The One Year Bible TLB (262 page)

Micah 5:1–7:20

Revelation 7:1-17

Psalm 135:1-21

Proverbs 30:5-6

Micah 5:1–7:20

Mobilize! The enemy lays siege to Jerusalem! With a rod they shall strike the Judge of Israel on the face.

2
 “O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!”
3
 God will abandon his people to their enemies until she who is to give birth has her son; then at last his fellow countrymen—the exile remnants of Israel—will rejoin their brethren in their own land.

4
 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and his people shall remain there undisturbed, for he will be greatly honored all around the world.
5
 He will be our Peace. And when the Assyrian
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invades our land and marches across our hills, he will appoint seven shepherds to watch over us, eight princes to lead us.
6
 They will rule Assyria with drawn swords and enter the gates of the land of Nimrod. He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land.

7
 Then the nation of Israel will refresh the world like a gentle dew or the welcome showers of rain,
8
 and Israel will be as strong as a lion. The nations will be like helpless sheep before her!
9
 She will stand up to her foes; all her enemies will be wiped out.

10
 “At that same time,” says the Lord, “I will destroy all the weapons you depend on,
11
 tear down your walls, and demolish the defenses of your cities.
12
 I will put an end to all witchcraft—there will be no more fortune-tellers to consult—
13
 and destroy all your idols. Never again will you worship what you have made,
14
 for I will abolish the heathen shrines from among you, and destroy the cities where your idol temples stand.

15
 “I will pour out my vengeance upon the nations who refuse to obey me.”

6:
1
 Listen to what the Lord is saying to his people:

“Stand up and state your case against me. Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaint.

2
 “And now, O mountains, listen to the Lord’s complaint! For he has a case against his people Israel! He will prosecute them to the full.
3
 O my people, what have I done that makes you turn away from me? Tell me why your patience is exhausted! Answer me!
4
 For I brought you out of Egypt and cut your chains of slavery. I gave you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you.

5
 “Don’t you remember, O my people, how Balak, king of Moab, tried to destroy you through the curse of Balaam, son of Beor, but I made him bless you instead? That is the kindness I showed you again and again. Have you no memory at all of what happened at Acacia and Gilgal and how I blessed you there?”

6
 “How can we make up to you for what we’ve done?” you ask. “Shall we bow before the Lord with offerings of yearling calves?”

Oh no!
7
 For if you offered him thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of olive oil—would that please him? Would he be satisfied? If you sacrificed your oldest child, would that make him glad? Then would he forgive your sins? Of course not!

8
 No, he has told you what he wants, and this is all it is:
to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.

9
 The Lord’s voice calls out to all Jerusalem—listen to the Lord if you are wise! “The armies of destruction are coming; the Lord is sending them.
10
 For your sins are very great—is there to be no end of getting rich by cheating? The homes of the wicked are full of ungodly treasures and lying scales.
11
 Shall I say ‘Good!’ to all your merchants with their bags of false, deceitful weights? How could God be just while saying that?
12
 Your rich men are wealthy through extortion and violence; your citizens are so used to lying that their tongues can’t tell the truth!

13
 “Therefore I will wound you! I will make your hearts miserable for all your sins.
14
 You will eat but never have enough; hunger pangs and emptiness will still remain. And though you try and try to save your money, it will come to nothing at the end, and what little you succeed in storing up I’ll give to those who conquer you!
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15
 You will plant crops but not harvest them; you will press out the oil from the olives and not get enough to anoint yourself! You will trample the grapes but get no juice to make your wine.

16
 “The only commands you keep are those of Omri; the only example you follow is that of Ahab! Therefore, I will make an awesome example of you—I will destroy you. I will make you the laughingstock of the world; all who see you will snicker and sneer!”

7:
1-2
 Woe is me! It is as hard to find an honest man as grapes and figs when harvest days are over. Not a cluster to eat, not a single early fig, however much I long for it! The good men have disappeared from the earth; not one fair-minded man is left. They are all murderers, turning against even their own brothers.

3
 They go at their evil deeds with both hands, and how skilled they are in using them! The governor and judge alike demand bribes. The rich man pays them off and tells them whom to ruin. Justice is twisted between them.
4
 Even the best of them are prickly as briars; the straightest is more crooked than a hedge of thorns. But your judgment day is coming swiftly now; your time of punishment is almost here; confusion, destruction, and terror will be yours.

5
 Don’t trust anyone, not your best friend—not even your wife!
6
 For the son despises his father; the daughter defies her mother; the bride curses her mother-in-law. Yes, a man’s enemies will be found in his own home.

7
 As for me, I look to the Lord for his help; I wait for God to save me; he will hear me.
8
 Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy, for though I fall, I will rise again! When I sit in darkness, the Lord himself will be my Light.
9
 I will be patient while the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him; then he will defend me from my enemies and punish them for all the evil they have done to me. God will bring me out of my darkness into the light, and I will see his goodness.
10
 Then my enemy will see that God is for me and be ashamed for taunting, “Where is that God of yours?” Now with my own eyes I see them trampled down like mud in the street.

11
 Your cities, people of God, will be rebuilt, much larger and more prosperous than before.
12
 Citizens of many lands will come and honor you—from Assyria to Egypt, and from Egypt to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and from distant hills and mountains.

13
 But first comes terrible destruction to Israel
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for the great wickedness of her people.
14
 O Lord, come and rule your people; lead your flock; make them live in peace and prosperity; let them enjoy the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead as they did long ago.

15
 “Yes,” replies the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those when I brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
16
 All the world will stand amazed at what I will do for you and be embarrassed at their puny might. They will stand in silent awe, deaf to all around them.”
17
 They will see what snakes they are, lowly as worms crawling from their holes. They will come trembling out from their fortresses to meet the Lord our God. They will fear him; they will stand in awe.

18
 Where is another God like you, who pardons the sins of the survivors among his people? You cannot stay angry with your people, for you love to be merciful.
19
 Once again you will have compassion on us. You will tread our sins beneath your feet; you will throw them into the depths of the ocean!
20
 You will bless us as you promised Jacob long ago. You will set your love upon us, as you promised our father Abraham!

Revelation 7:1-17

Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds from blowing so that not a leaf rustled in the trees, and the ocean became as smooth as glass.
2
 And I saw another angel coming from the east, carrying the Great Seal of the Living God. And he shouted out to those four angels who had been given power to injure earth and sea,
3
 “Wait! Don’t do anything yet—hurt neither earth nor sea nor trees—until we have placed the Seal of God upon the foreheads of his servants.”

4-8
 How many were given this mark? I heard the number—it was 144,000; out of all twelve tribes of Israel, as listed here:

9
 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from all nations and provinces and languages, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
10
 And they were shouting with a mighty shout, “Salvation comes from our God upon the throne, and from the Lamb.”

11
 And now all the angels were crowding around the throne and around the Elders and the four Living Beings, and falling face down before the throne and worshiping God.
12
 “Amen!” they said. “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be to our God forever and forever. Amen!”

13
 Then one of the twenty-four Elders asked me, “Do you know who these are, who are clothed in white, and where they come from?”

14
 “No, sir,” I replied. “Please tell me.”

“These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation,” he said; “they washed their robes and whitened them by the blood of the Lamb.
15
 That is why they are here before the throne of God, serving him day and night in his temple. The one sitting on the throne will shelter them;
16
 they will never be hungry again, nor thirsty, and they will be fully protected from the scorching noontime heat.
17
 For the Lamb standing in front of the throne
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will feed them and be their Shepherd and lead them to the springs of the Water of Life. And God will wipe their tears away.”

Psalm 135:1-21

Hallelujah!
2
 Yes, let his people praise him as they stand in his Temple courts.
3
 Praise the Lord because he is so good; sing to his wonderful name.
4
 For the Lord has chosen Israel as his personal possession.

5
 I know the greatness of the Lord—that he is greater far than any other god.
6
 He does whatever pleases him throughout all of heaven and earth and in the deepest seas.
7
 He makes mists rise throughout the earth; he sends the lightning to bring down the rain and sends the winds from his treasuries.
8
 He destroyed the eldest child in each Egyptian home, along with the firstborn of the flocks.
9
 He did great miracles in Egypt before Pharaoh and all his people.
10
 He smote great nations, slaying mighty kings—
11
 Sihon, king of Amorites; and Og, the king of Bashan; and the kings of Canaan—
12
 and gave their land as an eternal gift to his people Israel.

13
 O Jehovah, your name endures forever; your fame is known to every generation.
14
 For Jehovah will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.

15
 The heathen worship idols of gold and silver made by men—
16
 idols with speechless mouths, sightless eyes,
17
 and ears that cannot hear; they cannot even breathe.
18
 Those who make them become like them! And so do all who trust in them!

19
 O Israel, bless Jehovah! High Priests of Aaron, bless his name.
20
 O Levite priests, bless the Lord Jehovah! Oh, bless his name, all of you who trust and reverence him.
21
 All people of Jerusalem, praise the Lord,
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for he lives here in Jerusalem. Hallelujah!