1 Thessalonians 4; Isaiah 20; Isaiah 21; Isaiah 22; Psalms 115

1 Thessalonians 4

1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;

2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.

7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;

11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Isaiah 20

1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it,

2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

3 Then the Lord said, "Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia,

4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

5 Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory.

6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, 'Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?' "

Isaiah 21

1 The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the South pass through, So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

2 A distressing vision is declared to me; The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, And the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sighing I have made to cease.

3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it.

4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

5 Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield!

6 For thus has the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman, Let him declare what he sees."

7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, And he listened earnestly with great care.

8 Then he cried, "A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night.

9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!" Then he answered and said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground."

10 Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, I have declared to you.

11 The burden against Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"

12 The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!"

13 The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites.

14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled.

15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.

16 For thus the Lord has said to me: "Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail;

17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it."

Isaiah 22

1 The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,

2 You who are full of noise, A tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, Nor dead in battle.

3 All your rulers have fled together; They are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together; They have fled from afar.

4 Therefore I said, "Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; Do not labor to comfort me Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people."

5 For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity By the Lord God of hosts In the Valley of Vision-- Breaking down the walls And of crying to the mountain.

6 Elam bore the quiver With chariots of men and horsemen, And Kir uncovered the shield.

7 It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys Shall be full of chariots, And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

8 He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest;

9 You also saw the damage to the city of David, That it was great; And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, And the houses you broke down To fortify the wall.

11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls For the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its Maker, Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.

12 And in that day the Lord God of hosts Called for weeping and for mourning, For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.

13 But instead, joy and gladness, Slaying oxen and killing sheep, Eating meat and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

14 Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts, "Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, Even to your death," says the Lord God of hosts.

15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts: "Go, proceed to this steward, To Shebna, who is over the house, and say:

16 'What have you here, and whom have you here, That you have hewn a sepulcher here, As he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?

17 Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O mighty man, And will surely seize you.

18 He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball Into a large country; There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots Shall be the shame of your master's house.

19 So I will drive you out of your office, And from your position he will pull you down.

20 'Then it shall be in that day, That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;

21 I will clothe him with your robe And strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of Judah.

22 The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open.

23 I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, And he will become a glorious throne to his father's house.

24 'They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers.

25 In that day,' says the Lord of hosts, 'the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the Lord has spoken.' "

Psalms 115

1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.

2 Why should the Gentiles say, "So where is their God?"

3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.

5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;

6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell;

7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat.

8 Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.

9 O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.

10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.

11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.

12 The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron.

13 He will bless those who fear the Lord, Both small and great.

14 May the Lord give you increase more and more, You and your children.

15 May you be blessed by the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; But the earth He has given to the children of men.

17 The dead do not praise the Lord, Nor any who go down into silence.

18 But we will bless the Lord From this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!