Paul's Work in Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 2 Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not a failure. ²You know how we had already been mistreated and insulted in Philippi before we came to you in Thessalonica. And even though there was much opposition, our God gave us courage to tell you the Good News that comes from him. ³Our appeal to you is not based on error or impure motives, nor do we try to trick anyone. ⁴Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us worthy to be entrusted with the Good News. We do not try to please people, but to please God, who tests our motives. ⁵You know very well that we did not come to you with flattering talk, nor did we use words to cover up greed--God is our witness! ⁶We did not try to get praise from anyone, either from you or from others, ⁷even though as apostles of Christ we could have made demands on you. But we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother taking care of her children. ⁸Because of our love for you we were ready to share with you not only the Good News from God but even our own lives. You were so dear to us! ⁹Surely you remember, our friends, how we worked and toiled! We worked day and night so that we would not be any trouble to you as we preached to you the Good News from God.
¹⁰You are our witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you who believe was pure, right, and without fault. ¹¹You know that we treated each one of you just as parents treat their own children. ¹²We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we kept urging you to live the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own Kingdom and glory.
¹³And there is another reason why we always give thanks to God. When we brought you God's message, you heard it and accepted it, not as a message from human beings but as God's message, which indeed it is. For God is at work in you who believe. ¹⁴Our friends, the same things happened to you that happened to the churches of God in Judea, to the people there who belong to Christ Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from your own people that they suffered from the Jews, ¹⁵who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us. How displeasing they are to God! How hostile they are to everyone! ¹⁶They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

The Return from Exile

Isaiah 14 The LORD will once again be merciful to his people Israel and choose them as his own. He will let them live in their own land again, and foreigners will come and live there with them. ²Many nations will help the people of Israel return to the land which the LORD gave them, and there the nations will serve Israel as slaves. Those who once captured Israel will now be captured by Israel, and the people of Israel will rule over those who once oppressed them.

The King of Babylon in the World of the Dead

³The LORD will give the people of Israel relief from their pain and suffering and from the hard work they were forced to do. ⁴When he does this, they are to mock the king of Babylon and say:
"The cruel king has fallen! He will never oppress anyone again! ⁵The LORD has ended the power of the evil rulers ⁶who angrily oppressed the peoples and never stopped persecuting the nations they had conquered. ⁷Now at last the whole world enjoys rest and peace, and everyone sings for joy. ⁸The cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over the fallen king, because there is no one to cut them down, now that he is gone!
⁹"The world of the dead is getting ready to welcome the king of Babylon. The ghosts of those who were powerful on earth are stirring about. The ghosts of kings are rising from their thrones. ¹⁰They all call out to him, 'Now you are as weak as we are! You are one of us! ¹¹You used to be honored with the music of harps, but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lie on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms.'"
¹²King of Babylon, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown to the ground. ¹³You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble. ¹⁴You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. ¹⁵But instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead.
¹⁶The dead will stare and gape at you. They will ask, "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble? ¹⁷Is this the man who destroyed cities and turned the world into a desert? Is this the man who never freed his prisoners or let them go home?"
¹⁸All the kings of the earth lie in their magnificent tombs, ¹⁹but you have no tomb, and your corpse is thrown out to rot. It is covered by the bodies of soldiers killed in battle, thrown with them into a rocky pit, and trampled down. ²⁰Because you ruined your country and killed your own people, you will not be buried like other kings. None of your evil family will survive. ²¹Let the slaughter begin! The sons of this king will die because of their ancestors' sins. None of them will ever rule the earth or cover it with cities.

God Will Destroy Babylon

²²The LORD Almighty says, "I will attack Babylon and bring it to ruin. I will leave nothing--no children, no survivors at all. I, the LORD, have spoken. ²³I will turn Babylon into a marsh, and owls will live there. I will sweep Babylon with a broom that will sweep everything away. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken."

God Will Destroy the Assyrians

²⁴The LORD Almighty has sworn an oath: "What I have planned will happen. What I have determined to do will be done. ²⁵I will destroy the Assyrians in my land of Israel and trample them on my mountains. I will free my people from the Assyrian yoke and from the burdens they have had to bear. ²⁶This is my plan for the world, and my arm is stretched out to punish the nations." ²⁷The LORD Almighty is determined to do this; he has stretched out his arm to punish, and no one can stop him.

God Will Destroy the Philistines

²⁸This is a message that was proclaimed in the year that King Ahaz died.
²⁹People of Philistia, the rod that beat you is broken, but you have no reason to be glad. When one snake dies, a worse one comes in its place. A snake's egg hatches a flying dragon. ³⁰The LORD will be a shepherd to the poor of his people and will let them live in safety. But he will send a terrible famine on you Philistines, and it will not leave any of you alive.
³¹Howl and cry for help, all you Philistine cities! Be terrified, all of you! A cloud of dust is coming from the north--it is an army with no cowards in its ranks.
³²How shall we answer the messengers that come to us from Philistia? We will tell them that the LORD has established Zion and that his suffering people will find safety there.

God Will Destroy Moab

Isaiah 15 This is a message about Moab.
The cities of Ar and Kir are destroyed in a single night, and silence covers the land of Moab. ²The people of Dibon climb the hill to weep at the shrine. The people of Moab wail in grief over the cities of Nebo and Medeba; they have shaved their heads and their beards in grief. ³The people in the streets are dressed in sackcloth; in the city squares and on the rooftops people mourn and cry. ⁴The people of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, and their cry can be heard as far away as Jahaz. Even the soldiers tremble; their courage is gone. ⁵My heart cries out for Moab! The people have fled to the town of Zoar, and to Eglath Shelishiyah. Some climb the road to Luhith, weeping as they go; some escape to Horonaim, grieving loudly. ⁶Nimrim Brook is dry, the grass beside it has withered, and nothing green is left. ⁷The people go across the Valley of Willows, trying to escape with all their possessions. ⁸Everywhere at Moab's borders the sound of crying is heard. It is heard at the towns of Eglaim and Beerelim. ⁹At the town of Dibon the river is red with blood, and God has something even worse in store for the people there. Yes, there will be a bloody slaughter of everyone left in Moab.

Moab's Hopeless Situation

Isaiah 16 From the city of Sela in the desert the people of Moab send a lamb as a present to the one who rules in Jerusalem. ²They wait on the banks of the Arnon River and move aimlessly back and forth, like birds driven from their nest.
³They say to the people of Judah, "Tell us what to do. Protect us like a tree that casts a cool shadow in the heat of noon, and let us rest in your shade. We are refugees; hide us where no one can find us. ⁴Let us stay in your land. Protect us from those who want to destroy us."
(Oppression and destruction will end, and those who are devastating the country will be gone. ⁵Then one of David's descendants will be king, and he will rule the people with faithfulness and love. He will be quick to do what is right, and he will see that justice is done.)
⁶The people of Judah say, "We have heard how proud the people of Moab are. We know that they are arrogant and conceited, but their boasts are empty."
⁷The people of Moab will weep because of the troubles they suffer. They will all weep when they remember the fine food they used to eat in the city of Kir Heres. They will be driven to despair. ⁸The farms near Heshbon and the vineyards of Sibmah are destroyed--those vineyards whose wine used to make the rulers of the nations drunk. At one time the vines spread as far as the city of Jazer, and eastward into the desert, and westward to the other side of the Dead Sea. ⁹Now I weep for Sibmah's vines as I weep for Jazer. My tears fall for Heshbon and Elealeh, because there is no harvest to make the people glad. ¹⁰No one is happy now in the fertile fields. No one shouts or sings in the vineyards. No one tramples grapes to make wine; the shouts of joy are ended. ¹¹I groan with sadness for Moab, with grief for Kir Heres. ¹²The people of Moab wear themselves out going to their mountain shrines and to their temples to pray, but it will do them no good.
¹³That is the message the LORD gave earlier about Moab. ¹⁴And now the LORD says, "In exactly three years Moab's great wealth will disappear. Of its many people, only a few will survive, and they will be weak."

In Praise of the LORD's Goodness

Psalm 113 Praise the LORD!

You servants of the LORD,
praise his name!
²May his name be praised,
now and forever.
³From the east to the west
praise the name of the LORD!
⁴The LORD rules over all nations;
his glory is above the heavens.

⁵There is no one like the LORD our God.
He lives in the heights above,
⁶but he bends down
to see the heavens and the earth.
⁷He raises the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from their misery
⁸and makes them companions of princes,
the princes of his people.
⁹He honors the childless wife in her home;
he makes her happy by giving her children.

Praise the LORD!