Author: David Izquierdo (Page 1 of 12)

Isaiah 16 (ESV)

Moab’s Legacy

1: Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

2: Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

3: “Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive;

4: let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

5: then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.”

Moab’s Harvest

6: We have heard of the pride of Moab— how proud he is!— of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.

7: Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8: For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea.

9: Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased.

10: And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting.

Moab’s Worship

11: Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.

12: And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

13: This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past.

14: But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”

Isaiah 14:24–32 (ESV)

Assyria, and Divine Intention

24: The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
25: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.”
26: This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27: For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Philistia, and the Davidic Promise

28: In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:
29: Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
30: And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay.
31: Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32: What will one answer the messengers of the nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”

Psalm 58 (ESV)

To the choirmaster: According to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.

The Indictment

1: Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2: No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
3: The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4: They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5: so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.

The Imprecation

6: O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7: Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8: Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9: Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

The Response

10: The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11: Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

Jude 24–25 (ESV)

The Perseverance of the Saints

24: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

Justification by Faith Alone

25: to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The Exaltation of Christ

Jude 5-19 (ESV)

By Discerning the Teaching of the Past

5: Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

6: And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

7: just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

By Hearing the Warnings of the Present

8: Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

9: But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

10: But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

11: Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

12: These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;

13: wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

By Embracing Our Future Hope

14: It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,

15: to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

16: These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

17: But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

18: They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

19: It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

Philemon (ESV)

Love Gives Rest

1: Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker

2: and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

3: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4: I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,

5: because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,

6: and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

7: For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Love Makes Demands

8: Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,

9: yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—

Love Produces Change

10: I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

11: (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)

12: I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.

13: I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel,

14: but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

15: For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,

16: no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Love Pays Debts

17: So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

18: If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

19: I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

Love Makes Demands

20: Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

21: Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

22: At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

23: Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,

24: and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

25: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Isaiah 12 (ESV)

Gratitude

1: You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

Trust

2: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

Joy

3: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Proclamation

4: And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

Singing

5: Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.

6: Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 11:10-16 (ESV)

The Church Gathered and Universal

10: In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

11: In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

12: He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The Church Unified and Triumphant

13: The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

14: But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.

The Church Preserved and Unconquerable

15: And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.

16: And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Isaiah 11:1-9 (ESV)

A Righteousness Applied

1: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

2: And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

3: And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

4: but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

5: Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

An Enmity Canceled

6: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

7: The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8: The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

9: They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 10:20-34 (ESV)

A People (20-27)

20: In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21: A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22: For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
23: For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24: Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.
25: For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.
26: And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.
27: And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.

A Mountain (28-34)

28: He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;
29: they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30: Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!
31: Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32: This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33: Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.
34: He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.