How to Reach Redemption
Who’s Going
to Do It?
By Riqui Ricón*
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he
may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ with all his saints (1 Thessalonians 3:12–13, KJV).
In this portion
of Scripture, today’s
reading shows you how God carries out His
Perfect Plan for your redemption. You HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN through faith in
Jesus Christ, and it is He, the Lord your God, who makes you grow and abound in
love toward one another. It is not you, it is not your actions, nor
your effort
to please Him that develops
Love in your life. It is He! Only He! It’s
His Plan!
Or can Scripture lie when it says about you, who are reborn (born again), Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter 1:23, KJV)?
And it is the Bible, the Word of God that does not lie, that clearly tells
you, And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us (Romans 5:5, KJV).
It is the Love of God, already
poured into your heart, and NOT YOUR ACTIONS,
that allows you to be confirmed and blameless in holiness before God your
Father. Do you see it? It is Him! It is the Holy Spirit in you!
There is no love so great, good, sublime,
and perfect as the love God has for you. This is Agape Love — the love that always hopes,
always endures, always believes, and never fails. It is
the love of the Eternal Covenant, through which God has decided to love you even if you do not
love Him.
If
we believe not, yet he abideth faithful:
he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13, KJV).
For millennia, humanity had been challenging
God, invalidating His Covenant. And what did He do? He did not destroy or
annihilate us, though He could have. No! Instead, He set out to make a New
Covenant, a better covenant established on better
promises. A New Covenant that will never
be invalidated.
And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me (Jeremiah
32:40, NIV).
This New Covenant is established between God and His own
Son Jesus, who, by paying for ALL the sins of humanity through
the shedding of His Blood and
His Life, gives you full access to Redemption.
God loves you so much that He gave His own Son rather than lose you.
For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John
3:16–17, KJV).
He promised it in the Bible, and He fulfilled it!
Now, the truly beautiful thing about the
Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is that the same principle applies to
holiness as it does to redemption. Holiness is not something you can achieve
by your own efforts; it is a spiritual
state, a position before God that is already given to you when you are BORN
AGAIN as a Child of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed,
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (1
Corinthians 6:11, KJV).
Remember,
in no way are you a sinner
saved by grace.
You are either a sinner or saved; you cannot be both at
the same time. You were a sinner, and now you are saved by His Grace! Likewise,
His Grace includes your sanctification and holiness. This is the New Covenant!
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, and
with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers… which they broke, although I
was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people (Jeremiah 31:31–33, KJV).
I ask you: Who’s going
to do it, you or Him?
Let’s pray out loud:
Beloved Heavenly Father, it is so beautiful
and comforting to know that You are God, and therefore You will fulfill in my
life every single Word You have spoken about me. Thank You! I can be certain,
according to Your Word, that blessed is the man or woman
who trusts in You. Today,
I speak healing and life over my entire being — spirit, soul,
and body. I declare that my family and all my loved ones will come to You, Lord
Jesus. I believe and receive the victory, the new life, the full and abundant
Eternal Life that You won for me by dying, paying for all my sins, and rising
again to give me Eternal Life. I am a Child of God, Born Again, and nothing and
no one in this world can stand against me, for
You, Jesus, are with me. Every problem,
illness, or circumstance I am facing right now, I will overcome,
because greater are You, Holy Spirit, who lives in me and with me, than he who
is in the world. I refuse to fear, because I am
filled with God’s Love, and perfect Love drives out fear. Father,
according to Your Word and through the death and
resurrection of Your Son Jesus Christ
(my Lord and Savior), You have made me righteous, holy, and perfect.
Therefore,
I believe and declare that the best of my life is yet to come. I am
healed! I am free! I am prosperous! I am joyful! I am a Child of God, Born
Again! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Important Note:
How do I become a Child of God? How do I establish a relationship with the
Almighty?
Just say the following prayer
aloud, putting all your attention
and heart into what you are saying to God:
Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of
God. That You came into this world, born
of the virgin Mary, to pay for all my sins, and I have
been a sinner. Therefore, today I say that I accept. I accept Your
sacrifice on the cross! I accept Your precious
Blood shed to the last drop out of love for me! I open my
heart to You and invite You in
because I want, Lord Jesus, that from today and forever You be my only and sufficient Savior, my
God, my King, and my Lord.
Thank You, Almighty God, because with this
simple prayer and profession of faith I have passed from death to Life, I have been transferred from darkness
to Your marvelous Light. Today I have been Born Again! God, now I am Your
Child! Now You are my Father! I will never be alone again! I will never live
defeated again. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Three Recommendations:
What just happened by you recognizing Jesus Christ as the Lord and
Savior of your life, according
to God's Word, is that you have been Born Again. No longer
as an ordinary human being, subject to the law of sin and death, but now as a
legitimate and authentic Child of God, Born Again, exactly like Jesus Christ, who is now your Older Brother. Therefore,
I give you these three, very important, recommendations:
1.
Pray. Praying is talking with God. So, find a quiet
place where you can begin talking to Him about everything. Do it out loud, and you will notice
how God always responds to your heart.
2.
Read and meditate
on the Word of God. The Bible
is the Word of God, so
get a Bible and start reading and meditating on it. How do you begin? It’s very simple. Depending on the day,
look up the reading program “The
Bible in One Year” and do the corresponding readings. You can get this program at: Through The Bible In One Year (palabradehonor.org). You will notice
that the program is set up so you can print it as a booklet.
3.
In prayer with God, your Father, look for and join a
Christian church or congregation where the Word of God is taught based
on the Good News, which are
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ricardo C. Peredo Jaime © 2020
Reading and Meditation on the Word of God
Do these daily readings, and by the end of one year you will have read the
entire Bible.
October 24 1 Thessalonians 2.17-3.13/ Isaiah 17-19 / Psalm 114
1 Thessalonians
2.17 But we, brethren,
being taken from you for
a short time in presence, not in
heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but
Satan hindered us.
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
20 For ye are our glory and joy.
3 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
2 And sent
Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel
of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that
we are appointed thereunto.
4 For verily,
when we were with you, we told you before
that we should suffer
tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
5 For this cause, when I could
no longer forbear,
I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have
tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
6 But now when
Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity,
and that ye have good remembrance of us
always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted
over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:
8 For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
9 For what thanks can we render
to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before
our God;
10 Night and day praying
exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in
your faith?
11 Now God himself and our Father,
and our Lord Jesus Christ,
direct our way unto you.
12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do
toward you:
13 To the end he may stablish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before
God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all
his saints.
Isaiah
17
The burden of Damascus. Behold,
Damascus is taken
away from being a
city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities
of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks,
which shall lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress
also shall cease
from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus, and the remnant
of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made
thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth
the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the
valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning
grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking
of an olive tree, two or
three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.
7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not
look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves,
or the images.
9 In that day shall his strong
cities be as a forsaken
bough, and an uppermost
branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
10 Because thou hast
forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange
slips:
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,
and in the morning shalt
thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the
day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people,
which make a noise like the noise
of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing
of mighty waters!
13 The nations
shall rush like the rushing
of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a
rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold
at eveningtide trouble;
and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and
the lot of them that rob us.
18 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond
the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even
in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a
people terrible from their beginning
hitherto; a nation
meted out and trodden
down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
3 All ye
inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign
on the mountains; and when he bloweth
a trumpet, hear ye.
4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place
like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For afore the harvest,
when the bud is perfect,
and the sour grape is ripening
in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take
away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts
of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the
earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time
shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a
people scattered and peeled,
and from a people terrible
from their beginning
hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the
rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD
of
hosts, the mount Zion.
19 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth
upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the
heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set
the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against
his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of
Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof:
and they shall seek to the idols,
and to the charmers, and to
them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce
king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be
emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks,
by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be
driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers
also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets
upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes
thereof, all that make sluices
and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the
princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish:
how say ye unto Pharaoh,
I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and
let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon
Egypt.
13 The princes of
Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced
Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD hath mingled
a perverse spirit
in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work
thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
15 Neither shall
there be any work for Egypt, which
the head or tail, branch
or rush, may do.
16 In that day shall
Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking
of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which
he shaketh over it.
17 And the land of
Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof
shall be afraid in himself,
because of the counsel of the
LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities
in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border
thereof to the LORD.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the
LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto
the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a
saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice
and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow
unto the LORD, and perform it.
How to Reach Redemption
Who’s Going
to Do It?
By Riqui Ricón*
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he
may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ with all his saints (1 Thessalonians 3:12–13, KJV).
In this portion
of Scripture, today’s
reading shows you how God carries out His
Perfect Plan for your redemption. You HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN through faith in
Jesus Christ, and it is He, the Lord your God, who makes you grow and abound in
love toward one another. It is not you, it is not your actions, nor
your effort
to please Him that develops
Love in your life. It is He! Only He! It’s
His Plan!
Or can Scripture lie when it says about you, who are reborn (born again), Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter 1:23, KJV)?
And it is the Bible, the Word of God that does not lie, that clearly tells
you, And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us (Romans 5:5, KJV).
It is the Love of God, already
poured into your heart, and NOT YOUR ACTIONS,
that allows you to be confirmed and blameless in holiness before God your
Father. Do you see it? It is Him! It is the Holy Spirit in you!
There is no love so great, good, sublime,
and perfect as the love God has for you. This is Agape Love — the love that always hopes,
always endures, always believes, and never fails. It is
the love of the Eternal Covenant, through which God has decided to love you even if you do not
love Him.
If
we believe not, yet he abideth faithful:
he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13, KJV).
For millennia, humanity had been challenging
God, invalidating His Covenant. And what did He do? He did not destroy or
annihilate us, though He could have. No! Instead, He set out to make a New
Covenant, a better covenant established on better
promises. A New Covenant that will never
be invalidated.
And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me (Jeremiah
32:40, NIV).
This New Covenant is established between God and His own
Son Jesus, who, by paying for ALL the sins of humanity through
the shedding of His Blood and
His Life, gives you full access to Redemption.
God loves you so much that He gave His own Son rather than lose you.
For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John
3:16–17, KJV).
He promised it in the Bible, and He fulfilled it!
Now, the truly beautiful thing about the
Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is that the same principle applies to
holiness as it does to redemption. Holiness is not something you can achieve
by your own efforts; it is a spiritual
state, a position before God that is already given to you when you are BORN
AGAIN as a Child of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed,
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (1
Corinthians 6:11, KJV).
Remember,
in no way are you a sinner
saved by grace.
You are either a sinner or saved; you cannot be both at
the same time. You were a sinner, and now you are saved by His Grace! Likewise,
His Grace includes your sanctification and holiness. This is the New Covenant!
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, and
with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers… which they broke, although I
was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people (Jeremiah 31:31–33, KJV).
I ask you: Who’s going
to do it, you or Him?
Let’s pray out loud:
Beloved Heavenly Father, it is so beautiful
and comforting to know that You are God, and therefore You will fulfill in my
life every single Word You have spoken about me. Thank You! I can be certain,
according to Your Word, that blessed is the man or woman
who trusts in You. Today,
I speak healing and life over my entire being — spirit, soul,
and body. I declare that my family and all my loved ones will come to You, Lord
Jesus. I believe and receive the victory, the new life, the full and abundant
Eternal Life that You won for me by dying, paying for all my sins, and rising
again to give me Eternal Life. I am a Child of God, Born Again, and nothing and
no one in this world can stand against me, for
You, Jesus, are with me. Every problem,
illness, or circumstance I am facing right now, I will overcome,
because greater are You, Holy Spirit, who lives in me and with me, than he who
is in the world. I refuse to fear, because I am
filled with God’s Love, and perfect Love drives out fear. Father,
according to Your Word and through the death and
resurrection of Your Son Jesus Christ
(my Lord and Savior), You have made me righteous, holy, and perfect.
Therefore,
I believe and declare that the best of my life is yet to come. I am
healed! I am free! I am prosperous! I am joyful! I am a Child of God, Born
Again! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Important Note:
How do I become a Child of God? How do I establish a relationship with the
Almighty?
Just say the following prayer
aloud, putting all your attention
and heart into what you are saying to God:
Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of
God. That You came into this world, born
of the virgin Mary, to pay for all my sins, and I have
been a sinner. Therefore, today I say that I accept. I accept Your
sacrifice on the cross! I accept Your precious
Blood shed to the last drop out of love for me! I open my
heart to You and invite You in
because I want, Lord Jesus, that from today and forever You be my only and sufficient Savior, my
God, my King, and my Lord.
Thank You, Almighty God, because with this
simple prayer and profession of faith I have passed from death to Life, I have been transferred from darkness
to Your marvelous Light. Today I have been Born Again! God, now I am Your
Child! Now You are my Father! I will never be alone again! I will never live
defeated again. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Three Recommendations:
What just happened by you recognizing Jesus Christ as the Lord and
Savior of your life, according
to God's Word, is that you have been Born Again. No longer
as an ordinary human being, subject to the law of sin and death, but now as a
legitimate and authentic Child of God, Born Again, exactly like Jesus Christ, who is now your Older Brother. Therefore,
I give you these three, very important, recommendations:
1.
Pray. Praying is talking with God. So, find a quiet
place where you can begin talking to Him about everything. Do it out loud, and you will notice
how God always responds to your heart.
2.
Read and meditate
on the Word of God. The Bible
is the Word of God, so
get a Bible and start reading and meditating on it. How do you begin? It’s very simple. Depending on the day,
look up the reading program “The
Bible in One Year” and do the corresponding readings. You can get this program at: Through The Bible In One Year (palabradehonor.org). You will notice
that the program is set up so you can print it as a booklet.
3.
In prayer with God, your Father, look for and join a
Christian church or congregation where the Word of God is taught based
on the Good News, which are
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ricardo C. Peredo Jaime © 2020
Reading and Meditation on the Word of God
Do these daily readings, and by the end of one year you will have read the
entire Bible.
October 24 1 Thessalonians 2.17-3.13/ Isaiah 17-19 / Psalm 114
1 Thessalonians
2.17 But we, brethren,
being taken from you for
a short time in presence, not in
heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but
Satan hindered us.
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
20 For ye are our glory and joy.
3 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
2 And sent
Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel
of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that
we are appointed thereunto.
4 For verily,
when we were with you, we told you before
that we should suffer
tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
5 For this cause, when I could
no longer forbear,
I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have
tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
6 But now when
Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity,
and that ye have good remembrance of us
always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted
over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:
8 For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
9 For what thanks can we render
to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before
our God;
10 Night and day praying
exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in
your faith?
11 Now God himself and our Father,
and our Lord Jesus Christ,
direct our way unto you.
12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do
toward you:
13 To the end he may stablish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before
God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all
his saints.
Isaiah
17
The burden of Damascus. Behold,
Damascus is taken
away from being a
city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities
of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks,
which shall lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress
also shall cease
from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus, and the remnant
of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made
thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth
the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the
valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning
grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking
of an olive tree, two or
three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.
7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not
look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves,
or the images.
9 In that day shall his strong
cities be as a forsaken
bough, and an uppermost
branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
10 Because thou hast
forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange
slips:
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,
and in the morning shalt
thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the
day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people,
which make a noise like the noise
of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing
of mighty waters!
13 The nations
shall rush like the rushing
of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a
rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold
at eveningtide trouble;
and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and
the lot of them that rob us.
18 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond
the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even
in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a
people terrible from their beginning
hitherto; a nation
meted out and trodden
down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
3 All ye
inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign
on the mountains; and when he bloweth
a trumpet, hear ye.
4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place
like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For afore the harvest,
when the bud is perfect,
and the sour grape is ripening
in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take
away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts
of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the
earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time
shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a
people scattered and peeled,
and from a people terrible
from their beginning
hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the
rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD
of
hosts, the mount Zion.
19 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth
upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the
heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set
the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against
his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of
Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof:
and they shall seek to the idols,
and to the charmers, and to
them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce
king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be
emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks,
by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be
driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers
also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets
upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes
thereof, all that make sluices
and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the
princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish:
how say ye unto Pharaoh,
I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and
let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon
Egypt.
13 The princes of
Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced
Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD hath mingled
a perverse spirit
in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work
thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
15 Neither shall
there be any work for Egypt, which
the head or tail, branch
or rush, may do.
16 In that day shall
Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking
of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which
he shaketh over it.
17 And the land of
Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof
shall be afraid in himself,
because of the counsel of the
LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities
in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border
thereof to the LORD.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the
LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto
the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a
saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice
and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow
unto the LORD, and perform it.
22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
23 In that day shall there be a highway
out of Egypt to Assyria,
and the Assyrian shall come
into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with
the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a
blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall
bless, saying, Blessed
be Egypt my people,
and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
Psalm
114 When Israel
went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people
of strange language;
2 Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.
3 The sea saw it, and fled:
Jordan was driven
back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?
6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped
like rams; and ye little
hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence
of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;
8 Which turned the rock into a standing water,
the flint into a fountain
of waters.
