Isaiah 7; Isaiah 8; Ephesians 2

1 Now Ahaz was the son of Jotham, who was the son of Uzziah. When Ahaz was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to fight against it. But they were not able to defeat the city.

2 Ahaz king of Judah received a message saying, "The armies of Aram and Israeln have joined together." When Ahaz heard this, he and the people were frightened. They shook with fear like trees of the forest blown by the wind.

3 Then the Lord told Isaiah, "You and your son Shear-Jashubn should go and meet Ahaz at the place where the water flows into the upper pool, on the road where people do their laundry.

4 Tell Ahaz, 'Be careful. Be calm and don't worry. Don't let those two men, Rezin and Pekah son of Remaliah, scare you. Don't be afraid of their anger or Aram's anger, because they are like two barely burning sticks that are ready to go out.

5 They have made plans against you, saying,

6 "Let's fight against Judah and tear it apart. We will divide the land for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel the new king of Judah."

7 But I, the Lord God, say, "'Their plan will not succeed; it will not happen,

8 because Aram is led by the city of Damascus, and Damascus is led by its weak king, Rezin. Within sixty-five years Israel will no longer be a nation.

9 Israel is led by the city of Samaria, and Samaria is led by its weak king, the son of Remaliah. If your faith is not strong, you will not have strength enough to last.'"

10 Then the Lord spoke to Ahaz again, saying,

11 "Ask for a sign from the Lord your God to prove to yourself that these things are true. It may be a sign from as deep as the place of the dead or as high as the heavens."

12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask for a sign or test the Lord."

13 Then Isaiah said, "Ahaz, descendant of David, listen carefully! Isn't it bad enough that you wear out the patience of people? Do you also have to wear out the patience of my God?

14 The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virginn will be pregnant. She will have a son, and she will name him Immanuel.

15 He will be eating milk curds and honey when he learns to reject what is evil and to choose what is good.

16 You are afraid of the kings of Israel and Aram now. But before the child learns to choose good and reject evil, the lands of Israel and Aram will be empty.

17 The Lord will bring troubled times to you, your people, and to the people of your father's family. They will be worse than anything that has happened since Israel separated from Judah. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria to fight against you.

18 "At that time the Lord will whistle for the Egyptians, and they will come like flies from Egypt's faraway streams. He will call for the Assyrians, and they will come like bees.

19 These enemies will camp in the deep ravines and in the cliffs, by the thornbushes and watering holes.

20 The Lord will hire Assyria and use it like a razor to punish Judah. It will be as if the Lord is shaving the hair from Judah's head and legs and removing Judah's beard.

21 "At that time a person will be able to keep only one young cow and two sheep alive.

22 There will be only enough milk for that person to eat milk curds. All who remain in the land will go back to eating just milk curds and honey.

23 In this land there are now vineyards that have a thousand grapevines, which are worth about twenty-five pounds of silver. But these fields will become full of weeds and thorns.

24 The land will become wild and useful only as a hunting ground.

25 People once worked and grew food on these hills, but at that time people will not go there, because the land will be filled with weeds and thorns. Only sheep and cattle will go to those places."

1 The Lord told me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: 'Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.'

2 I will gather some men to be reliable witnesses: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah."

3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and had a son. The Lord told me, "Name the boy Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,

4 because the king of Assyria will take away all the wealth and possessions of Damascus and Samaria before the boy learns to say 'my father' or 'my mother.'"

5 Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,

6 "These people refuse to accept the slow-moving waters of the pool of Shiloah and are terrified of Rezin and Pekah son of Remaliah.

7 So I, the Lord, will bring the king of Assyria and all his power against them, like a powerful flood of water from the Euphrates River. The Assyrians will be like water rising over the banks of the river, flowing over the land.

8 That water will flow into Judah and pass through it, rising to Judah's throat. Immanuel, this army will spread its wings like a bird until it covers your whole country."

9 Be broken, all you nations, and be smashed to pieces. Listen, all you faraway countries. Prepare for battle and be smashed to pieces! Prepare for battle and be smashed to pieces!

10 Make your plans for the fight, but they will be defeated. Give orders to your armies, but they will be useless, because God is with us.

11 The Lord spoke to me with his great power and warned me not to follow the lead of the rest of the people. He said,

12 "People are saying that others make plans against them, but you should not believe them. Don't be afraid of what they fear; do not dread those things.

13 But remember that the Lord All-Powerful is holy. He is the one you should fear; he is the one you should dread.

14 Then he will be a place of safety for you. But for the two families of Israel, he will be like a stone that causes people to stumble, like a rock that makes them fall. He will be like a trap for the people of Jerusalem, and he will catch them in his trap.

15 Many people will fall over this rock. They will fall and be broken; they will be trapped and caught."

16 Make an agreement. Seal up the teaching while my followers are watching.

17 I will wait for the Lord to help us, the Lord who is ashamed of the family of Israel. I will wait for him.

18 I am here, and with me are the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and proofs for the people of Israel from the Lord All-Powerful, who lives on Mount Zion.

19 Some people say, "Ask the mediums and fortune-tellers, who whisper and mutter, what to do." But I tell you that people should ask their God for help. Why should people who are still alive ask something from the dead?

20 You should follow the teachings and the agreement with the Lord. The mediums and fortune-tellers do not speak the word of the Lord, so their words are worth nothing.

21 People will wander through the land troubled and hungry. When they become hungry, they will become angry and will look up and curse their king and their God.

22 They will look around them at their land and see only trouble, darkness, and awful gloom. And they will be forced into the darkness.

1 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.

2 Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.

3 In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God's anger because of the way we were. We were the same as all other people.

4 But God's mercy is great, and he loved us very much.

5 Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace.

6 And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus

7 so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.

8 I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.

9 It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it.

10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.

11 You were not born Jewish. You are the people the Jews call "uncircumcised." Those who call you "uncircumcised" call themselves "circumcised." (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.)

12 Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you had no part in the agreementsn with the promise that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God.

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away from God are brought near through the blood of Christ's death.

14 Christ himself is our peace. He made both Jewish people and those who are not Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them, but Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body.

15 The Jewish law had many commands and rules, but Christ ended that law. His purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him and in this way make peace.

16 It was also Christ's purpose to end the hatred between the two groups, to make them into one body, and to bring them back to God. Christ did all this with his death on the cross.

17 Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away from God, and to those who were near to God.

18 Yes, it is through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

19 Now you who are not Jewish are not foreigners or strangers any longer, but are citizens together with God's holy people. You belong to God's family.

20 You are like a building that was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stonen in that building,

21 and that whole building is joined together in Christ. He makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord.

22 And in Christ you, too, are being built together with the Jews into a place where God lives through the Spirit.