Juxtaposition, The voice of the fierce lion
(read parable)
Ezekiel 18:2, Ecclesiastes 7:1,Ecclesiastes 11:5,1 Corinthians 15:42, Jeremiah 4:7,Genesis 49:12,Proverbs 6:13,Isaiah 33:19,Psalm 115:7,Romans 3:13,Isaiah 1:6,Psalm 5:9,Job 17:4,Isaiah 1:5,Psalm 5:9,Isaiah 2:8,Job 40:16,Matthew 23:4,John 21:18, Isaiah 1:6,Jeremiah 46:11,Judges 9:38, Lamentations 3:4, Lamentations 3:7, Isaiah 38:12-14,Psalm 57:4,Isaiah 38:14,Job 18:5,Jeremiah 5:5,Jeremiah 5:6, 2 Peter 2:10,Isaiah 38:13,Isaiah 38:14,Isaiah 28:11-13,Isaiah 28:11, Acts 7:51,Job 17:4,Ezekiel 38:10,Isaiah 28:11,Isaiah 1:4,Colossians 2:13,Leviticus 17:11,Isaiah 1:5,Isaiah 28:13,Isaiah 38:16-17,1 Peter 5:8,Proverbs 30:29-32,Psalms 57:4,Job 41:14,Job 13:13,Acts 17:18,Job 13:14-15, .Luke 12:19-20, Micah 2:3,Ezekiel 6:5,Psalms 35:17,Exodus 23:7,Joel 1:6-7,Psalm 38:3,Job 19:20, Micah 2:7, Isaiah 38:15, Exodus 23:7, Ezekiel 32:27, Job 41:14, Ezekiel 7:3, Zechariah 9:7, Matthew 25:30, Hosea 13:8-9,8,Psalms 57:3,Ezekiel 23:25,Isaiah 37:29,Isaiah 22:14,Isaiah 14:16-17,Psalm 35:1-3, Psalm 79:9,Psalm 65:2,Deuteronomy 12:8,Isaiah 51:6,Proverbs 25:19,Psalm 71:2,Proverbs 5:1,Proverbs 15:31,Proverbs 28:9,Isaiah 58:11,Matthew 10:27-29,Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:25-27,Colossians 2:13,Colossians 1:21-23,Colossians 2:11,Jeremiah 39:17,Acts 2:26-28,Haggai 2:3, Isaiah 17:6
“What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth;
As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything. The body is sown in corruption, the lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers a people of obscure speech, beyond perception, of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.
They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, Their inward part is destruction; For You have hidden their heart from understanding; The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; they flatter with their tongue.
They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. In vain you will use many medicines; you shall not be cured.
“Where indeed is your mouth now?
He has aged my flesh and my skin,And broken my bones.My life span is gone, my soul is among lions;He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;He has made my chain heavy.
Oh Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me!
“The light of the wicked indeed goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. The judgment of their God.”
Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, A wolf of the deserts shall destroy them; A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many; their backslidings have increased. They are presumptuous, self-willed. Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; my eyes fail from looking upward.
For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people. “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Therefore You will not exalt them.
‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people
Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls;
Why should you be stricken again?
But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.
O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; so You will restore me and make me live. Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness;
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. There are three things which are majestic in pace, Yes, four which are stately in walk: A lion, which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any; A greyhound, A male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him. If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, Or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.
(I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.)
Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?
“Hold your peace with me, and let me speak, Then let come on me what may!
“What does this babbler want to say?”
Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands? Though He slay me, Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him, and I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’
But God said to him, ‘Fool!
This night your soul will be required of you; Then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this is an evil time, And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.
Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.
Keep yourself far from a false matter; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
(There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones Because of my sin. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. I shall walk carefully all my years In the bitterness of my soul).
“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted? Are These His doings? Do not My words do good To him who walks uprightly?
Do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. But their iniquities will be on their bones, Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?
Now the end has come upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations. I will take away the blood from his mouth, and the abominations from between his teeth and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.
“O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah
I will set My jealousy against you, And they shall deal furiously with you; They shall remove your nose and your ears, And your remnant shall fall by the sword; They shall take your sons and your daughters, And your remnant shall be devoured by fire. Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came.”’
“Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts. “Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help. Also draw out the spear, and stop those who pursue me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come.
“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes--
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me. My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, the ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
But I will deliver you in that day,” says the Lord, “and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’
Selah!
‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?
Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, Like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, Four or five in its most fruitful branches,” Says the Lord God of Israel.
“What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth;
As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything. The body is sown in corruption, the lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers a people of obscure speech, beyond perception, of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.
They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, Their inward part is destruction; For You have hidden their heart from understanding; The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; they flatter with their tongue.
They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. In vain you will use many medicines; you shall not be cured.
“Where indeed is your mouth now?
He has aged my flesh and my skin,And broken my bones.My life span is gone, my soul is among lions;He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;He has made my chain heavy.
Oh Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me!
“The light of the wicked indeed goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. The judgment of their God.”
Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, A wolf of the deserts shall destroy them; A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many; their backslidings have increased. They are presumptuous, self-willed. Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; my eyes fail from looking upward.
For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people. “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Therefore You will not exalt them.
‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people
Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls;
Why should you be stricken again?
But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.
O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; so You will restore me and make me live. Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness;
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. There are three things which are majestic in pace, Yes, four which are stately in walk: A lion, which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any; A greyhound, A male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him. If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, Or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.
(I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.)
Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?
“Hold your peace with me, and let me speak, Then let come on me what may!
“What does this babbler want to say?”
Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands? Though He slay me, Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him, and I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’
But God said to him, ‘Fool!
This night your soul will be required of you; Then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this is an evil time, And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.
Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.
Keep yourself far from a false matter; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
(There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones Because of my sin. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. I shall walk carefully all my years In the bitterness of my soul).
“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted? Are These His doings? Do not My words do good To him who walks uprightly?
Do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. But their iniquities will be on their bones, Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?
Now the end has come upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations. I will take away the blood from his mouth, and the abominations from between his teeth and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.
“O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah
I will set My jealousy against you, And they shall deal furiously with you; They shall remove your nose and your ears, And your remnant shall fall by the sword; They shall take your sons and your daughters, And your remnant shall be devoured by fire. Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came.”’
“Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts. “Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help. Also draw out the spear, and stop those who pursue me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come.
“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes--
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me. My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, the ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
But I will deliver you in that day,” says the Lord, “and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’
Selah!
‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?
Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, Like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, Four or five in its most fruitful branches,” Says the Lord God of Israel.
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