Study Desk

If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what's good for you, you'll learn this inside and out. God 's paths get you where you want to go. Right-living people walk them easily; wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling.

And also you priests, put on your robes and join the outcry. You who lead people in worship, lead them in lament. Spend the night dressed in gunnysacks, you servants of my God. Nothing's going on in the place of worship, no offerings, no prayers—nothing. Declare a holy fast, call a special meeting, get the leaders together, Round up everyone in the country. Get them into God 's Sanctuary for serious prayer to God .

What a day! Doomsday! God 's Judgment Day has come. The Strong God has arrived. This is serious business! Food is just a memory at our tables, as are joy and singing from God's Sanctuary. The seeds in the field are dead, barns deserted, Grain silos abandoned. Who needs them? The crops have failed! The farm animals groan—oh, how they groan! The cattle mill around. There's nothing for them to eat. Not even the sheep find anything.

God ! I pray, I cry out to you! The fields are burning up, The country is a dust bowl, forest and prairie fires rage unchecked. Wild animals, dying of thirst, look to you for a drink. Springs and streams are dried up. The whole country is burning up.

The locust army seems all horses— galloping horses, an army of horses. It sounds like thunder leaping on mountain ridges, Or like the roar of wildfire through grass and brush, Or like an invincible army shouting for blood, ready to fight, straining at the bit. At the sight of this army, the people panic, faces white with terror.

But there's also this, it's not too late— God 's personal Message!— "Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!"

Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God , your God. And here's why: God is kind and merciful. He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot, This most patient God, extravagant in love, always ready to cancel catastrophe. Who knows? Maybe he'll do it now, maybe he'll turn around and show pity. Maybe, when all's said and done, there'll be blessings full and robust for your God !

Fear not, Earth! Be glad and celebrate! God has done great things. Fear not, wild animals! The fields and meadows are greening up. The trees are bearing fruit again: a bumper crop of fig trees and vines! Children of Zion, celebrate! Be glad in your God . He's giving you a teacher to train you how to live right— Teaching, like rain out of heaven, showers of words to refresh and nourish your soul, just as he used to do. And plenty of food for your body—silos full of grain, casks of wine and barrels of olive oil.

"I'll make up for the years of the locust, the great locust devastation— Locusts savage, locusts deadly, fierce locusts, locusts of doom, That great locust invasion I sent your way. You'll eat your fill of good food. You'll be full of praises to your God , The God who has set you back on your heels in wonder. Never again will my people be despised. You'll know without question that I'm in the thick of life with Israel, That I'm your God , yes, your God , the one and only real God. Never again will my people be despised.

"In those days, yes, at that very time when I put life back together again for Judah and Jerusalem, I'll assemble all the godless nations. I'll lead them down into Judgment Valley And put them all on trial, and judge them one and all because of their treatment of my own people Israel. They scattered my people all over the pagan world and grabbed my land for themselves. They threw dice for my people and used them for barter. They would trade a boy for a whore, sell a girl for a bottle of wine when they wanted a drink.

"As for you, Tyre and Sidon and Philistia, why should I bother with you? Are you trying to get back at me for something I did to you? If you are, forget it. I'll see to it that it boomerangs on you. You robbed me, cleaned me out of silver and gold, carted off everything valuable to furnish your own temples. You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem into slavery to the Greeks in faraway places. But I'm going to reverse your crime. I'm going to free those slaves. I'll have done to you what you did to them: I'll sell your children as slaves to your neighbors, And they'll sell them to the far-off Sabeans." God 's Verdict.

Announce this to the godless nations: Prepare for battle! Soldiers at attention! Present arms! Advance! Turn your shovels into swords, turn your hoes into spears. Let the weak one throw out his chest and say, "I'm tough, I'm a fighter." Hurry up, pagans! Wherever you are, get a move on! Get your act together. Prepare to be shattered by God !

Let the pagan nations set out for Judgment Valley. There I'll take my place at the bench and judge all the surrounding nations.

"The sky turns black, sun and moon go dark, stars burn out. God roars from Zion, shouts from Jerusalem. Earth and sky quake in terror. But God is a safe hiding place, a granite safe house for the children of Israel. Then you'll know for sure that I'm your God , Living in Zion, my sacred mountain. Jerusalem will be a sacred city, posted: ‘ no trespassing .'

"What a day! Wine streaming off the mountains, Milk rivering out of the hills, water flowing everywhere in Judah, A fountain pouring out of God 's Sanctuary, watering all the parks and gardens! But Egypt will be reduced to weeds in a vacant lot, Edom turned into barren badlands, All because of brutalities to the Judean people, the atrocities and murders of helpless innocents. Meanwhile, Judah will be filled with people, Jerusalem inhabited forever. The sins I haven't already forgiven, I'll forgive." God has moved into Zion for good.

God 's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Damascus —make that four—I'm not putting up with her any longer. She pounded Gilead to a pulp, pounded her senseless with iron hammers and mauls. For that, I'm setting the palace of Hazael on fire. I'm torching Ben-hadad's forts. I'm going to smash the Damascus gates and banish the crime king who lives in Sin Valley, the vice boss who gives orders from Paradise Palace. The people of the land will be sent back to where they came from—to Kir." God 's Decree.

God 's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Gaza —make that four—I'm not putting up with her any longer. She deported whole towns and then sold the people to Edom. For that, I'm burning down the walls of Gaza, burning up all her forts. I'll banish the crime king from Ashdod, the vice boss from Ashkelon. I'll raise my fist against Ekron, and what's left of the Philistines will die." God 's Decree.

God 's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Tyre —make that four—I'm not putting up with her any longer. She deported whole towns to Edom, breaking the treaty she had with her kin. For that, I'm burning down the walls of Tyre, burning up all her forts."

God 's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Edom —make that four—I'm not putting up with her any longer. She hunts down her brother to murder him. She has no pity, she has no heart. Her anger rampages day and night. Her meanness never takes a timeout. For that, I'm burning down her capital, Teman, burning up the forts of Bozrah."

God 's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Ammon —make that four—I'm not putting up with her any longer. She ripped open pregnant women in Gilead to get more land for herself. For that, I'm burning down the walls of her capital, Rabbah, burning up her forts. Battle shouts! War whoops! with a tornado to finish things off! The king has been carted off to exile, the king and his princes with him." God 's Decree.