Isaiah 30; Isaiah 31; Philippians 4

1 "Doom, rebel children!" God's Decree. "You make plans, but not mine. You make deals, but not in my Spirit. You pile sin on sin, one sin on top of another,

2 Going off to Egypt without so much as asking me, Running off to Pharaoh for protection, expecting to hide out in Egypt.

3 Well, some protection Pharaoh will be! Some hideout, Egypt!

4 They look big and important, true, with officials strategically established in Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south,

5 but there's nothing to them. Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end up looking stupid - All show, no substance, an embarrassing farce."

6 And this note on the animals of the Negev encountered on the road to Egypt: A most dangerous, treacherous route, menaced by lions and deadly snakes. And you're going to lug all your stuff down there, your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes, Thinking you can buy protection from that hollow farce of a nation?

7 Egypt is all show, no substance. My name for her is Toothless Dragon. This Is a Rebel Generation

8 So, go now and write all this down. Put it in a book So that the record will be there to instruct the coming generations,

9 Because this is a rebel generation, a people who lie, A people unwilling to listen to anything God tells them.

10 They tell their spiritual leaders, "Don't bother us with irrelevancies." They tell their preachers, "Don't waste our time on impracticalities. Tell us what makes us feel better.

11 Don't bore us with obsolete religion. That stuff means nothing to us. Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel."

12 Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: "Because you scorn this Message, Preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies,

13 This perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses -

14 Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, smashed beyond recognition or repair, Useless, a pile of debris to be swept up and thrown in the trash." God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right

15 God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: "Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me - The very thing you've been unwilling to do.

16 You've said, 'Nothing doing! We'll rush off on horseback!' You'll rush off, all right! Just not far enough! You've said, 'We'll ride off on fast horses!' Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?

17 Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker. Before a mere five you'll all run off. There'll be nothing left of you - a flagpole on a hill with no flag, a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off."

18 But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right - everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.

19 Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find it's grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer.

20 Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job,

21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road."

22 You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!"

23 God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide.

24 Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well

25 near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills.

26 Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.

27 ook, God's on his way, and from a long way off! Smoking with anger, immense as he comes into view, Words steaming from his mouth, searing, indicting words!

28 A torrent of words, a flash flood of words sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words. He'll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction, herd them into a dead end.

29 But you will sing, sing through an all-night holy feast! Your hearts will burst with song, make music like the sound of flutes on parade, En route to the mountain of God, on the way to the Rock of Israel.

30 God will sound out in grandiose thunder, display his hammering arm, Furiously angry, showering sparks - cloudburst, storm, hail!

31 Oh yes, at God's thunder Assyria will cower under the clubbing.

32 Every blow God lands on them with his club is in time to the music of drums and pipes, God in all-out, two-fisted battle, fighting against them.

33 Topheth's fierce fires are well prepared, ready for the Assyrian king. The Topheth furnace is deep and wide, well stoked with hot-burning wood. God's breath, like a river of burning pitch, starts the fire.

1 Doom to those who go off to Egypt thinking that horses can help them, Impressed by military mathematics, awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders - And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance, not so much as a prayer to God.

2 Still, he must be reckoned with, a most wise God who knows what he's doing. He can call down catastrophe. He's a God who does what he says. He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong, stands up against interfering evildoers.

3 Egyptians are mortal, not God, and their horses are flesh, not Spirit. When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.

4 This is what God told me: "Like a lion, king of the beasts, that gnaws and chews and worries its prey, Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds who arrive to chase it off, So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights. And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky, God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem. I’ll protect and rescue it. Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”

6 Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned.

7 On the day you return, you'll throw away - every last one of you - the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.

8 "Assyrians will fall dead, killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier, laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal. Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives, and their prize young men made slaves.

9 Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces, their leaders scatter hysterically." God's Decree on Assyria. His fire blazes in Zion, his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.

45 And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky, God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem. I'll protect and rescue it. Yes, I'll hover and deliver."

1 My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don't waver. Stay on track, steady in God.

2 I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn't want his children holding grudges.

3 And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you're right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans - worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the book of life.

4 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him!

5 Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

6 Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.

7 Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

8 Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious - the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

9 Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

10 I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess - happy that you're again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it.

11 Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.

12 I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.

13 Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

14 I don't mean that your help didn't mean a lot to me - it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

15 You Philippians well know, and you can be sure I'll never forget it, that when I first left Macedonia province, venturing out with the Message, not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you. You were the only one.

16 Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out - and not only once, but twice.

17 Not that I'm looking for handouts, but I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity.

18 And now I have it all - and keep getting more! The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end.

19 You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus.

20 Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.

21 Give our regards to every Christian you meet. Our friends here say hello.

22 All the Christians here, especially the believers who work in the palace of Caesar, want to be remembered to you.

23 Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves.