Belated Day Twenty One, Twenty Two, Twenty Three, Twenty Four, Twenty Five, Twenty Six, Twenty Seven ( Although this is today)

Scripture Read:
Isaiah 1
Quit Your Worship Charades
1The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
2Heaven and earth, you're the jury.
Listen to GOD's case:
"I had children and raised them well,
and they turned on me.
3The ox knows who's boss,
the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
My people don't know up from down.
4Shame! Misguided GOD-dropouts,
staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Gang of miscreants,
band of vandals--
My people have walked out on me, their GOD,
turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
walked off and never looked back.
5"Why bother even trying to do anything with you
when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
Everything within you protests against you.
6From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
nothing's working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores--
untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
7Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
8Daughter Zion is deserted--
like a tumbledown shack on a dead--end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
9If GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors,
we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
10"Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God's revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.
11"Why this frenzy of sacrifices?"
GOD's asking.
"Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don't you think I've had my fill
of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
12When you come before me,
who ever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that--
all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
13"Quit your worship charades.
I can't stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings--
meetings, meetings, meetings--I can't stand one more!
14Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You've worn me out!
I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
15When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I'll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I'll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you've been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
16Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don't have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
17Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down--and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.

Let's Argue This Out
18"Come. Sit down. Let's argue this out."
This is GOD's Message:
"If your sins are blood-red,
they'll be snow-white.
If they're red like crimson,
they'll be like wool.
19If you'll willingly obey,
you'll feast like kings.
20But if you're willful and stubborn,
you'll die like dogs."
That's right. GOD says so.

Those Who Walk Out on God
21Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they're all
at one another's throats.
22Your coins are all counterfeits.
Your wine is watered down.
23Your leaders are turncoats
who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
never stick up for the defenseless.
24This Decree, therefore, of the Master, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Strong One of Israel:
"This is it! I'll get my oppressors off my back.
I'll get back at my enemies.
25I'll give you the back of my hand,
purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
26I'll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you'll be renamed
City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City."
27GOD's right ways will put Zion right again.
GOD's right actions will restore her penitents.
28But it's curtains for rebels and GOD-traitors,
a dead end for those who walk out on GOD.
29"Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
that you thought was the latest thing.
30You'll end up like an oak tree
with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
withered and brown.
31"The Big Man' will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
and his "work,' the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
as nothing but cinders and smoke."

Isaiah 2
Climb God's Mountain

1The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:
2There's a day coming
when the mountain of GOD's House
Will be The Mountain--
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
3They'll say, "Come,
let's climb GOD's Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He'll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we're made."
Zion's the source of the revelation.
GOD's Message comes from Jerusalem.
4He'll settle things fairly between nations.
He'll make things right between many peoples.
They'll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won't play war anymore.
5Come, family of Jacob,
let's live in the light of GOD.
6GOD, you've walked out on your family Jacob
because their world is full of hokey religion,
Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,
7a world rolling in wealth,
Stuffed with things,
no end to its machines and gadgets,
8And gods--gods of all sorts and sizes.
These people make their own gods and worship what they make.
9A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.
Don't bother with them! They're not worth forgiving!

Pretentious Egos Brought Down to Earth

10Head for the hills,
hide in the caves
From the terror of GOD,
from his dazzling presence.
11People with a big head are headed for a fall,
pretentious egos brought down a peg.
It's GOD alone at front-and-center
on the Day we're talking about,
12The Day that GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies
is matched against all big-talking rivals,
against all swaggering big names;
13Against all giant sequoias
hugely towering,
and against the expansive chestnut;
14Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,
against the ranges of Alps and Andes;
15Against every soaring skyscraper,
against all proud obelisks and statues;
16Against ocean-going luxury liners,
against elegant three-masted schooners.
17The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,
the pretentious egos brought down to earth,
Leaving GOD alone at front-and-center
on the Day we're talking about.
18And all those sticks and stones
dressed up to look like gods
will be gone for good.
19Clamber into caves in the cliffs,
duck into any hole you can find.
Hide from the terror of GOD,
from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
towering and terrifying.
20On that Day men and women will take
the sticks and stones
They've decked out in gold and silver
to look like gods and then worshiped,
And they will dump them
in any ditch or gully,
21Then run for rock caves
and cliff hideouts
To hide from the terror of GOD,
from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
towering and terrifying.
22Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,
so full of themselves, so full of hot air!
Can't you see there's nothing to them?

Isaiah 3
Jerusalem on Its Last Legs

1The Master, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies,
is emptying Jerusalem and Judah
Of all the basic necessities,
plain bread and water to begin with.
2He's withdrawing police and protection,
judges and courts,
pastors and teachers,
3captains and generals,
doctors and nurses,
and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all--trades.
4He says, "I'll put little kids in charge of the city.
Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.
5People will be at each other's throats,
stabbing one another in the back:
Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,
the no-account against the well-respected.
6One brother will grab another and say,
"You look like you've got a head on your shoulders.
Do something!
Get us out of this mess.'
7And he'll say, "Me? Not me! I don't have a clue.
Don't put me in charge of anything.'
8"Jerusalem's on its last legs.
Judah is soon down for the count.
Everything people say and do
is at cross-purposes with GOD,
a slap in my face.
9Brazen in their depravity,
they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom.
Doom to their eternal souls! They've made their bed;
now they'll sleep in it.
10"Reassure the righteous
that their good living will pay off.
11But doom to the wicked! Disaster!
Everything they did will be done to them.
12"Skinny kids terrorize my people.
Silly girls bully them around.
My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.
They're sending you off on a wild goose chase."

A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows

13GOD enters the courtroom.
He takes his place at the bench to judge his people.
14GOD calls for order in the court,
hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:
"You've played havoc with this country.
Your houses are stuffed with what you've stolen from the poor.
15What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,
grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?"
That's what the Master,
GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.
16GOD says, "Zion women are stuck-up,
prancing around in their high heels,
Making eyes at all the men in the street,
swinging their hips,
Tossing their hair,
gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry."
17The Master will fix it so those Zion women
will all turn bald--
Scabby, bald--headed women.
The Master will do it.
18The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles-- 19the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, 20combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, 21the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, 22the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, 23all the world's finest in fabrics and design.
24Instead of wearing seductive scents,
these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;
Instead of modeling flowing gowns,
they'll be sporting rags;
Instead of their stylish hairdos,
scruffy heads;
Instead of beauty marks,
scabs and scars.
25Your finest fighting men will be killed,
your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.
26The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted
with people mourning their dead--
A city stooped under the weight of her loss,
brought to her knees by her sorrows.

Isaiah 4

1That will be the day when seven women
will gang up on one man, saying,
"We'll take care of ourselves,
get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
so we'll have something to live for!"

God's Branch

2And that's when GOD's Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel's survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they'll hold their heads high! 3Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as "holy"--alive and therefore precious. 4GOD will give Zion's women a good bath. He'll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.
5Then GOD will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, 6shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.

Isaiah 5
Looking for a Crop of Justice

1I'll sing a ballad to the one I love,
a love ballad about his vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard,
a fine, well-placed vineyard.
2He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,
and planted the very best vines.
He built a lookout, built a winepress,
a vineyard to be proud of.
He looked for a vintage yield of grapes,
but for all his pains he got junk grapes.
3"Now listen to what I'm telling you,
you who live in Jerusalem and Judah.
What do you think is going on
between me and my vineyard?
4Can you think of anything I could have done
to my vineyard that I didn't do?
When I expected good grapes,
why did I get bitter grapes?
5"Well now, let me tell you
what I'll do to my vineyard:
I'll tear down its fence
and let it go to ruin.
I'll knock down the gate
and let it be trampled.
6I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for--
thistles and thorns will take over.
I'll give orders to the clouds:
"Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!'"
7Do you get it? The vineyard of GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies
is the country of Israel.
All the men and women of Judah
are the garden he was so proud of.
He looked for a crop of justice
and saw them murdering each other.
He looked for a harvest of righteousness
and heard only the moans of victims.

You Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

8Doom to you who buy up all the houses
and grab all the land for yourselves--
Evicting the old owners,
posting NO TRESPASSING signs,
Taking over the country,
leaving everyone homeless and landless.
9I overheard GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies say:
"Those mighty houses will end up empty.
Those extravagant estates will be deserted.
10A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine,
a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain."
11Doom to those who get up early
and start drinking booze before breakfast,
Who stay up all hours of the night
drinking themselves into a stupor.
12They make sure their banquets are well-furnished
with harps and flutes and plenty of wine,
But they'll have nothing to do with the work of GOD,
pay no mind to what he is doing.
13Therefore my people will end up in exile
because they don't know the score.
Their "big men" will starve to death
and the common people die of thirst.
14Sheol developed a huge appetite,
swallowing people nonstop!
Big people and little people alike
down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.
15The down--and-out on a par
with the high-and-mighty,
Windbag boasters crumpled,
flaccid as a punctured bladder.
16But by working justice,
GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain.
By working righteousness,
Holy God will show what "holy" is.
17And lambs will graze
as if they owned the place,
Kids and calves
right at home in the ruins.
18Doom to you who use lies to sell evil,
who haul sin to market by the truckload,
19Who say, "What's God waiting for?
Let him get a move on so we can see it.
Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up,
we'd like to check it out."
20Doom to you who call evil good
and good evil,
Who put darkness in place of light
and light in place of darkness,
Who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21Doom to you who think you're so smart,
who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!
22All you're good at is drinking--champion boozers
who collect trophies from drinking bouts
23And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty
while you violate the rights of the innocent.
24But they won't get by with it. As fire eats stubble
and dry grass goes up in smoke,
Their souls will atrophy,
their achievements crumble into dust,
Because they said no to the revelation
of GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies,
Would have nothing to do
with The Holy of Israel.
25That's why GOD flamed out in anger against his people,
reached out and knocked them down.
The mountains trembled
as their dead bodies piled up in the streets.
But even after that, he was still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
26He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation,
whistles for people at the ends of the earth.
And here they come--
on the run!
27None drag their feet, no one stumbles,
no one sleeps or dawdles.
Shirts are on and pants buckled,
every boot is spit--polished and tied.
28Their arrows are sharp,
bows strung,
The hooves of their horses shod,
chariot wheels greased.
29Roaring like a pride of lions,
the full-throated roars of young lions,
They growl and seize their prey,
dragging it off--no rescue for that one!
30They'll roar and roar and roar on that Day,
like the roar of ocean billows.
Look as long and hard as you like at that land,
you'll see nothing but darkness and trouble.
Every light in the sky
will be blacked out by the clouds.

Isaiah 6
Holy, Holy, Holy!

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne--high, exalted!-and the train of his robes filled the Temple. 2Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew." 3And they called back and forth one to the other,
Holy, Holy, Holy is GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.
His bright glory fills the whole earth.
4The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. 5I said,
"Doom! It's Doomsday!
I'm as good as dead!
Every word I've ever spoken is tainted--
blasphemous even!
And the people I live with talk the same way,
using words that corrupt and desecrate.
And here I've looked God in the face!
The King! GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies!"
6Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7He touched my mouth with the coal and said,
"Look. This coal has touched your lips.
Gone your guilt,
your sins wiped out."
8And then I heard the voice of the Master:
"Whom shall I send?
Who will go for us?"
I spoke up,
"I'll go.
Send me!" 9He said, "Go and tell this people:
""Listen hard, but you aren't going to get it;
look hard, but you won't catch on.'
10Make these people blockheads,
with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,
So they won't see a thing,
won't hear a word,
So they won't have a clue about what's going on
and, yes, so they won't turn around and be made whole."
11Astonished, I said,
"And Master, how long is this to go on?"
He said, "Until the cities are emptied out,
not a soul left in the cities--
Houses empty of people,
countryside empty of people.
12Until I, GOD, get rid of everyone, sending them off,
the land totally empty.
13And even if some should survive, say a tenth,
the devastation will start up again.
The country will look like pine and oak forest
with every tree cut down--
Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.
But there's a holy seed in those stumps."

Isaiah 7
A Virgin Will Bear a Son

1During the time that Ahaz son of Jothan, son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, but the attack sputtered out. 2When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind.
3Then GOD told Isaiah, "Go and meet Ahaz. Take your son Shear-jashub (A-Remnant-Will-Return) with you. Meet him south of the city at the end of the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. 4Tell him, Listen, calm down. Don't be afraid. And don't panic over these two burnt-out cases, Rezin of Aram and the son of Remaliah. They talk big but there's nothing to them. 5Aram, along with Ephraim's son of Remaliah, have plotted to do you harm. They've conspired against you, saying, 6"Let's go to war against Judah, dismember it, take it for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeel up as a puppet king over it.'
7But GOD, the Master, says,
"It won't happen.
Nothing will come of it
8Because the capital of Aram is Damascus
and the king of Damascus is a mere man, Rezin.
As for Ephraim, in sixty-five years
it will be rubble, nothing left of it.
9The capital of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the king of Samaria is the mere son of Remaliah.
If you don't take your stand in faith,
you won't have a leg to stand on." 10GOD spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, 11"Ask for a sign from your GOD. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!"
12But Ahaz said, "I'd never do that. I'd never make demands like that on GOD!"
13So Isaiah told him, "Then listen to this, government of David! It's bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you're making God tired. 14So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). 15By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, 16the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. 17But also be warned: GOD will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!"
18That's when GOD will whistle for the flies at the headwaters of Egypt's Nile, and whistle for the bees in the land of Assyria. 19They'll come and infest every nook and cranny of this country. There'll be no getting away from them.
20And that's when the Master will take the razor rented from across the Euphrates--the king of Assyria no less!-and shave the hair off your heads and genitals, leaving you shamed, exposed, and denuded. He'll shave off your beards while he's at it.
21It will be a time when survivors will count themselves lucky to have a cow and a couple of sheep. 22At least they'll have plenty of milk! Whoever's left in the land will learn to make do with the simplest foods--curds, say, and honey.
23But that's not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards--thousands of them, worth millions!-will revert to a weed patch. 24Weeds and thorn bushes everywhere! Good for nothing except, perhaps, hunting rabbits. 25Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds--but there won't be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.

---

What it means to me:
Ok, so I chose Isaiah really b/c God told me to read it on Sunday evening but I kinda failed the whole obedience at once thing, by procrastinating and playing video games and writing my chemistry lab instead. So I'm doing it now, sorry this is late Jesus.

Anyway, Isaiah, if you could list some of the most famous people in the old testament, I'm pretty sure Isaiah would be on that list. Anyway, I'm kinda like Isaiah, I get prophetic words from God as well, where I fail, is to share them more with the body, but then again, I don't really feel comfortable with my body of believers.

So ya, Isaiah. Basically God is angry at his chosen people, if your not into the whole Old testament, which really I haven't read all of it, I'm still trying to interpret the New testament, I think I should go over some of this with Cory, but then again, he doesn't read my blogs even though I favorited them on his computer.

So ya, Isaiah, I'm really confused by a bunch of this, I'd really like it if someone went over it with me so I have a better understanding, I'll put memory verses and such afterwards, I want to pick stuff out that speaks to me, but right now it's uber confusing. Help!

-Brent