The Daily Audio Bible

God Calls Isaiah to Be a Prophet

6 ^(A)In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on his throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole Temple. ² Around him flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings. Each creature covered its face with two wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying. ^3 (B)They were calling out to each other:

^4 (C)The sound of their voices made the foundation of the Temple shake, and the Temple itself became filled with smoke.

⁵ I said, “There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the creatures flew down to me, carrying a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. ⁷ He touched my lips with the burning coal and said, “This has touched your lips, and now your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven.”

⁸ Then I heard the Lord say, “Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?”

I answered, “I will go! Send me!”

^9 (D)So he told me to go and give the people this message: “No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening.” ¹⁰ Then he said to me, “Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed.”

¹¹ I asked, “How long will it be like this, Lord?”

He answered, “Until the cities are ruined and empty—until the houses are uninhabited—until the land itself is a desolate wasteland. ¹² I will send the people far away and make the whole land desolate. ¹³ Even if one person out of ten remains in the land, he too will be destroyed; he will be like the stump of an oak tree that has been cut down.”

(The stump represents a new beginning for God's people.)

A Message for King Ahaz

7 ^(E)When King Ahaz, the son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, ruled Judah, war broke out. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, attacked Jerusalem, but were unable to capture it.

² When word reached the king of Judah that the armies of Syria were already in the territory of Israel, he and all his people were so terrified that they trembled like trees shaking in the wind.

³ The Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear Jashub,^[a] and go to meet King Ahaz. You will find him on the road where the cloth makers work, at the end of the ditch that brings water from the upper pool. ⁴ Tell him to keep alert, to stay calm, and not to be frightened or disturbed. The anger of King Rezin and his Syrians and of King Pekah is no more dangerous than the smoke from two smoldering sticks of wood. ⁵ Syria, together with Israel and its king, has made a plot. ⁶ They intend to invade Judah, terrify the people into joining their side, and then put Tabeel's son on the throne.

⁷ “But I, the Lord, declare that this will never happen. ⁸ Why? Because Syria is no stronger than Damascus, its capital city, and Damascus is no stronger than King Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be too shattered to survive as a nation. ⁹ Israel is no stronger than Samaria, its capital city, and Samaria is no stronger than King Pekah.

“If your faith is not enduring, you will not endure.”

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰ The Lord sent another message to Ahaz: ¹¹ “Ask the Lord your God to give you a sign. It can be from deep in the world of the dead or from high up in heaven.”

¹² Ahaz answered, “I will not ask for a sign. I refuse to put the Lord to the test.”

¹³ To that Isaiah replied, “Listen, now, descendants of King David. It's bad enough for you to wear out the patience of people—do you have to wear out God's patience too? ^14 (F)Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman^[b] who is pregnant will have a son and will name him ‘Immanuel.’^{[c] 15} By the time he is old enough to make his own decisions, people will be drinking milk and eating honey.^{[d] 16} Even before that time comes, the lands of those two kings who terrify you will be deserted.

¹⁷ “The Lord is going to bring on you, on your people, and on the whole royal family, days of trouble worse than any that have come since the kingdom of Israel separated from Judah—he is going to bring the king of Assyria.

¹⁸ “When that time comes, the Lord will whistle as a signal for the Egyptians to come like flies from the farthest branches of the Nile, and for the Assyrians to come from their land like bees. ¹⁹ They will swarm in the rugged valleys and in the caves in the rocks, and they will cover every thorn bush and every pasture.

²⁰ “When that time comes, the Lord will hire a barber from across the Euphrates—the emperor of Assyria!—and he will shave off your beards and the hair on your heads and your bodies.

²¹ “When that time comes, even if a farmer has been able to save only one young cow and two goats, ²² they will give so much milk that he will have all he needs. Yes, the few survivors left in the land will have milk and honey to eat.

²³ “When that time comes, the fine vineyards, each with a thousand vines and each worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be overgrown with thorn bushes and briers. ²⁴ People will go hunting there with bows and arrows. Yes, the whole country will be full of briers and thorn bushes. ²⁵ All the hills where crops were once planted will be so overgrown with thorns that no one will go there. It will be a place where cattle and sheep graze.”

Paul's Sufferings as an Apostle

¹⁶ I repeat: no one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, just so I will have a little to boast of. ¹⁷ Of course what I am saying now is not what the Lord would have me say; in this matter of boasting I am really talking like a fool. ¹⁸ But since there are so many who boast for merely human reasons, I will do the same. ¹⁹ You yourselves are so wise, and so you gladly tolerate fools! ²⁰ You tolerate anyone who orders you around or takes advantage of you or traps you or looks down on you or slaps you in the face. ²¹ I am ashamed to admit that we were too timid to do those things!

But if anyone dares to boast about something—I am talking like a fool—I will be just as daring. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. ^23 (A)Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman—but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often. ^24 (B)Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; ^25 (C)three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. ^26 (D)In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. ²⁷ There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing. ²⁸ And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches. ²⁹ When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress.

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am. ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus—blessed be his name forever!—knows that I am not lying. ^32 (E)When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas placed guards at the city gates to arrest me. ³³ But I was let down in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped from him.

^(A)A Prayer for Protection from Enemies^[a]

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23 When you sit down to eat with someone important, keep in mind who he is.^{[a] 2} If you have a big appetite, restrain yourself. ³ Don't be greedy for the fine food he serves; he may be trying to trick you.