The Wealth of the Nations

Isaiah 60:4-20 • Pastor John Sweet

• 4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
   they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
   and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
   your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
   the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
   the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
   all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
   and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.
7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
   the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
   and I will beautify my beautiful house.

8 Who are these that fly like a cloud,
   and like doves to their windows?
9 For the coastlands shall hope for me,
   the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your children from afar,
   their silver and gold with them,
for the name of the LORD your God,
   and for the Holy One of Israel,
   because he has made you beautiful.

10 Foreigners shall build up your walls,
   and their kings shall minister to you;
for in my wrath I struck you,
   but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
11 Your gates shall be open continually;
   day and night they shall not be shut,
that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
   with their kings led in procession.
12 For the nation and kingdom
   that will not serve you shall perish;
   those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
13 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
   the cypress, the plane, and the pine,
to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
   and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
14 The sons of those who afflicted you
   shall come bending low to you,
and all who despised you
   shall bow down at your feet;
they shall call you the City of the LORD,
   the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,
   with no one passing through,
I will make you majestic forever,
   a joy from age to age.
16 You shall suck the milk of nations;
   you shall nurse at the breast of kings;
and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior
   and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold,
   and instead of iron I will bring silver;
instead of wood, bronze,
   instead of stones, iron.
I will make your overseers peace
   and your taskmasters righteousness.
18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
   devastation or destruction within your borders;
you shall call your walls Salvation,
   and your gates Praise.

19 The sun shall be no more
   your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
   give you light;
but the LORD will be your everlasting light,
   and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down,
   nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
   and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Lessons From the Land

Leviticus 25:1-22 • Pastor Matthew Brown

• 1 The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you, 7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

8 "You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

13 "In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16 If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the LORD your God.

18 "Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. 20 And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?' 21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

God's Economic Golden Mean

Proverbs 30:7-9 • Pastor Matthew Brown

• 7 Two things I ask of you;
   deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
   give me neither poverty nor riches;
   feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
   and say, "Who is the LORD?"
or lest I be poor and steal
   and profane the name of my God.

The Beginning of Wisdom

Deuteronomy 10:12-22 • Pastor Matthew Brown

• 12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.