JULY 2

 

JUDGMENT AGAINST EDOM.    isa.21:11,12

An oracle concerning Dumah:

Someone calls to me from Seir,

"Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?" The watchman replies,

"Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again."

 

SECOND JUDGMENT AGAINST EDOM. isa. 34:5-17

My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

see, it descends in judgment on Edom,

the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the lord is bathed in blood,

it is covered with fat— the blood of lambs and goats,

fat from the kidneys of rams. For the lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah

and a great slaughter in Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them,

the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood,

and the dust will be soaked with fat.

 

For the lord has a day of vengeance,

a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause. Edom's streams will be turned into pitch,

her dust into burning sulfur;

her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day;

its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate;

no one will ever pass through it again. The desert owl"? and screech owl will possess it;

the great owl  and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom

the measuring line of chaos

and the plumb line of desolation. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,

 

all her princes will vanish away. Thorns will overrun her citadels,

nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals,

a home for owls. Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,

and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose

and find for themselves places of rest. The owl will nest there and lay eggs,

she will hatch them, and care for her young under the

shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather,

each with its mate.

 

Look in the scroll of the lord and read:

 

None of these will be missing,

not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order,

and his Spirit will gather them together. He allots their portions;

his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever

and dwell there from generation to generation.

 

JUDGMENT AGAINST ARABIA isa 21:13-17

  An oracle concerning Arabia:

 

You caravans of Dedanites,

who camp in the thickets of Arabia,

bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema,

bring food for the fugitives. They flee from the sword,

from the drawn sword, from the bent bow

and from the heat of battle.

 

This is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." The lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

 

JUDGMENT AGAINST TYRE isa. 23:1-18    .   

An oracle concerning Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish!

 For Tyre is destroyed

'The precise identification of these birds is uncertain.

and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprusr word has come to them.

 

Be silent, you people of the island

and you merchants of Sidon,

whom the seafarers have enriched. On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile5 was the revenue of Tyre,

and she became the marketplace of the nations.

 

Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken: "I have neither been in labor nor given birth;

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters." When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

 

Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, you people of the island. Is this your city of revelry,

the old, old city, whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands? Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are renowned in the earth? The lord Almighty planned it,

to bring low the pride of all glory

and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

 

Till your land as along the Nile,

O Daughter of Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbor. The lord has stretched out his hand over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia"

that her fortresses be destroyed. He said, "No more of your reveling,

O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed!

 

"Up, cross over to Cyprus;

even there you will find no rest." Look at the land of the Babylonians,

this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it

a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers,

they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.

 

Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

"Take up a harp, walk through the city,

O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered."

 

At the end of seventy years, the lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the lord; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the lord, for abundant food and fine clothes.

 

It is not long before some of the judgments begin to be fulfilled, just as Isaiah has prophesied.

 

In Judah

AHAZ PROMOTES SYRIA'S FALL. 2Kgs. 16:7,8

Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, "I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me." And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

 

TIGLATH-PILESER TAKES DAMASCUS. 2Kgs. 16:9,10a

The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death.

Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria.

 

AHAZ ORDERS SYRIAN ALTAR. 2Kgs. 16:10b, 11

He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its con­struction. So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned.

 

SACRIFICES ON NEW ALTAR. 2Kgs. 16:12-14

When the king came back from Damas­cus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings'" on it. He offered up his burnt offering and grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings1 on the altar. The bronze altar that stood before the lord he brought from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar.

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE. 2Kgs. 16:15,16

King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: "On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and his grain offering,

and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offer­ing and their drink offering. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guid­ance." And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.

 

USE OF OLD ALTAR. 2Kgs. 16:17,18

King Ahaz took away the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. He took away the Sabbath canopy V that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.

 

EXTENT OF AHAZ'S CORRUPTION . 2 Chron. 28:22-25

In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the lord. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him; for he thought, "Since the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me." But they were his downfall and the downfall of all Israel.

Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away.2 He shut the doors of the lord's temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the lord, the God of his fathers, to anger.

 

DEATH OF AHAZ. 2 Chron. 28:26,27a  [2Kgs. 16:19,20a ]

The other events of his reign and all his ways, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel.

 

HEZEKIAH BEGINS SOLE REIGN. 2Kgs. 16:20b 18:1,2 [2 Chron. 28:27b;29:l ]

And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king. In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah" daughter of Zechariah.

 

HEZEKIAH'S CHARACTER. 2Kgs. 18:3-7a [2 Chron. 29:2]

He did what was right in the eyes of the lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was calledb Nehushtan.c)

Hezekiah trusted in the lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the lord had given Moses. And the lord was with him; he was success­ful in whatever he undertook.