Isaiah 11; Isaiah 12; Isaiah 13; Ephesians 4

Isaiah 11

1 Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him- a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

3 His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, He will not execute justice by what He hears with His ears,

4 but He will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with discipline from His mouth, and He will kill the wicked with a command from His lips.

5 Righteousness and faithfulness will be a belt around His waist.

6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them.

7 The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like an ox.

8 An infant will play beside the cobra's pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake's den.

9 No one will harm or destroy on My entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.

10 On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His resting place will be glorious.

11 On that day the Lord will [extend] His hand a second time to recover-from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west-the remnant of His people who survive.

12 He will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the dispersed of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13 Ephraim's envy will cease; Judah's harassment will end. Ephraim will no longer be envious of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.

14 But they will swoop down on the Philistine flank to the west. Together they will plunder the people of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

15 The Lord will divide the Gulf of Suez. He will wave His hand over the Euphrates with His mighty wind and will split it into seven streams, letting people walk through on foot.

16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who will survive from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Isaiah 12

1 On that day you will say: "I will praise You, Lord, although You were angry with me. Your anger has turned away, and You have had compassion on me.

2 Indeed, God is my salvation. I will trust [Him] and not be afraid. Because Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation."

3 You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation,

4 and on that day you will say: "Give thanks to the Lord; proclaim His name! Celebrate His deeds among the peoples. Declare that His name is exalted.

5 Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known throughout the earth.

6 Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in [His] greatness."

Isaiah 13

1 An oracle against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

2 Lift up a banner on a barren mountain. Call out to them. Wave your hand, and they will go through the gates of the nobles.

3 I have commanded My chosen ones; I have also called My warriors, who exult in My triumph, to execute My wrath.

4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a mighty people! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations being gathered together! The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

5 They are coming from a far land, from the distant horizon- the Lord and the weapons of His wrath- to destroy the whole country.

6 Wail! For the day of the Lord is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore everyone's hands will become weak, and every man's heart will melt.

8 They will be horrified; pain and agony will seize [them]; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look at each other, their faces flushed with fear.

9 Look, the day of the Lord is coming- cruel, with rage and burning anger- to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it.

10 Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.

11 I will bring disaster on the world, and their [own] iniquity, on the wicked. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

12 I will make man scarcer than gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, on the day of His burning anger.

14 Like wandering gazelles and like sheep without a shepherd, each one will turn to his own people, each one will flee to his own land.

15 Whoever is found will be stabbed, and whoever is caught will die by the sword.

16 Their children will be smashed [to death] before their eyes; their houses will be looted, and their wives raped.

17 Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them, who cannot be bought off with silver and who have no desire for gold.

18 [Their] bows will cut young men to pieces. They will have no compassion on little ones; they will not look with pity on children.

19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; a nomad will not pitch his tent there, and shepherds will not let [their flocks] rest there.

21 But wild animals will lie down there, and owls will fill the houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

22 Hyenas will howl in the fortresses, and jackals, in the luxurious palaces. Babylon's time is almost up; her days are almost over.

Ephesians 4

1 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love,

3 diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds [us].

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling;

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

7 Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah's gift.

8 For it says: When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people.

9 But what does "He ascended" mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth?

10 The One who descended is the same as the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.

11 And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

12 for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,

13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, [growing] into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.

14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head-Christ.

16 From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.

17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts.

18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.

19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.

20 But that is not how you learned about the Messiah,

21 assuming you heard Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus:

22 you took off your former way of life, the old man that is corrupted by deceitful desires;

23 you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds;

24 you put on the new man, the one created according to God's [likeness] in righteousness and purity of the truth.

25 Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.

26 Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger,

27 and don't give the Devil an opportunity.

28 The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.

29 No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear.

30 And don't grieve God's Holy Spirit, who sealed you for the day of redemption.

31 All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness.

32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.