Day 199, July 18: Bible reading & prayer
Isaiah 23-27 (chronological); Psalms 25-27, Acts 20:17-38 (OT/NT)
We are in the era of the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel, as recounted in 1 & 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and currently reading prophecies in Isaiah. Two days ago, we read about Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, and Damascus, enemies of Israel who the Lord used to execute judgment on His people, but whom He also punished for their own sins. Yesterday, we read about:
Cush (Ethiopia): who will bring a gift of homage to the Lord of hosts on the day of the Lord
Egypt: the Lord plans destruction but then healing, with them ultimately playing a significant role with both Assyria and Israel: ““In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.’”
but first, the Lord called Isaiah to walk naked for three years as a sign against Cush (Ethiopia) and Egypt, because they trusted in Assyria as their hope
Babylon: will fall
Edom (Esau): “Morning comes but also night”
Arabia: the splendor of Kedar will terminate within a year
Judah: her defenses will be torn down (Elam [sons of Shem, allies of Assyria, foes of Babylon] and Kir [Moab] will play a role), but the people will depend on everything except the Lord, for which He will not forgive them until they die
in the time of Hezekiah, king of Judah, he will remove Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household, and replace him with Hilkiah: “he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder”
Today we read about the fate of Tyre, but then the rest of our reading is about a day of the Lord and a destruction of the earth that we have yet to experience. A lot of Isaiah’s prophecies have already been fulfilled, which gives us confidence for the ones yet to be fulfilled. These chapters are such a worthy read, reminding us that, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.”
Reminder of historical background: as a consequence for Solomon’s disobedience, ten tribes were torn from the Kingdom of Judah, under Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and given to Jeroboam, to form the Kingdom of Israel. Judah’s kings, influenced by the legacy of faithful David, vary between good and evil. Israel’s kings, influenced by the legacy of rebellious Jeroboam, go from bad to worse. The books of the Kings cover both kingdoms, while the Chronicles tend to focus on the kingdom of Judah.
An overview of our yearly Bible reading plan, with all summaries so far, can be found here. My appeal for the resolution to read your Bibles is here.
July 18 chronological reading: Isaiah 23-27
Isaiah 23
v1-8 “The oracle concerning Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.
Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
Your messengers crossed the sea
And were on many waters.
The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;
And she was the market of nations.
Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
‘I have neither travailed nor given birth,
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.’
When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.
Pass over to Tarshish;
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin is from antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?
Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
v9-12 “The LORD of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To despise all the honored of the earth.
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish,
There is no more restraint.
He has stretched His hand out over the sea,
He has made the kingdoms tremble;
The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strongholds.
He has said, ‘You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.’
v13-18 “Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold is destroyed.
Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
Take your harp, walk about the city,
O forgotten harlot;
Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.
It will come about at the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the LORD; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the LORD.”
Isaiah 24
v1-6 “Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
v7-15 “The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
The gaiety of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The gaiety of the harp ceases.
They do not drink wine with song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
The city of chaos is broken down;
Every house is shut up so that none may enter.
There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine;
All joy turns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished.
Desolation is left in the city
And the gate is battered to ruins.
For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,
As the shaking of an olive tree,
As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.
They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD.
Therefore glorify the LORD in the east,
The name of the LORD, the God of Israel,
In the coastlands of the sea.
v16-20 “From the ends of the earth we hear songs, ‘Glory to the Righteous One,’
But I say, ‘Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously.’
Terror and pit and snare
Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth.
Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit,
And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare;
For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.
The earth is broken asunder,
The earth is split through,
The earth is shaken violently.
The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard
And it totters like a shack,
For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again.
v21-23 “So it will happen in that day,
That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high,
And the kings of the earth on earth.
They will be gathered together
Like prisoners in the dungeon,
And will be confined in prison;
And after many days they will be punished.
Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,
For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
And His glory will be before His elders.”
Isaiah 25
v1-5 “O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
For You have made a city into a heap,
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of strangers is a city no more,
It will never be rebuilt.
Therefore a strong people will glorify You;
Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
For You have been a defense for the helpless,
A defense for the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.
Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.
v6-8 “The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
v9 “And it will be said in that day,
‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.’
v10-12 “For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trodden down in his place
As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.
And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust.”
Isaiah 26
v1-6 “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
‘We have a strong city;
He sets up walls and ramparts for security.
Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,
The one that remains faithful.
The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the LORD forever,
For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.
For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city;
He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.
The foot will trample it,
The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless.’
v7-9 “The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O LORD,
We have waited for You eagerly;
Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.
At night my soul longs for You,
Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
For when the earth experiences Your judgments
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
v10-21 “Though the wicked is shown favor,
He does not learn righteousness;
He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.
O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.
LORD, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we confess Your name.
The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.
You have increased the nation, O LORD,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
O LORD, they sought You in distress;
They could only whisper a prayer,
Your chastening was upon them.
As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O LORD.
We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world born.
Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Come, my people, enter into your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little while
Until indignation runs its course.
For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.”
Isaiah 27
v1-5 “In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
In that day,
‘A vineyard of wine, sing of it!
I, the LORD, am its keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will damage it,
I guard it night and day.
I have no wrath.
Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely.
Or let him rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.’
v6-11 “In the days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the whole world with fruit.
Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?
You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.
Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven;
And this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.
For the fortified city is isolated,
A homestead forlorn and forsaken like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and feed on its branches.
When its limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of discernment,
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.
v12-13 “In that day the LORD will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.”
July 18 OT/NT readings: Psalms 25-27, Acts 20:17-38
We are reading Psalms in the Old Testament reading plan. In this document, I list the Psalms in order of appearance, followed by author (if known), context of the Psalm’s writing (description of context that appear in the Biblical text before some Psalms are quoted), and the Old Testament reading it appears after. Here is that information for today’s Psalms:
Psalm 25, appears as 59th/150 Psalms, authored by David, after God reveals His covenant with David to establish His kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7, 1 Chronicles 17), Day 128
Psalm 26, appears as 94th/150 Psalms, authored by David, after Israel is defeated by David's servants and Absalom is slain (2 Samuel 16-18), Day 138
Psalm 27, appears as 6th/150 Psalms, authored by David, after he spared Saul's life in the cave (1 Samuel 21-24), Day 105
We are in the book of Acts, written by Luke. In yesterday’s reading, Paul had left for Macedonia after the uproar in Ephesus over the goddess Artemis. He had gone through those districts exhorting the disciples and was then in Greece for three months, until a plot was formed against him by the Jews and he decided to return through Macedonia. They sailed from Philippi after Passover and spent time in Troas, where a young man who fell down dead from a third floor window when he fell asleep during an all-night sermon by Paul was resurrected through Paul. He left from there, going by ship, but stopping at various ports, “hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.” Today, Paul says his goodbye to the elders of Ephesus.
A summary of the book of Acts, which is really a summary of the rest of the New Testament, including when all the letters of the apostles were written, is here.
Acts 20
v17-18 “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them,
v19-24 ‘You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
v25-35 ‘And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”’
v36-38 “When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship.”
Dear Lord,
O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
And it will be said in that day,
”Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
Keep us in perfect peace as we wait for, hope, and trust in You. You are faithful. You will keep Your promises.
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
We get attached to people. We love them and thank You for their role in our lives, especially as they bring us closer to You. Help us to remember though, when relationships must change according to Your purposes, that You and Your word are sufficient for us. Help us, however, not to use this as an excuse to withdraw from relationships. Help us to be on guard for ourselves and all the flock, especially if You have made us overseers.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
"Keep us in perfect peace as we wait for, hope, and trust in You. You are faithful. You will keep Your promises." Amen. Thank you Dr. Milhoan. Peace.