Isaiah 28; Isaiah 29; Philippians 3

1 Oh, the majestic garland of Ephraim's drunks and the fading flower of its splendid beauty on the head that flows with perfume of those hammered with wine.

2 Look! The Lord has someone who is powerful and strong; like a hailstorm, a disastrous tempest, like a downpour of mighty, overflowing waters, he can level them to the ground with his hand.

3 The majestic garland of Ephraim's drunks will be trampled underfoot.

4 The withered flower, which is a thing of beauty as it sits on the head of those bloated with fat, will be like an early fig before the summer harvest: whoever sees it swallows it as soon as it is in hand.

5 On that day, the LORD of heavenly forces will be a splendid garland and a beautiful wreath for the people who survive,

6 and a spirit of justice for the one who sits in judgment, and a strength for those who repel the assault at the gate.

7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from beer: priest and prophet stagger from beer; they are confused by wine; they stray on account of beer; they err when receiving visions; they stumble when making judgments.

8 All the tables are covered with vomit; filth overruns the place.

9 To whom will God teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? To those just weaned from milk? To those who have hardly outgrown the breast?

10 It is "tsav letsav, tsav lestav; qav leqav, qav leqav," a little of this, a little of that.

11 With derisive speech and a foreign tongue, he will speak to this people.

12 He has said to them, "This is the place of rest; give rest to the weary; this is the place of repose"; but they refused to listen.

13 So the LORD's word will be for them: "tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav," a little of this, a little of that. So that they will go and stagger backward, they will be broken, snared, and captured.

14 Therefore, hear the LORD's word, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

15 You said, "We've cut a deal with death; with the underworld we made a pact. When the overflowing flood passes through, it won't reach us; for we have made lies our hiding place, and in falsehood we take shelter."

16 Therefore, the LORD God says: Look! I'm laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone, a sure foundation: the one who trusts won't tremble.

17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line. But hail will sweep away the hiding place of lies, and water will overflow the shelter.

18 Your deal with death will be dissolved, and your pact with the grave won't stand. The rushing flood: when it passes through, you will be annihilated by it.

19 Every time it passes through it will take you, for morning by morning it will pass, by day and by night. It will be nothing but terror to understand the message.

20 The bed is too short to stretch out, and the shroud is too narrow to cover oneself.

21 Just as on Mount Perazim, the LORD will rise up; as in the Gibeon Valley he will rage to do his deed—strange is his deed!— And to work his work—foreign is his work!

22 So now stop your scoffing, or your chains will be tightened, because destruction has been ordered—I have heard it!— by the LORD God of heavenly forces against the whole land.

23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear my word:

24 Does the plowman plow without stopping for planting, opening and harrowing their ground?

25 When he has smoothed its surface, doesn't he scatter fennel, and sow cumin, and plant wheat and barley in their places, and spelt as a border?

26 They are properly ordered; their God directs them.

27 Fennel isn't threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but fennel is beaten with a staff, and cumin with a rod.

28 Bread grain is crushed, but the thresher doesn't thresh it forever. He drives the cart wheel over it; he spreads it out but doesn't crush it.

29 This also comes from the LORD of heavenly forces, who gives wondrous counsel and increases wisdom.

1 Oh, Ariel, Ariel, town where David encamped! Year by year, let the festivals come around—

2 but I will oppress Ariel. There will be mourning and lamentation; she will be like an Ariel to me.

3 I will surround you like a wall, and I will lay a siege against you with assault towers, and I will raise up siegeworks against you.

4 You will be brought down; from the ground you will speak; from low in the dust your speech will come. Your voice will be like a ghost's from the earth; from the dust your words will whisper.

5 But your many enemies will be like fine dust, the terrible horde like passing chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,

6 the LORD of heavenly forces will come to you with thunder, earthquake, and a mighty voice, with whirlwind, tempest, and flames of devouring fire.

7 The horde of nations fighting against Ariel, and all who make war on her and her fortress and besiege her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8 It will be like when a hungry person dreams of eating but wakes up and the mouth is empty. Or when a thirsty person dreams of drinking but wakes up and has a dry throat. So will it be for all the horde of nations who fight against Mount Zion.

9 Be shocked and stunned; blind yourselves; be blind! Be drunk, but not on wine; stagger, but not on account of beer!

10 The LORD has poured on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has shut your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.

11 This entire vision has become for you like the words of a sealed scroll. When they give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this," that one will say, "I can't, because it's sealed."

12 And when the scroll is given to one who can't read, saying, "Read this," that one will say, "I can't read."

13 The Lord says: Since these people turn toward me with their mouths, and honor me with lip service while their heart is distant from me, and their fear of me is just a human command that has been memorized,

14 I will go on doing amazing things to these people, shocking and startling things. The wisdom of their wise will perish, and the discernment of their discerning will be hidden.

15 Doom to those who hide their plan deep, away from the LORD, whose deeds are in the dark, who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"

16 You have everything backward! Should the potter be thought of as clay? Should what is made say of its maker, "He didn't make me"? Should what is shaped say of the one who shaped it, "He doesn't understand"?

17 In just a little while won't Lebanon become farmland once again, and the farmland be considered a forest?

18 On that day: The deaf will hear the words of a scroll and, freed from dimness and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.

19 The poor will again find joy in the LORD, and the neediest of people will rejoice in the holy one of Israel.

20 The tyrant will be no more, the mocker will perish, and all who plot evil will be eliminated:

21 all who incriminate others wrongly, who entrap the judge in the gate, and pointlessly postpone justice for the innocent.

22 Therefore, proclaims the LORD, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Jacob won't be ashamed now, and his face won't grow pale now.

23 When he sees his children among them, the work of my hands, proclaiming my name holy, they will make holy the holy one of Jacob, and stand in awe of Israel's God.

24 Those who wander in spirit will have understanding, and those who grumble will gain insight.

1 So then, my brothers and sisters, be glad in the Lord. It's no trouble for me to repeat the same things to you because they will help keep you on track.

2 Watch out for the "dogs." Watch out for people who do evil things. Watch out for those who insist on circumcision, which is really mutilation.

3 We are the circumcision. We are the ones who serve by God's Spirit and who boast in Christ Jesus. We don't put our confidence in rituals performed on the body,

4 though I have good reason to have this kind of confidence. If anyone else has reason to put their confidence in physical advantages, I have even more:

5 I was circumcised on the eighth day. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. With respect to observing the Law, I'm a Pharisee.

6 With respect to devotion to the faith, I harassed the church. With respect to righteousness under the Law, I'm blameless.

7 These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ.

8 But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ

9 and be found in him. In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ. It is the righteousness of God that is based on faith.

10 The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death

11 so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead.

12 It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose.

13 Brothers and sisters, I myself don't think I've reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me.

14 The goal I pursue is the prize of God's upward call in Christ Jesus.

15 So all of us who are spiritually mature should think this way, and if anyone thinks differently, God will reveal it to him or her.

16 Only let's live in a way that is consistent with whatever level we have reached.

17 Brothers and sisters, become imitators of me and watch those who live this way—you can use us as models.

18 As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many people live as enemies of the cross.

19 Their lives end with destruction. Their god is their stomach, and they take pride in their disgrace because their thoughts focus on earthly things.

20 Our citizenship is in heaven. We look forward to a savior that comes from there—the Lord Jesus Christ.

21 He will transform our humble bodies so that they are like his glorious body, by the power that also makes him able to subject all things to himself.