December 8

John 16:12-24

[12] “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. [13] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. [14] He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. [15] All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

[16] “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” [17] So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” [18] So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” [19] Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? [20] Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. [21] When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. [22] So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. [23] In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. [24] Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Revelation 5

[1] Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. [2] And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” [3] And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, [4] and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. [5] And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

[6] And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. [7] And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. [8] And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. [9] And they sang a new song, saying, 

    “Worthy are you to take the scroll

        and to open its seals,

    for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

        from every tribe and language and people and nation, 

    [10] and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

        and they shall reign on the earth.”

    [11] Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, [12] saying with a loud voice, 

    “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

    to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

    and honor and glory and blessing!”

    [13] And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 

    “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

    be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

    [14] And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Job 31:1-23

    [1] “I have made a covenant with my eyes;

        how then could I gaze at a virgin? 

    [2] What would be my portion from God above

        and my heritage from the Almighty on high? 

    [3] Is not calamity for the unrighteous,

        and disaster for the workers of iniquity? 

    [4] Does not he see my ways

        and number all my steps?

    [5] “If I have walked with falsehood

        and my foot has hastened to deceit; 

    [6] (Let me be weighed in a just balance,

        and let God know my integrity!) 

    [7] if my step has turned aside from the way

        and my heart has gone after my eyes,

        and if any spot has stuck to my hands, 

    [8] then let me sow, and another eat,

        and let what grows for me be rooted out.

    [9] “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,

        and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, 

    [10] then let my wife grind for another,

        and let others bow down on her. 

    [11] For that would be a heinous crime;

        that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; 

    [12] for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon,

        and it would burn to the root all my increase.

    [13] “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,

        when they brought a complaint against me, 

    [14] what then shall I do when God rises up?

        When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? 

    [15] Did not he who made me in the womb make him?

        And did not one fashion us in the womb?

    [16] “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,

        or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, 

    [17] or have eaten my morsel alone,

        and the fatherless has not eaten of it 

    [18] (for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father,

        and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow), 

    [19] if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,

        or the needy without covering, 

    [20] if his body has not blessed me,

        and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep, 

    [21] if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,

        because I saw my help in the gate, 

    [22] then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,

        and let my arm be broken from its socket. 

    [23] For I was in terror of calamity from God,

        and I could not have faced his majesty.

Amos 1

[1] The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

[2] And he said: 

    “The LORD roars from Zion

        and utters his voice from Jerusalem;

    the pastures of the shepherds mourn,

        and the top of Carmel withers.”

    [3] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Damascus,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because they have threshed Gilead

        with threshing sledges of iron. 

    [4] So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael,

        and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. 

    [5] I will break the gate-bar of Damascus,

        and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven,

    and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden;

        and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,”

    says the LORD.

    [6] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Gaza,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because they carried into exile a whole people

        to deliver them up to Edom. 

    [7] So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,

        and it shall devour her strongholds. 

    [8] I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod,

        and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;

    I will turn my hand against Ekron,

        and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”

    says the Lord GOD.

    [9] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Tyre,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because they delivered up a whole people to Edom,

        and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. 

    [10] So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre,

        and it shall devour her strongholds.”

    [11] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Edom,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because he pursued his brother with the sword

        and cast off all pity,

    and his anger tore perpetually,

        and he kept his wrath forever. 

    [12] So I will send a fire upon Teman,

        and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.”

    [13] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of the Ammonites,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,

        that they might enlarge their border. 

    [14] So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,

        and it shall devour her strongholds,

    with shouting on the day of battle,

        with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; 

    [15] and their king shall go into exile,

        he and his princes together,”

    says the LORD.

Amos 2

[1] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Moab,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because he burned to lime

        the bones of the king of Edom. 

    [2] So I will send a fire upon Moab,

        and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,

    and Moab shall die amid uproar,

        amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet; 

    [3] I will cut off the ruler from its midst,

        and will kill all its princes with him,”

    says the LORD.

    [4] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Judah,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because they have rejected the law of the LORD,

        and have not kept his statutes,

    but their lies have led them astray,

        those after which their fathers walked. 

    [5] So I will send a fire upon Judah,

        and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

    [6] Thus says the LORD: 

    “For three transgressions of Israel,

        and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

    because they sell the righteous for silver,

        and the needy for a pair of sandals—

    [7] those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth

        and turn aside the way of the afflicted;

    a man and his father go in to the same girl,

        so that my holy name is profaned; 

    [8] they lay themselves down beside every altar

        on garments taken in pledge,

    and in the house of their God they drink

        the wine of those who have been fined.

    [9] “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

        whose height was like the height of the cedars

        and who was as strong as the oaks;

    I destroyed his fruit above

        and his roots beneath. 

    [10] Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

        and led you forty years in the wilderness,

        to possess the land of the Amorite. 

    [11] And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,

        and some of your young men for Nazirites.

        Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”

    declares the LORD.

    [12] “But you made the Nazirites drink wine,

        and commanded the prophets,

        saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

    [13] “Behold, I will press you down in your place,

        as a cart full of sheaves presses down. 

    [14] Flight shall perish from the swift,

        and the strong shall not retain his strength,

        nor shall the mighty save his life; 

    [15] he who handles the bow shall not stand,

        and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,

        nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; 

    [16] and he who is stout of heart among the mighty

        shall flee away naked in that day,”

    declares the LORD.

Bethlehem’s Supernatural Star

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:2)

Over and over the Bible baffles our curiosity about just how certain things happened. How did this “star” get the magi from the east to Jerusalem?

It does not say that it led them or went before them on the way to Jerusalem. It only says they saw a star in the east (Matthew 2:2) and came to Jerusalem. And how did that star go before them in the little five-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as Matthew 2:9 says it did? And how did a star “rest over the place where the child was”?

The answer is: We do not know. There are numerous efforts to explain it in terms of conjunctions of planets or comets or supernovas or miraculous lights. We just don’t know. And I want to exhort you not to become preoccupied — not to become fixated — on theories that are only tentative in the end and have very little spiritual significance.

I risk a generalization to warn you: People who are exercised and preoccupied with such things, as how the star worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns to blood, are generally people who have what I call a mentality for the marginal.

You do not see in them a deep cherishing of the great central things of the gospel: the holiness of God, the ugliness of sin, the helplessness of man, the death of Christ, justification by faith alone, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the glory of Christ’s return, and the final judgment. They always seem to be taking you down a sidetrack with some new article or book that they’re all excited about dealing with something marginal. There is little rejoicing over the great, central realities.

But what is plain concerning this matter of the star is that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: It is guiding magi to the Son of God to worship him.

There is only one Person in biblical thinking that can be behind that intentionality in the stars: God himself.

So, the lesson is plain: God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him. And he is doing it by exerting global — probably even universal — influence and power to get it done.

Luke shows God influencing the entire Roman Empire so that the census comes at the exact time to get an insignificant virgin to Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy with her delivery. Matthew shows God influencing the stars in the sky to get a little handful of foreigners to Bethlehem so that they can worship the Son.

This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it now. His aim is that the nations — all the nations (Matthew 24:14) — worship his Son.

This is God’s will for everybody in your office at work, and in your classroom, and in your neighborhood, and in your home. As John 4:23 says, “The Father is seeking such people to worship him.”

At the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come-see” pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go-tell.” The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell.

But what is not different is the purpose and power of God in the ingathering of the nations to worship his Son. The magnifying of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations is the reason the world exists.

John Piper 

The Real Battlefield

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” EPHESIANS 6:12

 

PONDER THIS

Kingdom authority must be strongly enforced. Satan is not going to roll over and play dead. You’re going to have to come against him in the power of the Holy Spirit. Our battle today is not with Washington, not with the White House. Our battle today is not with Hollywood. We need to learn this. Do you know why we’re not winning? We’re not showing up for the battle. We’re fighting the wrong people and the wrong things.

Simon Peter came to rebuke Jesus, saying, “You’re not going to go to the cross. ‘Be it far from You, Lord.’” Jesus Christ said to Simon Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan.” Now was Jesus calling Peter, Satan? Of course not, because Peter was not Satan. Jesus was looking right through Peter to the real enemy—Satan. Jesus was not fighting flesh and blood. He knew who the real enemy was, and that’s what you and I must understand. We’re in spiritual warfare. Let’s trust the Word of God and face the spiritual battle with all God has equipped us with through the Holy Spirit.

What are some battles you forget are spiritual?

What is the difference between handling a problem spiritually and trying to fix it based on your own control?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for the spiritual battles in the world around you. Ask God to open your eyes for how to pray for these things.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

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. 

“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

[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

    [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?

    [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?’”

    [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.

    [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

[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.

    [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.”

Messiah for the Magi

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:1–2)

Unlike Luke, Matthew does not tell us about the shepherds coming to visit Jesus in the stable. His focus is immediately on foreigners — Gentiles, non-Jews — coming from the east to worship Jesus.

So, Matthew portrays Jesus at the beginning and ending of his Gospel as a universal Messiah for all the nations, not just for Jews.

Here the first worshipers are court magicians, or astrologers, or wise men not from Israel but from the East — perhaps from Babylon. They were Gentiles. Unclean, according to the Old Testament ceremonial laws.

And at the end of Matthew, the last words of Jesus are, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18–19).

This not only opened the door for us Gentiles to rejoice in the Messiah; it added proof that he was the Messiah. Because one of the repeated prophecies was that the nations and kings would, in fact, come to him as the ruler of the world. For example, Isaiah 60:3, “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

So, Matthew adds proof to the messiahship of Jesus and shows that he is Messiah — a King, and Promise-Fulfiller — for all the nations, not just Israel.

John Piper