Ezekiel 35; Ezekiel 36; 2 Peter 1

Ezekiel 35

1 The Lord spoke to me.

2 "Mortal man," he said, "denounce the country of Edom.

3 Tell the people what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: "I am your enemy, mountains of Edom! I will make you a desolate wasteland.

4 I will leave your cities in ruins And your land desolate; Then you will know that I am the Lord.

5 "You were Israel's constant enemy and let her people be slaughtered in the time of her disaster, the time of final punishment for her sins.

6 So then - as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God - death is your fate, and you cannot escape it. You are guilty of murder, and murder will follow you.

7 I will make the hill country of Edom a wasteland and kill everyone who travels through it.

8 I will cover the mountains with corpses, and the bodies of those who are killed in battle will cover the hills and valleys.

9 I will make you desolate forever, and no one will live in your cities again. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

10 "You said that the two nations, Judah and Israel, together with their lands, belonged to you and that you would possess them, even though I, the Lord, was their God.

11 So then, as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I will pay you back for your anger, your jealousy, and your hate toward my people. They will know that I am punishing you for what you did to them.

12 Then you will know that I, the Lord, heard you say with contempt that the mountains of Israel were desolate and that they were yours to devour.

13 I have heard the wild, boastful way you have talked against me."

14 The Sovereign Lord says, "I will make you so desolate that the whole world will rejoice at your downfall,

15 just as you rejoiced at the devastation of Israel, my own possession. The mountains of Seir, yes, all the land of Edom, will be desolate. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord."

Ezekiel 36

1 The Lord said, "Mortal man, speak to the mountains of Israel and tell them to listen to the message which I,

2 the Sovereign Lord, have for them: Israel's enemies gloated and said, "Now those ancient hills are ours!'

3 "Prophesy, then, and announce what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying. When the neighboring nations captured and plundered the mountains of Israel, everyone made fun of Israel.

4 So now listen to what I, the Sovereign Lord, say to you mountains and hills, to you brooks and valleys, to you places that were left in ruins, and to you deserted cities which were plundered and mocked by all the surrounding nations.

5 "I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken out in the heat of my anger against the surrounding nations, and especially against Edom. With glee and contempt they captured my land and took possession of its pastures.

6 "So prophesy to the land of Israel; tell the mountains, hills, brooks, and valleys what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying in jealous anger because of the way the nations have insulted and humiliated them.

7 I, the Sovereign Lord, solemnly promise that the surrounding nations will be humiliated.

8 But on the mountains of Israel the trees will again grow leaves and bear fruit for you, my people Israel. You are going to come home soon.

9 I am on your side, and I will make sure that your land is plowed again and crops are planted on it.

10 I will make your population grow. You will live in the cities and rebuild everything that was left in ruins.

11 I will make people and cattle increase in number. There will be more of you than ever before, and you will have many children. I will let you live there as you used to live, and I will make you more prosperous than ever. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

12 I will bring you, my people Israel, back to live again in the land. It will be your own land, and it will never again let your children starve.

13 "I, the Sovereign Lord, say: It is true that people say that the land eats people and that it robs the nation of its children.

14 But from now on it will no longer eat people and rob you of your children. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.

15 The land will no longer have to listen to the nations making fun of it or see the peoples sneer at it. The land will no longer rob the nation of its children. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken."

16 The Lord spoke to me.

17 "Mortal man," he said, "when the Israelites were living in their land, they defiled it by the way they lived and acted. I regarded their behavior as being as ritually unclean as a woman is during her monthly period.

18 I let them feel the force of my anger because of the murders they had committed in the land and because of the idols by which they had defiled it.

19 I condemned them for the way they lived and acted, and I scattered them through foreign countries.

20 Wherever they went, they brought disgrace on my holy name, because people would say, "These are the people of the Lord, but they had to leave his land.'

21 That made me concerned for my holy name, since the Israelites brought disgrace on it everywhere they went.

22 "Now then, give the Israelites the message that I, the Sovereign Lord, have for them: What I am going to do is not for the sake of you Israelites, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have disgraced in every country where you have gone.

23 When I demonstrate to the nations the holiness of my great name - the name you disgraced among them - then they will know that I am the Lord. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. I will use you to show the nations that I am holy.

24 I will take you from every nation and country and bring you back to your own land.

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

26 I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart.

27 I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will save you from everything that defiles you. I will command the grain to be plentiful, so that you will not have any more famines.

30 I will increase the yield of your fruit trees and your fields, so that there will be no more famines to disgrace you among the nations.

31 You will remember your evil conduct and the wrongs that you committed, and you will be disgusted with yourselves because of your sins and your iniquities.

32 Israel, I want you to know that I am not doing all this for your sake. I want you to feel the shame and disgrace of what you are doing. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken."

33 The Sovereign Lord says, "When I make you clean from all your sins, I will let you live in your cities again and let you rebuild the ruins.

34 Everyone who used to walk by your fields saw how overgrown and wild they were, but I will let you farm them again.

35 Everyone will talk about how this land, which was once a wilderness, has become like the Garden of Eden, and how the cities which were torn down, looted, and left in ruins, are now inhabited and fortified.

36 Then the neighboring nations that have survived will know that I, the Lord, rebuild ruined cities and replant waste fields. I, the Lord, have promised that I would do this - and I will."

37 The Sovereign Lord says, "I will once again let the Israelites ask me for help, and I will let them increase in numbers like a flock of sheep.

38 The cities that are now in ruins will then be as full of people as Jerusalem was once full of the sheep which were offered as sacrifices at a festival. Then they will know that I am the Lord."

2 Peter 1

1 From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ - To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been given a faith as precious as ours:

2 May grace and peace be yours in full measure through your knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

3 God's divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own glory and goodness.

4 In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature.

5 For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge;

6 to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness;

7 to your godliness add Christian affection; and to your Christian affection add love.

8 These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance, they will make you active and effective in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But if you do not have them, you are so shortsighted that you cannot see and have forgotten that you have been purified from your past sins.

10 So then, my friends, try even harder to make God's call and his choice of you a permanent experience; if you do so, you will never abandon your faith.

11 In this way you will be given the full right to enter the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

12 And so I will always remind you of these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received.

13 I think it only right for me to stir up your memory of these matters as long as I am still alive.

14 I know that I shall soon put off this mortal body, as our Lord Jesus Christ plainly told me.

15 I will do my best, then, to provide a way for you to remember these matters at all times after my death.

16 We have not depended on made-up stories in making known to you the mighty coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. With our own eyes we saw his greatness.

17 We were there when he was given honor and glory by God the Father, when the voice came to him from the Supreme Glory, saying, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased!"

18 We ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 So we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets. You will do well to pay attention to it, because it is like a lamp shining in a dark place until the Day dawns and the light of the morning star shines in your hearts.

20 Above all else, however, remember that none of us can explain by ourselves a prophecy in the Scriptures.

21 For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.