Isaiah 25:1-9, The Shroud will be Destroyed

1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.

9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Isaiah 25:1-9 (King James Version)

This was the morning's Old Testament reading. I really loved the joy and gladness in it. The picture of God's love coming in as a cool, refreshing rain, banishing the desert heat really struck me this time. Also, I love the thought of there being just a brief, temporary darkness between us and God, one that someday will be destroyed so that we can fully rejoice (The NIV phrases that bit "On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations" which is an even more awesome way of looking at it. Death will be conquered indeed).

And, of course, there is the wonderful promise that "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces."

One thing I really love about going to an Anglican church is the morning readings. They often make me pay attention to a passage in a new way, or to reconsider a book I have not read in a while (Sometimes I love Isaiah, but I bogged down thoroughly on my last two read-throughs. Maybe I'll give the book another try. It really does run the gamut, and Isaiah, as I recall, has some of the most wonderful discussions with God).

Because It's a Gorgeous Bit

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor?

Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

Romans 11:33-35 (King James Version)

Random Bits

I have a new MP4 player--the first I've owned or tried to use.

It's going to take some getting used to. The instructions are in something vaguely reminiscent of English and thus are no help at all. The device itself appears to operate on some system of Morse Code; one hits buttons for a long time or a short time and gets different results thereby.

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I also now own the Bible on MP3. Good old Alexander Scourby's doing the reading. Yes, I've listened to some very good dramatizations, but when it comes down to it, I like books read rather than acted.

And I like the KJV.

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Listening, I once again feel very sorry for Leah. Spectacularly beautiful women seem to have run in that family (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Dinah), and she got stuck with being "tender eyed."

Joseph was a first class brat when he was younger ("Hey everyone! I dreamed you'd all bow down to me some day! Isn't that neat?!")

God's used to crazy people. Jacob lied to everyone in sight (as did Rachel at least once); Abraham couldn't wait for the right kid to come along....).

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I think I'm starting to like Babylon 5 now. At least, I still haven't seen the famous Eighth Episode, but I did enjoy episodes 9, 10, and 11.

I'm still on the fence about Captain Sinclair. On the one hand, he has a gorgeous voice. On the other hand--he has a gorgeous voice. Everything is stated at full intensity. It's hard to picture this man asking someone to please pass the butter, or wondering where he put the car keys.

Oh! Just looked to see how to spell the good captain's name. Neil Gaiman wrote an episode! I'm going to have to stick around for at least that long.

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Modding continues to continue. I'm rough-coding the 5th (and final) quest now. Lots still to do on that, and my co-modder has just suggested a couple of complications for the 4th quest.

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Just started reading Dragonhaven. So far, it's worthy of its author.

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Life's not bad.

Actually, it's pretty good.