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Isaiah 22-23 (Listen)

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

22:1 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,
  all of you, to the housetops,
you who are full of shoutings,
  tumultuous city, exultant town?
Your slain are not slain with the sword
  or dead in battle.
All your leaders have fled together;
  without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
  though they had fled far away.
Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
  let me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
  concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

For the Lord God of hosts has a day
  of tumult and trampling and confusion
  in the valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
  and a shouting to the mountains.
And Elam bore the quiver
  with chariots and horsemen,
  and Kir uncovered the shield.
Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
  and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
He has taken away the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

In that day the Lord God of hosts
  called for weeping and mourning,
  for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
and behold, joy and gladness,
  killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
  eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
  for tomorrow we die.”
The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
  says the Lord God of hosts.

Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon

23:1 The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
  for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor!
From the land of Cyprus [1]
  it is revealed to them.
Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;
  the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.
And on many waters
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
  the harvest of the Nile;
  you were the merchant of the nations.
Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
  the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth,
  I have neither reared young men
  nor brought up young women.”
When the report comes to Egypt,
  they will be in anguish [2] over the report about Tyre.
Cross over to Tarshish;
  wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
Is this your exultant city
  whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
  to settle far away?
Who has purposed this
  against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
  whose traders were the honored of the earth?
The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
  to defile the pompous pride of all glory, [3]
  to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
Cross over your land like the Nile,
  O daughter of Tarshish;
  there is no restraint anymore.
He has stretched out his hand over the sea;
  he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan
  to destroy its strongholds.
And he said:
“You will no more exult,
  O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;
arise, cross over to Cyprus,
  even there you will have no rest.”

Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; [4] Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your stronghold is laid waste.

In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days [5] of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

“Take a harp;
  go about the city,
  O forgotten prostitute!
Make sweet melody;
  sing many songs,
  that you may be remembered.”

At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.

Ephesians 3 (Listen)

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is [6] that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in [7] God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family [8] in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Footnotes

[1] 23:1 Hebrew Kittim; also verse 12
[2] 23:5 Hebrew they will have labor pains
[3] 23:9 The Hebrew words for glory and hosts sound alike
[4] 23:13 Or that has become nothing
[5] 23:15 Or lifetime
[6] 3:6 The words This mystery is are inferred from verse 4
[7] 3:9 Or by
[8] 3:15 Or fatherhood; the Greek word patria is closely related to the word for Father in verse 14