Destiny Defining Decisions

ק Qoph

  ¹⁴⁵ I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord,
   and I will obey your decrees.
  ¹⁴⁶ I call out to you; save me
   and I will keep your statutes.
  ¹⁴⁷ I rise before dawn and cry for help;
   I have put my hope in your word.
  ¹⁴⁸ My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
   that I may meditate on your promises.
  ¹⁴⁹ Hear my voice in accordance with your love;
   preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws.
  ¹⁵⁰ Those who devise wicked schemes are near,
   but they are far from your law.
  ¹⁵¹ Yet you are near, Lord,
   and all your commands are true.
  ¹⁵² Long ago I learned from your statutes
   that you established them to last forever.

A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God

4 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ² For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. ³ Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

  “So I declared on oath in my anger,
   ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” ⁵ And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

⁶ Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, ⁷ God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

  “Today, if you hear his voice,
   do not harden your hearts.”

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰ for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

¹² For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The Lord’s Answer

  ¹⁸ Then the Lord was jealous for his land
   and took pity on his people.

¹⁹ The Lord replied to them:

  “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,
   enough to satisfy you fully;
  never again will I make you
   an object of scorn to the nations.

  ²⁰ “I will drive the northern horde far from you,
   pushing it into a parched and barren land;
  its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea
   and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.
  And its stench will go up;
   its smell will rise.”

  Surely he has done great things!
   ²¹ Do not be afraid, land of Judah;
   be glad and rejoice.
  Surely the Lord has done great things!
   ²² Do not be afraid, you wild animals,
   for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.
  The trees are bearing their fruit;
   the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
  ²³ Be glad, people of Zion,
   rejoice in the Lord your God,
  for he has given you the autumn rains
   because he is faithful.
  He sends you abundant showers,
   both autumn and spring rains, as before.
  ²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
   the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

  ²⁵ “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten —
   the great locust and the young locust,
   the other locusts and the locust swarm—
  my great army that I sent among you.
  ²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
   and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
   who has worked wonders for you;
  never again will my people be shamed.
  ²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel,
   that I am the Lord your God,
   and that there is no other;
  never again will my people be shamed.

The Day of the Lord

  ²⁸ “And afterwards,
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
  Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
   your old men will dream dreams,
   your young men will see visions.
  ²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
   I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
  ³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens
   and on the earth,
   blood and fire and billows of smoke.
  ³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood
   before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
  ³² And everyone who calls
   on the name of the Lord will be saved;
  for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
   there will be deliverance,
   as the Lord has said,
  even among the survivors
   whom the Lord calls.

The Nations Judged

  3 “In those days and at that time,
   when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
  ² I will gather all nations
   and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
  There I will put them on trial
   for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,
  because they scattered my people among the nations
   and divided up my land.
  ³ They cast lots for my people
   and traded boys for prostitutes;
   they sold girls for wine to drink.

⁴ “Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done. ⁵ For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples. ⁶ You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.

⁷ “See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” The Lord has spoken.

  ⁹ Proclaim this among the nations:
   Prepare for war!
  Rouse the warriors!
   Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
  ¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords
   and your pruning hooks into spears.
  Let the weakling say,
   “I am strong!”
  ¹¹ Come quickly, all you nations from every side,
   and assemble there.

  Bring down your warriors, Lord!

  ¹² “Let the nations be roused;
   let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
  for there I will sit
   to judge all the nations on every side.
  ¹³ Swing the sickle,
   for the harvest is ripe.
  Come, trample the grapes,
   for the winepress is full
   and the vats overflow—
  so great is their wickedness!”

  ¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes
   in the valley of decision!
  For the day of the Lord is near
   in the valley of decision.
  ¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened,
   and the stars no longer shine.
  ¹⁶ The Lord will roar from Zion
   and thunder from Jerusalem;
   the earth and the heavens will tremble.
  But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
   a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

  ¹⁷ “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
   dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
  Jerusalem will be holy;
   never again will foreigners invade her.

  ¹⁸ “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
   and the hills will flow with milk;
   all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
  A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
   and will water the valley of acacias.
  ¹⁹ But Egypt will be desolate,
   Edom a desert waste,
  because of violence done to the people of Judah,
   in whose land they shed innocent blood.
  ²⁰ Judah will be inhabited forever
   and Jerusalem through all generations.
  ²¹ Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
   No, I will not. ”

   The Lord dwells in Zion!