Today’s Bible reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 1:10–18

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them. ¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause, ¹²let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit. ¹³We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder. ¹⁴Throw in your lot with us; let us all share one purse”— ¹⁵my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path. ¹⁶For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood. ¹⁷How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it! ¹⁸But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.

New Testament·2 Corinthians 10

¹Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away. ²I beg you that when I come I may not need to be as bold as I expect toward those who presume that we live according to the flesh. ³For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. ⁴The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ⁶And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete. ⁷You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does. ⁸For even if I boast somewhat excessively about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed. ⁹I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you by my letters. ¹⁰For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.” ¹¹Such people should consider that what we are in our letters when absent, we will be in our actions when present. ¹²We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance. ¹³We, however, will not boast beyond our limits, but only within the field of influence that God has assigned to us—a field that reaches even to you. ¹⁴We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵Neither do we boast beyond our limits in the labors of others. But we hope that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you will greatly increase as well, ¹⁶so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Then we will not be boasting in the work already done in another man’s territory. ¹⁷Rather, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” ¹⁸For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Old Testament·Isaiah 9–10

¹Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations: ²The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. ³You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder. ⁴For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor. ⁵For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. ⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this. ⁸The Lord has sent a message against Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel. ⁹All the people will know it— Ephraim and the dwellers of Samaria. With pride and arrogance of heart they will say: ¹⁰“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone; the sycamores have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” ¹¹The LORD has raised up the foes of Rezin against him and joined his enemies together. ¹²Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have devoured Israel with open mouths. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. ¹³But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts. ¹⁴So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day. ¹⁵The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies. ¹⁶For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up. ¹⁷Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. ¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in billows of smoke. ¹⁹By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother. ²⁰They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring. ²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

10Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, ²to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder. ³What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? ⁴Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. ⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. ⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets. ⁷But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations. ⁸“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says. ⁹“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? ¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria, ¹¹and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?” ¹²So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. ¹³For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers. ¹⁴My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’” ¹⁵Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood! ¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame. ¹⁷And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles. ¹⁸The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man. ¹⁹The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them. ²⁰On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. ²¹A remnant will return —a remnant of Jacob— to the Mighty God. ²²Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness. ²³For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land. ²⁴Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.” ²⁶And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt. ²⁷On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large. ²⁸Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash. ²⁹They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. ³⁰Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth! ³¹Madmenah flees; the people of Gebim take refuge. ³²Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem. ³³Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled. ³⁴He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.