141 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will again make Israel his special people, and will put them in their land; and the man from a strange country will take his place among them and be joined to the family of Jacob. 2 And the people will take them with them to their place: and the children of Israel will give them a heritage in the Lord's land as men-servants and women-servants, making them prisoners whose prisoners they were; and they will be rulers over their masters. 3 And it will be, in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard yoke which they had put on you,
4 That you will take up this bitter song against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the cruel overseer come to an end! He who was lifted up in pride is cut off; 5 The stick of the evil-doers, the rod of the rulers, is broken by the Lord; 6 He whose rod was on the peoples with an unending wrath, ruling the nations in passion, with an uncontrolled rule. 7 All the earth is at rest and is quiet: they are bursting into song. 8 Even the trees of the wood are glad over you, the trees of Lebanon, saying, From the time of your fall no wood-cutter has come up against us with an axe. 9 The underworld is moved at your coming: the shades of the dead are awake before you, even the strong ones of the earth; all the kings of the world have got up from their seats. 10 They all make answer and say to you, Have you become feeble like us? have you been made even as we are? 11 Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the noise of your instruments of music; the worms are under you, and your body is covered with them. 12 How great is your fall from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the earth, low among the dead bodies! 13 For you said in your heart, I will go up to heaven, I will make my seat higher than the stars of God; I will take my place on the mountain of the meeting-place of the gods, in the inmost parts of the north. 14 I will go higher than the clouds; I will be like the Most High. 15 But you will come down to the underworld, even to its inmost parts. 16 Those who see you will be looking on you with care, they will be in deep thought, saying, Is this the troubler of the earth, the shaker of kingdoms? 17 Who made the world a waste, overturning its towns; who did not let his prisoners loose from the prison-house. 18 All the kings of the earth are at rest in glory, every man in his house, 19 But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched out with no resting-place in the earth; clothed with the bodies of the dead who have been put to the sword, who go down to the lowest parts of the underworld; a dead body, crushed under foot. 20 As for your fathers, you will not be united with them in their resting-place, because you have been the cause of destruction to your land, and of death to your people; the seed of the evil-doer will have no place in the memory of man. 21 Make ready a place of death for his children, because of the evil-doing of their father; so that they may not come up and take the earth for their heritage, covering the face of the world with waste places. 22 For I will come up against them, says the Lord of armies, cutting off from Babylon name and offspring, son and son's son, says the Lord. 23 And I will make you a heritage for the hedgehog, and pools of water: and I will go through it with the brush of destruction, says the Lord of armies.
24 The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will certainly come about, and my purpose will be effected: 25 To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed under foot on my mountains: there will his yoke be taken away from them, and his rule over them come to an end. 26 This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the hand stretched out over all nations. 27 For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom may it be turned back?
28 In the year of the death of King Ahaz this word came to the prophet: 29 Be not glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod which was on you is broken: for out of the snake's root will come a poison-snake, and its fruit will be a winged poison-snake. 30 And the poorest of the land will have food, and those in need will be given a safe resting-place: but your seed will come to an end for need of food, and the rest of you will be put to the sword. 31 Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town! All your land has come to nothing, O Philistia; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and everyone keeps his place in the line. 32 What answer, then, will my people give to the representatives of the nation? That the Lord is the builder of Zion, and she will be a safe place for the poor of his people.
151 The word about Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer; for in a night Kir of Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer. 2 The daughter of Dibon has gone up to the high places, weeping: Moab is sounding her cry of sorrow over Nebo, and over Medeba: everywhere the hair of the head and of the face is cut off. 3 In their streets they are covering themselves with haircloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their public places, there is crying and bitter weeping. 4 Heshbon is crying out, and Elealeh; their voice is sounding even to Jahaz: for this cause the heart of Moab is shaking; his soul is shaking with fear. 5 My heart is crying out for Moab; her people go in flight to Zoar, and to Eglath-shelishiyah: for they go up with weeping by the slope of Luhith; on the way to Horonaim they send up a cry of destruction.
6 The waters of Nimrim will become dry: for the grass is burned up, the young grass is coming to an end, every green thing is dead. 7 For this cause they will take away their wealth, and the stores they have got together, over the stream of the water-plants. 8 For the cry has gone round the limits of Moab; as far as to Eglaim and Beer-elim. 9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: and I'm sending even more on Moab, a lion on those of Moab who go in flight, and on the rest of the land.
161 And they will send ... to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. 2 For the daughters of Moab will be like wandering birds, like a place from which the young birds have gone in flight, at the ways across the Arnon. 3 Give wise directions, make a decision; let your shade be as night in full day: keep safe those who are in flight; do not give up the wandering ones. 4 Let those who have been forced out of Moab have a resting-place with you; be a cover to them from him who is making waste their land: till the cruel ones are cut off, and wasting has come to an end, and those who take pleasure in crushing the poor are gone from the land. 5 Then a king's seat will be based on mercy, and one will be seated on it in the tent of David for ever; judging uprightly, and quick to do righteousness.
6 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is; how he is lifted up in pride and passion: his high words about himself are false. 7 For this cause everyone in Moab will give cries of grief for Moab: crushed to the earth, they will be weeping for the men of Kir-hareseth. 8 For the fields of Heshbon are waste, the vine of Sibmah is dead; the lords of nations were overcome by the produce of her vines; her vine-plants went as far as Jazer, and came even to the waste land; her branches were stretched out to the sea. 9 For this cause my sorrow for the vine of Sibmah will be like the weeping for Jazer: my eyes are dropping water on you, O Heshbon and Elealeh! For they are sounding the war-cry over your summer fruits and the getting in of your grain; 10 And all joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the fertile field; and in the vine-gardens there are no songs or sounds of joy: the crushing of grapes has come to an end, and its glad cry has been stopped. 11 For this cause the cords of my heart are sounding for Moab, and I am full of sorrow for Kir-heres. 12 And when Moab goes up to the high place, and makes prayer in the house of his god, it will have no effect. 13 This is the word which the Lord said about Moab in the past. 14 But now the Lord has said, In three years, the years of a servant working for payment, the glory of Moab, all that great people, will be turned to shame, and the rest of Moab will be very small and without honour.
51 Let it then be your desire to be like God, as well-loved children; 2 And be living in love, even as Christ had love for you, and gave himself up for us, an offering to God for a perfume of a sweet smell.
3 But evil acts of the flesh and all unclean things, or desire for others' property, let it not even be named among you, as is right for saints; 4 And let there be no low behaviour, or foolish talk, or words said in sport, which are not right, but in place of them the giving of praise. 5 Being certain of this, that no man who gives way to the passions of the flesh, no unclean person, or one who has desire for the property of others, or who gives worship to images, has any heritage in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Do not be turned from the right way by foolish words; for because of these things the punishment of God comes on those who do not put themselves under him. 7 Have no part with such men; 8 For you at one time were dark, but now are light in the Lord: let your behaviour be that of children of light 9 (Because the fruit of the light is in all righteousness and in everything which is good and true), 10 Testing by experience what is well-pleasing to the Lord; 11 And have no company with the works of the dark, which give no fruit, but make their true quality clear; 12 For the things which are done by them in secret it is shame even to put into words. 13 But all things, when their true quality is seen, are made clear by the light: because everything which is made clear is light. 14 For this reason he says, Be awake, you who are sleeping, and come up from among the dead, and Christ will be your light. 15 Take care then how you are living, not as unwise, but as wise; 16 Making good use of the time, because the days are evil.
(Read Ephesians 5:1-2)
Because God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you, therefore be ye followers of God, imitators of God. Resemble him especially in his love and pardoning goodness, as becomes those beloved by their heavenly Father. In Christ's sacrifice his love triumphs, and we are to consider it fully.
(Read Ephesians 5:3-14)
Filthy lusts must be rooted out. These sins must be dreaded and detested. Here are not only cautions against gross acts of sin, but against what some may make light of. But these things are so far from being profitable. that they pollute and poison the hearers. Our cheerfulness should show itself as becomes Christians, in what may tend to God's glory. A covetous man makes a god of his money; places that hope, confidence, and delight, in worldly good, which should be in God only. Those who allow themselves, either in the lusts of the flesh or the love of the world, belong not to the kingdom of grace, nor shall they come to the kingdom of glory. When the vilest transgressors repent and believe the gospel, they become children of obedience, from whom God's wrath is turned away. Dare we make light of that which brings down the wrath of God? Sinners, like men in the dark, are going they know not whither, and doing they know not what. But the grace of God wrought a mighty change in the souls of many. Walk as children of light, as having knowledge and holiness. These works of darkness are unfruitful, whatever profit they may boast; for they end in the destruction of the impenitent sinner. There are many ways of abetting, or taking part in the sins of others; by commendation, counsel, consent, or concealment. And if we share with others in their sins, we must expect to share in their plagues. If we do not reprove the sins of others, we have fellowship with them. A good man will be ashamed to speak of what many wicked men are not ashamed to do. We must have not only a sight and a knowledge that sin is sin, and in some measure shameful, but see it as a breach of God's holy law. After the example of prophets and apostles, we should call on those asleep and dead in sin, to awake and arise, that Christ may give them light.
(Read Ephesians 5:15-21)
Another remedy against sin, is care, or caution, it being impossible else to maintain purity of heart and life. Time is a talent given us by God, and it is misspent and lost when not employed according to his design. If we have lost our time heretofore, we must double our diligence for the future. Of that time which thousands on a dying bed would gladly redeem at the price of the whole world, how little do men think, and to what trifles they daily sacrifice it! People are very apt to complain of bad times; it were well if that stirred them more to redeem time. Be not unwise. Ignorance of our duty, and neglect of our souls, show the greatest folly. Drunkenness is a sin that never goes alone, but carries men into other evils; it is a sin very provoking to God. The drunkard holds out to his family and to the world the sad spectacle of a sinner hardened beyond what is common, and hastening to perdition. When afflicted or weary, let us not seek to raise our spirits by strong drink, which is hateful and hurtful, and only ends in making sorrows more felt. But by fervent prayer let us seek to be filled with the Spirit, and to avoid whatever may grieve our gracious Comforter. All God's people have reason to sing for joy. Though we are not always singing, we should be always giving thanks; we should never want disposition for this duty, as we never want matter for it, through the whole course of our lives. Always, even in trials and afflictions, and for all things; being satisfied of their loving intent, and good tendency. God keeps believers from sinning against him, and engages them to submit one to another in all he has commanded, to promote his glory, and to fulfil their duties to each other.
