Heeding the voice of the prophets

God as the Creator of all things

"For your Creator is your husband; The Lord of hosts ~ His name; and thy Redeemer ~ the Holy One of Israel: He shall be called the God of all the earth. For as a woman forsaken and sorrowful in spirit the Lord calls thee, and as a woman of youth who was rejected, saith thy God. For a little time I have forsaken thee, but with great mercy I will receive thee. In the heat of wrath I hid My face from thee for a time, but with everlasting mercy I will have mercy on thee, saith thy Redeemer, the Lord. For this is to me like the waters of Noah: just as I swore that the waters of Noah would come no more to the earth, so I swore not to be angry with you, nor to reproach you. The mountains will be moved, and the hills will be shaken, ~ but my mercy will not depart from you, and the covenant of my peace will not be shaken, says the Lord who has mercy on you" (Isaiah 54:5-10).

God as Master

"How then do you say, Jacob, and say, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord, and my work is forgotten from my God'? Don't you know? Have you not heard that the eternal Lord God, who made the ends of the earth, is not weary and faint? His mind is unsearchable. He gives strength to the weary, and gives strength to the weary. Young men grow weary and faint, and young men fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength: they will lift up their wings like eagles, they will flow ~ and not be weary, they will walk ~ and not be weary" (Isaiah 40:27-31).

The Anointed One

"The kings of the earth are rising, and the princes are taking counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. Let us break their bonds, and cast off their fetters." He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh, and the Lord shall mock them: then shall he say unto them in his wrath, and with his wrath shall cause them to confusion: I have anointed my King over Zion, my holy mountain; I will proclaim the decree: The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; I have begotten thee this day; ask of me, and I will give the nations for thy inheritance, and the boundaries of the lands for thy possession; Thou shalt smite them with a rod of iron; you will break them like a potter's vessel'" (Psalm 2:2-9).

God's People

"Hear the word of the Lord, O peoples, and make known to the distant islands, and say, He who scattered Israel will gather it together, and will guard it as a shepherd of his flock." for the Lord will redeem Jacob, and deliver him out of the hand of him who was stronger than he" (Jeremiah 31:10-11).

Justice

"Give judgment to the poor and to the fatherless; do justice to the oppressed and the poor; deliver the poor and the needy; pluck it out of the hand of the wicked" (Psalm 81:3).

Righteousness and lawlessness

"And thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not save in the day of his transgression, neither shall the wicked man fall for his iniquity in the day of his conversion from his iniquity, nor shall the righteous man live in the day of his transgression for his righteousness. When I tell the righteous that he will live, and he trusts in his righteousness and does unrighteousness, ~ then all his righteous deeds will not be remembered, and he will die of his own iniquity, which he has done. And when I say to the wrongdoer, Thou shalt surely die, and he turns from his sins, and executes judgment and righteousness, if this wicked man returns the money, pays for what he has stolen, walks according to the laws of life, doing nothing evil, ~ then he will live, he will not die. Not one of his sins that he has committed will be remembered to him; he has begun to execute judgment, and righteousness he shall live" (Ezekiel 33:12-16).

Saturday

"And if, ye ye hearken unto me," saith the Lord, "that ye shall not bear the burden of the gate of this city on the sabbath day, and that ye keep the sabbath day holy, not doing any work on that day, the kings and princes shall enter into the gate of this city, seated on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the Jews and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited forever" (Jeremiah 17:24-25).