the faithful city.”

27: Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

28: But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,
and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29: For they shall be ashamed of the oaks
that you desired;
and you shall blush for the gardens
that you have chosen.

30: For you shall be like an oak
whose leaf withers,
and like a garden without water.

31: And the strong shall become tinder,
and his work a spark,
and both of them shall burn together,
with none to quench them.

Psalm 137 (ESV)

The Pain of Separation

1: By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.

2: On the willows there we hung up our lyres.

3: For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4: How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

The Heart of Remembrance

5: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!

6: Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

The Wrath of Divine Vengeance

7: Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!”

8: O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!

9: Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

Psalm 131 (ESV)

The Preeminence of Humility

1: O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great
and too marvelous for me.

The Dependence of Peace

2: But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

The Consequence of Confidence

3: O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 104 (ESV)

The Majesty Our God Possesses

1: Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2: covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3: He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind;
4: he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.

The Security Our God Creates

5: He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.
6: You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
7: At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8: The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.
9: You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.

The Care Our God Provides

10: You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills;
11: they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12: Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.
13: From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14: You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth
15: and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
16: The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17: In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18: The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19: He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
20: You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21: The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
22: When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens.
23: Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.
24: O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
25: Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.
26: There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
27: These all look to you, to give them their food in due season.
28: When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30: When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
31: May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32: who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34: May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
35: Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!

Psalm 74 (ESV)

The Anguish They Feel

1: O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

2: Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.

3: Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4: Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs.

5: They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees.

6: And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

7: They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.

8: They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9: We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.

10: How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

11: Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!

The Assurance They Remember

12: Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13: You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.

14: You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15: You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams.

16: Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

17: You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.

The Arguments They Press

18: Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.

19: Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.

20: Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21: Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.

22: Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!

23: Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

Psalm 32 (ESV)

Sin and Forgiveness

1: Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2: Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Guilt and Misery

3: For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4: For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

5: I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Experience and Joy

6: Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
7: You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
8: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9: Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
10: Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.
11: Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Scripture Reading: Micah 4 (ESV)

The Mountain of the Lord

1: 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 it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it,

2: and many nations 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, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3: He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; 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;

Peace and Prosperity

4: but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

5: For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

Restoration of Zion

6: In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted;

7: and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.

8: And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9: Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor?

10: Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

11: Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

12: But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

13: Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

John 21:20-25 (ESV)

Gifts, and Individual Purpose

20: Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”

21: When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

22: Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

Truth, and Personal Devotion

23: So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

24: This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

25: Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

John 21:15-19 (ESV)

The Love Language of Christ

15: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

16: He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

17: He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

The Love Language of the Church

18: Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

19: (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

John 21:1-14 (ESV)

A Familiar Sign (1-8)

1: After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.
2: Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.
3: Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4: Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
5: Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”
6: He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
7: That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
8: The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

A Familiar Lesson (9-14)

9: When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.
10: Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
11: So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
12: Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
13: Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
14: This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.