Nancy: Welcome to immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
day 200 and 58
a rise Jerusalem.
Let your light shine for all to see.
For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.
Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth.
But the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.
All nations will come to your light.
Mighty kings will come to see your radiance.
Look and see for everyone is coming home.
Your sons are coming from distant lands.
Your little daughters will be carried home.
Your eyes will shine and your heart will thrill with joy for merchants
from around the world will come to you.
They will bring you the wealth of many lands.
Vast caravans of camels will converge on you.
The camels of Midian and efa.
The people of Sheba will bring gold and frankincense and
will come worshiping the Lord.
The flocks of Kitter will be given to you, and the rams of NABE
will be brought for my altars.
I will accept their offerings and I will make my temple glorious.
And what do I see?
Flying like clouds to Israel, like doves to their nests.
They are ships from the ends of the earth, from lands that trust in me.
Led by the great ships of Tarshish, they are bringing the people
of Israel home from far away, carrying their silver and gold.
They will honor the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, for he has
filled you with splendor, foreigners will come to rebuild your towns
and their kings will serve you.
For Though I have destroyed you in my anger, I will now have
mercy on you through my grace.
Your gates will stay open day and night to receive the wealth of many lands.
The kings of the world will be led as captives in a victory procession.
For the nations that refuse to serve you will be destroyed.
The glory of Lebanon will be yours.
The forests of Cyprus, fur and pine to beautify my sanctuary.
My temple will be glorious.
The descendants of your tormentors will come and bow before you.
Those who despised you will kiss your feet.
They will call you the city of the Lord and Zion of the holy one of Israel.
Though you were once despised and hated with no one traveling through you,
I will make you beautiful forever.
A joy to all generations.
Powerful kings and mighty nations will satisfy your every need.
As though you were a child nursing at the breast of a queen, you will know at
last that I, the Lord am your savior and your redeemer, the mighty one of Israel.
I will exchange your bronze for gold, your iron for silver, your wood for
bronze, and your stones for iron.
I will make peace, your leader and righteousness.
Your ruler violence will disappear from your land.
The desolation and destruction of war will end.
Salvation will surround you like city walls and praise will be on
the lips of all who enter there.
No longer will you need the sun to shine by day nor the moon to give
its light by night for the Lord.
Your God will be your everlasting light and your God will be your glory.
Your son will never set, your moon will not go down.
For the Lord will be your everlasting light.
Your days of mourning will come to an end.
All your people will be righteous.
They will possess their land forever.
For I will plant them there with my own hands in order to bring myself glory.
The smallest family will become a thousand people and the tiniest group will become
a mighty nation at the right time.
I, the Lord will make it happen.
The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed
me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the broken hearted, and to proclaim
that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.
He has sent me to tell those who mourn, that the time of the Lord's
favor has come, and with it the day of God's anger against their enemies.
To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty
for ashes, a joyous blessing.
Instead of mourning festive praise instead of despair in their righteousness,
they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago.
They will revive them though they have been deserted for many generations.
Foreigners will be your servants.
They will feed your flocks and plow your fields and tend your vineyards.
You will be called priests of the Lord, ministers of our God.
You will feed on the treasures of the nations and boast in their
riches instead of shame and dishonor.
You will enjoy a double share of honor.
You'll possess a double portion of prosperity in your land and
everlasting joy will be yours.
For I the Lord, love, justice.
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an
everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be recognized and honored among the nations.
Everyone will realize that they are a people.
The Lord has blessed.
I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord, my God, for he has dressed me
with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
I am like a bride groom, dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels.
The sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world.
Everyone will praise him.
His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring with
plants springing up everywhere.
Because I love Zion, I will not keep still because my heart yearns for Jerusalem.
I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn and
her salvation blazes like a burning torch.
The nations will see your righteousness.
World leaders will be blinded by your glory and you will be given a
new name by the Lord's own mouth.
The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see a splendid
crown in the hand of God.
Never again will you be called the forsaken city or the desolate land.
Your new name will be the city of God's delight and the bride of God.
For the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride.
Your children will commit themselves to you o Jerusalem.
Just as a young man commits himself to his bride, then God will rejoice
over you as a bride groom rejoices over his bride O Jerusalem.
I have posted watchmen on your walls.
They will pray day and night, continually take no rest.
All you who pray to the Lord.
Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes
Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength.
I will never again hand you over to your enemies.
Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and new wine.
You raised the grain and you will eat it.
Praising the Lord.
Within the courtyards of the temple, you yourselves will
drink the wine you have pressed.
Go out through the gates, prepare the highway for my people to return, smooth
out the road, pull out the boulders.
Raise a flag for all the nations to see.
The Lord has sent this message to every land.
Tell the people of Israel look.
Your savior is coming.
See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.
They will be called the holy people and the people redeemed by the Lord, and
Jerusalem will be known as the desirable place, and the city no longer forsaken.
Who is this?
Who comes from Eden, from the city of Basra with his clothing stained red?
Who is this in Royal robes marching in his great strength.
It is I the Lord announcing your salvation.
It is I the Lord who has the power to save.
Why are your clothes so red as if you have been treading out grapes?
I have been treading the wine press alone.
No one was there to help me in my anger.
I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes.
In my fury, I have trampled my foes.
Their blood has stained my clothes for the time has come for me to avenge my people,
to ransom them from their oppressors.
I was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.
So I myself stepped in to save them with my strong arm and my wrath sustained me.
I crushed the nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground,
spilling their blood upon the earth.
I will tell of the Lord's unfailing love, I will praise
the Lord for all he has done.
I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted
according to his mercy and love.
He said, they are my very own people.
Surely they will not betray me again.
He became their savior in all their suffering.
He also suffered and he personally rescued them in his love and mercy.
He redeemed them.
He lifted them up and carried them through all the years, but they
rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit, so he became their
enemy and fought against them.
Then they remembered those days of old when Moses led his people out of Egypt.
They cried out where is the one who brought Israel through the sea?
With Moses as their shepherd, where is the one who sent his Holy
Spirit to be among his people?
Where is the one whose power was displayed when Moses lifted up his
hand, the one who divided the sea before them making himself famous forever.
Where is the one who led them through the bottom of the sea?
They were like fine stallions racing through the desert, never stumbling.
As with cattle going down into a peaceful valley, the spirit
of the Lord gave them rest.
You led your people Lord, and gained a magnificent reputation.
Lord, look down from heaven.
Look from your holy, glorious home and see us.
Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf?
Where are your mercy and compassion?
Now, surely you are still our father.
Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us, Lord, you would still be our father.
You are our redeemer from ages past.
Lord, why have you allowed us to turn from your path?
Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you?
Return and help us for we are your servants, the tribes that
are your special possession.
How briefly your holy people possessed your holy place and now
our enemies have destroyed it.
Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you as though we
had never been known as your people.
Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and calm down how the
mountains would quake in your presence.
As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming
would make the nations tremble.
Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame.
When you came down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond
our highest expectations and oh, how the mountains quaked.
For since the world began.
No ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you who works for those who wait
for him, you welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways, but
you have been very angry with us for we are not godly, we are constant sinners.
How can people like us be saved?
We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
Yet, no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.
Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.
And yet, oh Lord, you are our father.
We are the clay and you are the potter.
We are all formed by your hand.
Don't be so angry with us.
Lord, please don't remember our sins forever.
Look at us, we pray and see that we are all your people.
Your holy cities are destroyed.
Zion is a wilderness.
Yes, Jerusalem is a desolate ruin.
The holy and beautiful temple where our ancestors praised you
has been burned down and all the things of beauty are destroyed.
After all this, Lord must you still refuse to help us, will you
continue to be silent and punish us?
The Lord says I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.
I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.
I said, here I am.
Here I am to a nation that did not call on my name.
All day long.
I opened my arms to a rebellious people, but they follow their own evil paths and
their own crooked schemes all day long.
They insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.
They burn incense on pagan altars at night.
They go out among the graves worshiping the dead.
They eat the flesh of pigs and make stews with other forbidden foods.
Yet, they say to each other, don't come too close, or you will defile me.
I am holier than you.
These people are a stench in my nostrils.
An accurate smell that never goes away.
Look, my decree is written out in front of me.
I will not stand silent.
I will repay them in full.
Yes, I will repay them both for their own sins and for those of their ancestors.
Says the Lord.
For, they also burned incense on the mountains and insulted me on the hills.
I will pay them back in full, but I will not destroy them all, says the Lord.
For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones and someone
will say, don't throw them all away.
Some of those grapes are good, so I will not destroy all Israel for
I still have true servants there.
I will preserve a remnant of the people of Israel and of Judah to possess my land.
Those I choose will inherit it and my servants will live there.
The plane of Sharon will again be filled with flocks for my people who have
searched for me, and the Valley of AOR will be a place to pastor herds, but
because the rest of you have forsaken the Lord and have forgotten his temple.
Because you have prepared feasts to honor the God of fate and have offered
mixed wine to the god of destiny.
Now I will destin you for the sword.
All of you will bow down before the executioner for when I called
you, did not answer when I spoke.
You did not listen.
You deliberately sinned before my very eyes and chose to
do what you know I despise.
Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says.
My servants will eat, but you will starve.
My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty.
My servants will rejoice, but you will be sad and ashamed.
My servants will sing for joy, but you will cry in sorrow and despair.
Your name will be a curse word among my people.
For the sovereign Lord will destroy you and will call his
true servants by another name.
All who invoke a blessing or take an oath will do so by the God of truth.
For I will put aside my anger and forget the evil of earlier days.
Look, I am creating new heavens and a new earth and no one will even
think about the old ones anymore.
Be glad, rejoice forever in my creation.
And look, I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.
Her people will be a source of joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people.
And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it.
No more, no longer will babies die.
When only a few days old, no longer will adults die before
they have lived a full life.
No longer will people be considered old at 100 only the cursed will die that young.
In those days, people will live in the houses they build and eat
the fruit of their own vineyards.
Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and
confiscate their vineyards.
For my people will live as long as trees and my chosen ones will have
time to enjoy their hard won gains.
They will not work in vain and their children will not be doomed to misfortune
for they are people blessed by the Lord, and their children too will be blessed.
I will answer them before they even call to me.
While they are still talking about their needs, I will go
ahead and answer their prayers.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow, but the snakes will eat dust.
In those days, no one will be hurt or destroyed.
On my holy mountain, I the Lord have spoken.
This is what the Lord says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
Could you build me a temple as good as that?
Could you build me such a resting place?
My hands have made both heaven and earth.
They and everything in them are mine.
I the Lord have spoken.
I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts who tremble at my word,
but those who choose their own ways delighting in their detestable sins
will not have their offerings accepted.
When such people sacrifice bull, it is no more acceptable than a human sacrifice.
When they sacrifice a lamb, it's as though they had sacrificed a dog.
When they bring an offering of grain, They might as well offer the blood
of a pig when they burn frankincense.
It's as if they had blessed an idol.
I will send them great trouble.
All the things they feared for when I called, they did not answer when I spoke.
They did not listen.
They deliberately sinned before my very eyes and chose to do what they know.
I despise hear this message from the Lord.
All you who tremble at his words, your own people hate you and throw
you out for being loyal to my name.
Let the Lord be honored.
They scoff, be joyful in him, but they will be put to shame.
What is all the commotion in the city?
What is that terrible noise from the temple?
It is the voice of the Lord taking vengeance against his enemies.
Before the birth pains even begin, Jerusalem gives birth to a son Who has
ever seen anything as strange as this?
Whoever heard of such a thing.
Has a nation ever been born in a single day?
Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment, but by the time Jerusalem's, birth
pains begin, her children will be born.
Would I ever bring this nation to the point of birth and then not deliver it?
Asks the Lord?
No.
I would never keep this nation from being born says your God.
Rejoice with Jerusalem.
Be glad with her all you who love her, and all you who mourn for her, drink
deeply of her glory, even as an infant drinks at its mother's comforting breasts.
This is what the Lord says.
I will give Jerusalem a river of peace and prosperity.
The wealth of the nations will flow to her.
Her children will be nursed at her breasts, carried in
her arms, and held on her lap.
I will comfort you there in Jerusalem as a mother comforts her child.
When you see these things, your heart will rejoice.
You will flourish like the grass.
Everyone will see the Lord's hand of blessing on his servants and
his anger against his enemies.
See, the Lord is coming with fire and his swift chariots roar like a whirlwind.
He will bring punishment with the fury of his anger and the
flaming fire of his hot rebuke.
The Lord will punish the world by fire and by his sword.
He will judge the earth and many will be killed by him.
Those who consecrate and purify themselves in a sacred garden with its idol in
the center, feasting on pork and rats and other detestable meats will come
to a terrible end, says the Lord.
I can see what they are doing and I know what they are thinking.
So I will gather all nations and peoples together and they will see my glory.
I will perform a sign among them.
I will send those who survive to be messengers to the nations, to Tarshish,
to the Libyans and liens who are famous as archers to tubal and Greece and to all
the lands beyond the sea that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory There,
they will declare my glory to the nations.
They will bring the remnant of your people back from every nation.
They will bring them to my Holy Mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord.
They will ride on horses in chariots and wagons and on
mules and camels says the Lord.
And I will appoint some of them to be my priests.
And Levites I, the Lord have spoken as surely as my new
heavens and earth will remain.
So will you always be my people.
A name that will never disappear, says the Lord.
All humanity will come to worship me from week to week and from month to month.
And as they go out, they will see the dead bodies of those
who have rebelled against me.
For the worms that devour them will never die, and the fire that
burns them will never go out.
All who pass by will view them with utter horror.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.