April 7, 2026

Isaiah63

The ndLord’s Day of Vengeance

1 Who is this who comes from Edom,

in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,

he who is splendid in his apparel,

marching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, speaking in righteousness,

mighty to save.”

2 Why is your apparel red,

and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone,

and from the peoples no one was with me;

I trod them in my anger

and trampled them in my wrath;

their lifeblood spattered on my garments,

and stained all my apparel.

4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,

and my year of redemption had come.

5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;

so my own arm brought me salvation,

and my wrath upheld me.

6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger;

I made them drunk in my wrath,

and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The ndLord’s Mercy Remembered

7 I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,

the praises of the Lord,

according to all that the Lord has granted us,

and the great goodness to the house of Israel

that he has granted them according to his compassion,

according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,

children who will not deal falsely.”

And he became their Savior.

9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,

and the angel of his presence saved them;

in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled

and grieved his Holy Spirit;

therefore he turned to be their enemy,

and himself fought against them.

11 Then he remembered the days of old,

of Moses and his people.

Where is he who brought them up out of the sea

with the shepherds of his flock?

Where is he who put in the midst of them

his Holy Spirit,

12 who caused his glorious arm

to go at the right hand of Moses,

who divided the waters before them

to make for himself an everlasting name,

13 who led them through the depths?

Like a horse in the desert,

they did not stumble.

14 Like livestock that go down into the valley,

the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.

So you led your people,

to make for yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy

15 Look down from heaven and see,

from your holy and beautiful habitation.

Where are your zeal and your might?

The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion

are held back from me.

16 For you are our Father,

though Abraham does not know us,

and Israel does not acknowledge us;

you, O Lord, are our Father,

our Redeemer from of old is your name.

17 O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways

and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?

Return for the sake of your servants,

the tribes of your heritage.

18 Your holy people held possession for a little while;

our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.

19 We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,

like those who are not called by your name.

Isaiah64

1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

2 as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

4 From of old no one has heard

or perceived by the ear,

no eye has seen a God besides you,

who acts for those who wait for him.

5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,

those who remember you in your ways.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;

in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?

6 We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7 There is no one who calls upon your name,

who rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

9 Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,

and remember not iniquity forever.

Behold, please look, we are all your people.

10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11 Our holy and beautiful house,

where our fathers praised you,

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?

Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Isaiah65

Judgment and Salvation

1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;

I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, “Here I am, here I am,”

to a nation that was not called by my name.

2 I spread out my hands all the day

to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices;

3 a people who provoke me

to my face continually,

sacrificing in gardens

and making offerings on bricks;

4 who sit in tombs,

and spend the night in secret places;

who eat pig’s flesh,

and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;

5 who say, “Keep to yourself,

do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”

These are a smoke in my nostrils,

a fire that burns all the day.

6 Behold, it is written before me:

“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;

I will indeed repay into their lap

7 both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;

because they made offerings on the mountains

and insulted me on the hills,

I will measure into their lap

payment for their former deeds.”

8 Thus says the Lord:

“As the new wine is found in the cluster,

and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,

for there is a blessing in it,’

so I will do for my servants’ sake,

and not destroy them all.

9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,

and from Judah possessors of my mountains;

my chosen shall possess it,

and my servants shall dwell there.

10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,

and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,

for my people who have sought me.

11 But you who forsake the Lord,

who forget my holy mountain,

who set a table for Fortune

and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

12 I will destine you to the sword,

and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,

because, when I called, you did not answer;

when I spoke, you did not listen,

but you did what was evil in my eyes

and chose what I did not delight in.”

13 Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, my servants shall eat,

but you shall be hungry;

behold, my servants shall drink,

but you shall be thirsty;

behold, my servants shall rejoice,

but you shall be put to shame;

14 behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,

but you shall cry out for pain of heart

and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,

and the Lord God will put you to death,

but his servants he will call by another name,

16 so that he who blesses himself in the land

shall bless himself by the God of truth,

and he who takes an oath in the land

shall swear by the God of truth;

because the former troubles are forgotten

and are hidden from my eyes.

New Heavens and a New Earth

17 “For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

18 But be glad and rejoice forever

in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

and her people to be a gladness.

19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

20 No more shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23 They shall not labor in vain

or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

and their descendants with them.

24 Before they call I will answer;

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain,”

says the Lord.

Mark7

Traditions and Commandments

1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

7 in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

What Defiles a Person

14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”