December 7

John 16:1-11

[1] “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. [2] They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. [3] And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. [4] But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. 

The Work of the Holy Spirit

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. [5] But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ [6] But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. [7] Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. [8] And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: [9] concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; [10] concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; [11] concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Revelation 4

The Throne in Heaven

[1] After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” [2] At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. [3] And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. [4] Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. [5] From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, [6] and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. 

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:  [7] the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. [8] And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 

    “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,

        who was and is and is to come!”

    [9] And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, [10] the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

    [11] “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,

        to receive glory and honor and power,

    for you created all things,

        and by your will they existed and were created.”

Job 30

    [1] “But now they laugh at me,

        men who are younger than I,

    whose fathers I would have disdained

        to set with the dogs of my flock. 

    [2] 

    What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

        men whose vigor is gone? 

    [3] 

    Through want and hard hunger

        they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation; 

    [4] 

    they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,

        and the roots of the broom tree for their food. 

    [5] 

    They are driven out from human company;

        they shout after them as after a thief. 

    [6] 

    In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,

        in holes of the earth and of the rocks. 

    [7] 

    Among the bushes they bray;

        under the nettles they huddle together. 

    [8] 

    A senseless, a nameless brood,

        they have been whipped out of the land.

    [9] 

    “And now I have become their song;

        I am a byword to them. 

    [10] 

    They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;

        they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. 

    [11] 

    Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,

        they have cast off restraint in my presence. 

    [12] 

    On my right hand the rabble rise;

        they push away my feet;

        they cast up against me their ways of destruction. 

    [13] 

    They break up my path;

        they promote my calamity;

        they need no one to help them. 

    [14] 

    As through a wide breach they come;

        amid the crash they roll on. 

    [15] 

    Terrors are turned upon me;

        my honor is pursued as by the wind,

        and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

    [16] 

    “And now my soul is poured out within me;

        days of affliction have taken hold of me. 

    [17] 

    The night racks my bones,

        and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. 

    [18] 

    With great force my garment is disfigured;

        it binds me about like the collar of my tunic. 

    [19] 

    God has cast me into the mire,

        and I have become like dust and ashes. 

    [20] 

    I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;

        I stand, and you only look at me. 

    [21] 

    You have turned cruel to me;

        with the might of your hand you persecute me. 

    [22] 

    You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,

        and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. 

    [23] 

    For I know that you will bring me to death

        and to the house appointed for all living.

    [24] 

    “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

        and in his disaster cry for help? 

    [25] 

    Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?

        Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 

    [26] 

    But when I hoped for good, evil came,

        and when I waited for light, darkness came. 

    [27] 

    My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

        days of affliction come to meet me. 

    [28] 

    I go about darkened, but not by the sun;

        I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. 

    [29] 

    I am a brother of jackals

        and a companion of ostriches. 

    [30] 

    My skin turns black and falls from me,

        and my bones burn with heat. 

    [31] 

    My lyre is turned to mourning,

        and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

Joel 2

The Day of the LORD

    [1] Blow a trumpet in Zion;

        sound an alarm on my holy mountain!

    Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

        for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, 

    [2] a day of darkness and gloom,

        a day of clouds and thick darkness!

    Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains

        a great and powerful people;

    their like has never been before,

        nor will be again after them

        through the years of all generations.

    [3] Fire devours before them,

        and behind them a flame burns.

    The land is like the garden of Eden before them,

        but behind them a desolate wilderness,

        and nothing escapes them.

    [4] Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,

        and like war horses they run. 

    [5] As with the rumbling of chariots,

        they leap on the tops of the mountains,

    like the crackling of a flame of fire

        devouring the stubble,

    like a powerful army

        drawn up for battle.

    [6] Before them peoples are in anguish;

        all faces grow pale. 

    [7] Like warriors they charge;

        like soldiers they scale the wall.

    They march each on his way;

        they do not swerve from their paths. 

    [8] They do not jostle one another;

        each marches in his path;

    they burst through the weapons

        and are not halted. 

    [9] They leap upon the city,

        they run upon the walls,

    they climb up into the houses,

        they enter through the windows like a thief.

    [10] The earth quakes before them;

        the heavens tremble.

    The sun and the moon are darkened,

        and the stars withdraw their shining. 

    [11] The LORD utters his voice

        before his army,

    for his camp is exceedingly great;

        he who executes his word is powerful.

    For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome;

        who can endure it?

    Return to the LORD

    [12] “Yet even now,” declares the LORD,

        “return to me with all your heart,

    with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 

    [13]     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

    Return to the LORD your God,

        for he is gracious and merciful,

    slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;

        and he relents over disaster. 

    [14] Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,

        and leave a blessing behind him,

    a grain offering and a drink offering

        for the LORD your God?

    [15] Blow the trumpet in Zion;

        consecrate a fast;

    call a solemn assembly; 

    [16]     gather the people.

    Consecrate the congregation;

        assemble the elders;

    gather the children,

        even nursing infants.

    Let the bridegroom leave his room,

        and the bride her chamber.

    [17] Between the vestibule and the altar

        let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep

    and say, “Spare your people, O LORD,

        and make not your heritage a reproach,

        a byword among the nations.

    Why should they say among the peoples,

        ‘Where is their God?’”

    The LORD Had Pity

    [18] Then the LORD became jealous for his land

        and had pity on his people. 

    [19] The LORD answered and said to his people,

    “Behold, I am sending to you

        grain, wine, and oil,

        and you will be satisfied;

    and I will no more make you

        a reproach among the nations.

    [20] “I will remove the northerner far from you,

        and drive him into a parched and desolate land,

    his vanguard into the eastern sea,

        and his rear guard into the western sea;

    the stench and foul smell of him will rise,

        for he has done great things.

    [21] “Fear not, O land;

        be glad and rejoice,

        for the LORD has done great things! 

    [22] Fear not, you beasts of the field,

        for the pastures of the wilderness are green;

    the tree bears its fruit;

        the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

    [23] “Be glad, O children of Zion,

        and rejoice in the LORD your God,

    for he has given the early rain for your vindication;

        he has poured down for you abundant rain,

        the early and the latter rain, as before.

    [24] “The threshing floors shall be full of grain;

        the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 

    [25] I will restore to you the years

        that the swarming locust has eaten,

    the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,

        my great army, which I sent among you.

    [26] “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

        and praise the name of the LORD your God,

        who has dealt wondrously with you.

    And my people shall never again be put to shame. 

    [27] You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

        and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else.

    And my people shall never again be put to shame.

    The LORD Will Pour Out His Spirit

    [28]  “And it shall come to pass afterward,

        that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

    your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

        your old men shall dream dreams,

        and your young men shall see visions. 

    [29] Even on the male and female servants

        in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

    [30] “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. [31] The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. [32] And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

Joel 3

The LORD Judges the Nations

[1]  “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, [2] I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, [3] and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

[4] “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. [5] For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. [6] You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. [7] Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. [8] I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the LORD has spoken.”

    [9] Proclaim this among the nations:

    Consecrate for war;

        stir up the mighty men.

    Let all the men of war draw near;

        let them come up. 

    [10] Beat your plowshares into swords,

        and your pruning hooks into spears;

        let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

    [11] Hasten and come,

        all you surrounding nations,

        and gather yourselves there.

    Bring down your warriors, O LORD. 

    [12] Let the nations stir themselves up

        and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

    for there I will sit to judge

        all the surrounding nations.

    [13] Put in the sickle,

        for the harvest is ripe.

    Go in, tread,

        for the winepress is full.

    The vats overflow,

        for their evil is great.

    [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 the moon are darkened,

        and the stars withdraw their shining.

    [16] The LORD roars from Zion,

        and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

        and the heavens and the earth quake.

    But the LORD is a refuge to his people,

        a stronghold to the people of Israel.

    The Glorious Future of Judah

    [17] “So you shall know that I am the LORD your God,

        who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.

    And Jerusalem shall be holy,

        and strangers shall never again pass through it.

    [18] “And in that day

    the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

        and the hills shall flow with milk,

    and all the streambeds of Judah

        shall flow with water;

    and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD

        and water the Valley of Shittim.

    [19] “Egypt shall become a desolation

        and Edom a desolate wilderness,

    for the violence done to the people of Judah,

        because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 

    [20] But Judah shall be inhabited forever,

        and Jerusalem to all generations. 

    [21] I will avenge their blood,

        blood I have not avenged,

        for the LORD dwells in Zion.”