The scriptures read are Isaiah 25-27, Psalm 34 and 1 Timothy 3.
Isaiah 25. There is a celebration of how God takes care of the poor. And then a passage that will be echoed in Jesus' talk of the kingdom of God being like a wedding feast. Isaiah also envisions God ending death and wiping away every tear, a phrase that will reappear in the Book of Revelation.
Isaiah 26. Jerusalem as a refuge for the righteous. Images of birth and resurrection.
Isaiah 27. Another reference to Leviathan, a sea serpent that scripture alternately describes God as playing with, or as here, fighting. Again the dragon imagery will show up in Revelation. He may very well symbolize the primordial chaos that God subdued at the beginning of creation.
Then the poetry switches to singing about a vineyard. But this time instead of breaking down its walls and letting nature take it over, God tends it lovingly. He has no anger anymore. Animals will be welcome and refugees from Egypt. The vineyard is explicitly said to be his people.
Psalm 34. Several people in my family are hearing-impaired. So here is a video with sign language accompanying a soul/country version of the psalm. And as a bonus here is a gifted amateur who does a great job on his acoustic guitar version despite English evidently not being his first language.
1 Timothy 3. Here's the part I was talking about before we got into this book. Peterson uses the words "leader" and "servant" rather than "bishop" and "deacon" but that just underlines my point. There is no need to see these as positions that could only arise after a long time and an elaboration of hierarchy. Paul is simply giving the qualifications for those who lead and serve the church. And they are what we would want to see in any leader, neither egomaniacs nor drunks, neither newbies nor the power-hungry, neither violent and argumentative nor money-grubbers. Their personal lives shouldn't be chaotic messes. The qualifications for deacons are much the same. And that goes for the women in these positions as well (verse 11).
Paul then goes into a little hymn, perhaps one that was popular in the early church.
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