The Wedding Feast of the Lamb

⁵Then there came from the throne the sound of a voice, saying, "Praise our God, all his servants and all people, both great and small, who have reverence for him!" ⁶Then I heard what sounded like a crowd, like the sound of a roaring waterfall, like loud peals of thunder. I heard them say, "Praise God! For the Lord, our Almighty God, is King! ⁷Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself for it. ⁸She has been given clean shining linen to wear." (The linen is the good deeds of God's people.)
⁹Then the angel said to me, "Write this: Happy are those who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb." And the angel added, "These are the true words of God."
¹⁰I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "Don't do it! I am a servant together with you and with other believers, all those who hold to the truth that Jesus revealed. Worship God!"
For the truth that Jesus revealed is what inspires the prophets.

The Rider on the White Horse

¹¹Then I saw heaven open, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True; it is with justice that he judges and fights his battles. ¹²His eyes were like a flame of fire, and he wore many crowns on his head. He had a name written on him, but no one except himself knows what it is. ¹³The robe he wore was covered with blood. His name is "The Word of God." ¹⁴The armies of heaven followed him, riding on white horses and dressed in clean white linen. ¹⁵Out of his mouth came a sharp sword, with which he will defeat the nations. He will rule over them with a rod of iron, and he will trample out the wine in the wine press of the furious anger of the Almighty God. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh was written the name: "King of kings and Lord of lords."
¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing on the sun. He shouted in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair: "Come and gather together for God's great feast! ¹⁸Come and eat the flesh of kings, generals, and soldiers, the flesh of horses and their riders, the flesh of all people, slave and free, great and small!"
¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to fight against the one who was riding the horse and against his army. ²⁰The beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had performed miracles in his presence. (It was by those miracles that he had deceived those who had the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped the image of the beast.) The beast and the false prophet were both thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. ²¹Their armies were killed by the sword that comes out of the mouth of the one who was riding the horse; and all the birds ate all they could of their flesh.

The Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah 5 Listen while I sing you this song,
a song of my friend and his vineyard:
My friend had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
²He dug the soil and cleared it of stones;
he planted the finest vines.
He built a tower to guard them,
dug a pit for treading the grapes.
He waited for the grapes to ripen,
but every grape was sour.
³So now my friend says, "You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, judge between my vineyard and me. ⁴Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?
⁵"Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge around it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down. ⁶I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not trim the vines or hoe the ground; instead, I will let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it."
⁷Israel is the vineyard of the LORD Almighty;
the people of Judah are the vines he planted.
He expected them to do what was good,
but instead they committed murder.
He expected them to do what was right,
but their victims cried out for justice.

The Evil That People Do

⁸You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be no place for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land. ⁹I have heard the LORD Almighty say, "All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins. ¹⁰The grapevines growing on five acres of land will yield only five gallons of wine. Ten bushels of seed will produce only one bushel of grain."
¹¹You are doomed! You get up early in the morning to start drinking, and you spend long evenings getting drunk. ¹²At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes--and wine. But you don't understand what the LORD is doing, ¹³and so you will be carried away as prisoners. Your leaders will starve to death, and the common people will die of thirst. ¹⁴The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.
¹⁵Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled. ¹⁶But the LORD Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people. ¹⁷In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture.
¹⁸You are doomed! You are unable to break free from your sins. ¹⁹You say, "Let the LORD hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind."
²⁰You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter.
²¹You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever.
²²You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks! ²³But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice. ²⁴So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the LORD Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us. ²⁵The LORD is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the LORD's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
²⁶The LORD gives a signal to call for a distant nation. He whistles for them to come from the ends of the earth. And here they come, swiftly, quickly! ²⁷None of them grow tired; none of them stumble. They never doze or sleep. Not a belt is loose; not a sandal strap is broken. ²⁸Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready to shoot. Their horses' hoofs are as hard as flint, and their chariot wheels turn like a whirlwind. ²⁹The soldiers roar like lions that have killed an animal and are carrying it off where no one can take it away from them.
³⁰When that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.

God Calls Isaiah to Be a Prophet

Isaiah 6 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. ²Around 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. ³They were calling out to each other:
"Holy, holy, holy!
The LORD Almighty is holy!
His glory fills the world."
⁴The sound of their voices made the foundation of the Temple shake, and the Temple itself became filled with smoke.
⁵I 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."
⁶Then one of the creatures flew down to me, carrying a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. ⁷He 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."
⁸Then I heard the Lord say, "Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?"
I answered, "I will go! Send me!"
⁹So 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." ¹⁰Then 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."
¹¹I 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. ¹²I will send the people far away and make the whole land desolate. ¹³Even 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.)

Psalm 109 ²⁰LORD, punish my enemies in that way--
those who say such evil things against me!
²¹But my Sovereign LORD, help me as you have promised,
and rescue me because of the goodness of your love.
²²I am poor and needy;
I am hurt to the depths of my heart.
²³Like an evening shadow I am about to vanish;
I am blown away like an insect.
²⁴My knees are weak from lack of food;
I am nothing but skin and bones.
²⁵When people see me, they laugh at me;
they shake their heads in scorn.

²⁶Help me, O LORD my God;
because of your constant love, save me!
²⁷Make my enemies know
that you are the one who saves me.
²⁸They may curse me, but you will bless me.
May my persecutors be defeated,
and may I, your servant, be glad.
²⁹May my enemies be covered with disgrace;
may they wear their shame like a robe.

³⁰I will give loud thanks to the LORD;
I will praise him in the assembly of the people,
³¹because he defends the poor
and saves them from those who condemn them to death.