Isaiah 29:1-4, 13-16

Doom, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David set camp! Let the years add up, let the festivals run their cycles, But I’m not letting up on Jerusalem. The moaning and groaning will continue. Jerusalem to me is an Ariel. Like David, I’ll set up camp against you. I’ll set siege, build towers, bring in siege engines, build siege ramps. Driven into the ground, you’ll speak, you’ll mumble words from the dirt— Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost. Your speech will whisper from the dust.

The Master said: “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren’t in it. Because they act like they’re worshiping me but don’t mean it, I’m going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing.” Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track. You shut GOD out and work behind the scenes, Plotting the future as if you knew everything, acting mysterious, never showing your hand. You have everything backward! You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, “He didn’t write a word of me”? Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, “She had nothing to do with this”?