Along The Way (August 25th - 31st)

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  • Isaiah 50 & 51

    Thus says the Lord:

    Where is your mother’s bill of divorce

    with which I dismissed her?

    Or which of my creditors is it

    to whom I have sold you?

    No, because of your sins you were sold,

    and for your transgressions your mother was dismissed.

    Why was no one there when I came?

    Why did no one answer when I called?

    Is my arm powerless to redeem?

    Or have I no strength to deliver?

    By my rebuke I dry up the sea;

    I make the rivers a desert,

    so that their fish stink for lack of water

    and die of thirst.

    I clothe the heavens with blackness

    and make sackcloth their covering.

    The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication

    The Lord God has given me

    a trained tongue,

    that I may know how to sustain

    the weary with a word.

    Morning by morning he wakens,

    wakens my ear

    to listen as those who are taught.

    The Lord God has opened my ear,

    and I was not rebellious;

    I did not turn backward.

    I gave my back to those who struck me

    and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;

    I did not hide my face

    from insult and spitting.

    The Lord God helps me;

    therefore I have not been disgraced;

    therefore I have set my face like flint,

    and I know that I shall not be put to shame;

    he who vindicates me is near.

    Who will contend with me?

    Let us stand in court together.

    Who are my adversaries?

    Let them confront me.

    It is the Lord God who helps me;

    who will declare me guilty?

    All of them will wear out like a garment;

    the moth will eat them up.

    Who among you fears the Lord

    and obeys the voice of his servant,

    who walks in darkness

    and has no light,

    yet trusts in the name of the Lord

    and relies upon his God?

    But all of you are kindlers of fire,

    lighters of firebrands.

    Walk in the flame of your fire

    and among the brands that you have kindled!

    This is what you shall have from my hand:

    you shall lie down in torment.

    Blessings in Store for God’s People

    Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,

    you who seek the Lord.

    Look to the rock from which you were hewn

    and to the quarry from which you were dug.

    Look to Abraham your father

    and to Sarah, who bore you,

    for he was but one when I called him,

    but I blessed him and made him many.

    For the Lord will comfort Zion;

    he will comfort all her waste places

    and will make her wilderness like Eden,

    her desert like the garden of the Lord;

    joy and gladness will be found in her,

    thanksgiving and the voice of song.

    Listen to me, my people,

    and give heed to me, my nation,

    for a teaching will go out from me

    and my justice for a light to the peoples.

    I will bring near my deliverance swiftly;

    my salvation has gone out,

    and my arms will rule the peoples;

    the coastlands wait for me,

    and for my arm they hope.

    Lift up your eyes to the heavens

    and look at the earth beneath,

    for the heavens will vanish like smoke,

    the earth will wear out like a garment,

    and those who live on it will die like gnats,

    but my salvation will be forever,

    and my deliverance will never be ended.

    Listen to me, you who know righteousness,

    you people who have my teaching in your hearts;

    do not fear the reproach of others,

    and do not be dismayed when they revile you.

    For the moth will eat them up like a garment,

    and the worm will eat them like wool,

    but my deliverance will be forever

    and my salvation to all generations.

    Awake, awake, put on strength,

    O arm of the Lord!

    Awake, as in days of old,

    the generations of long ago!

    Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,

    who pierced the dragon?

    Was it not you who dried up the sea,

    the waters of the great deep;

    who made the depths of the sea a way

    for the redeemed to cross over?

    So the ransomed of the Lord shall return

    and come to Zion with rejoicing;

    everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

    they shall obtain joy and gladness,

    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

    I, I am he who comforts you;

    why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die,

    a human being who fades like grass?

    You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,

    who stretched out the heavens

    and laid the foundations of the earth.

    You fear continually all day long

    because of the fury of the oppressor,

    who is bent on destruction.

    But where is the fury of the oppressor?

    The oppressed shall speedily be released;

    they shall not die and go down to the Pit,

    nor shall they lack bread.

    For I am the Lord your God,

    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar —

    the Lord of hosts is his name.

    I have put my words in your mouth

    and hidden you in the shadow of my hand,

    stretching out the heavens

    and laying the foundations of the earth

    and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”

    Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!

    Stand up, O Jerusalem,

    you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord

    the cup of his wrath,

    who have drunk to the dregs

    the cup of staggering.

    There is no one to guide her

    among all the children she has borne;

    there is no one to take her by the hand

    among all the children she has brought up.

    These two things have befallen you

    — who will grieve with you? —

    devastation and destruction, famine and sword.

    Who will comfort you?

    Your children have fainted;

    they lie at the head of every street

    like an antelope in a net;

    they are full of the wrath of the Lord,

    the rebuke of your God.

    Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,

    who are drunk but not with wine:

    Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,

    your God who pleads the cause of his people:

    See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;

    you shall drink no more

    from the cup of my wrath.

    And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,

    who have said to you,

    “Bow down, that we may walk on you,”

    and you have made your back like the ground

    and like the street for them to walk on.

  • Isaiah 52 & 53

    Let Zion Rejoice

    Awake; awake;

    put on your strength, O Zion!

    Put on your beautiful garments,

    O Jerusalem, the holy city,

    for the uncircumcised and the unclean

    shall enter you no more.

    Shake yourself from the dust; rise up,

    O captive Jerusalem;

    loose the bonds from your neck,

    O captive daughter Zion!

    For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause. Now therefore what am I doing here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers howl, says the Lord, and continually, all day long, my name is despised. Therefore my people shall know my name; on that day they shall know that it is I who speak — it is I!

    How beautiful upon the mountains

    are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

    who brings good news,

    who announces salvation,

    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

    Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices;

    together they shout for joy,

    for in plain sight they see

    the return of the Lord to Zion.

    Break forth; shout together for joy,

    you ruins of Jerusalem,

    for the Lord has comforted his people;

    he has redeemed Jerusalem.

    The Lord has bared his holy arm

    before the eyes of all the nations,

    and all the ends of the earth shall see

    the salvation of our God.

    Depart, depart, go out from there!

    Touch no unclean thing;

    go out from the midst of it; purify yourselves,

    you who carry the vessels of the Lord.

    For you shall not go out in haste,

    and you shall not go in flight,

    for the Lord will go before you,

    and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

    The Suffering Servant

    See, my servant shall prosper;

    he shall be exalted and lifted up

    and shall be very high.

    Just as there were many who were astonished at him

    — so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,

    and his form beyond that of mortals —

    so he shall startle many nations;

    kings shall shut their mouths because of him,

    for that which had not been told them they shall see,

    and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

    Who has believed what we have heard?

    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

    For he grew up before him like a young plant

    and like a root out of dry ground;

    he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

    He was despised and rejected by others;

    a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity,

    and as one from whom others hide their faces

    he was despised, and we held him of no account.

    Surely he has borne our infirmities

    and carried our diseases,

    yet we accounted him stricken,

    struck down by God, and afflicted.

    But he was wounded for our transgressions,

    crushed for our iniquities;

    upon him was the punishment that made us whole,

    and by his bruises we are healed.

    All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have all turned to our own way,

    and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

    He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

    yet he did not open his mouth;

    like a lamb that is led to the slaughter

    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

    so he did not open his mouth.

    By a perversion of justice he was taken away.

    Who could have imagined his future?

    For he was cut off from the land of the living,

    stricken for the transgression of my people.

    They made his grave with the wicked

    and his tomb with the rich,

    although he had done no violence,

    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

    Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction.

    When you make his life an offering for sin,

    he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days;

    through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.

    Out of his anguish he shall see;

    he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.

    The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,

    and he shall bear their iniquities.

    Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,

    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

    because he poured out himself to death

    and was numbered with the transgressors,

    yet he bore the sin of many

    and made intercession for the transgressors.

  • Isaiah 54

    The Eternal Covenant of Peace

    Shout for joy, O barren one who has borne no children;

    burst into song and shout,

    you who have not been in labor!

    For the children of the desolate woman will be more

    than the children of the one who is married, says the Lord.

    Enlarge the site of your tent,

    and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;

    do not hold back; lengthen your cords

    and strengthen your stakes.

    For you will spread out to the right and to the left,

    and your descendants will possess nations

    and will settle desolate towns.

    Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;

    do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace,

    for you will forget the shame of your youth,

    and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more.

    For your Maker is your husband;

    the Lord of hosts is his name;

    the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;

    the God of the whole earth he is called.

    For the Lord has called you

    like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,

    like the wife of a man’s youth when she is cast off,

    says your God.

    For a brief moment I abandoned you,

    but with great compassion I will gather you.

    In overflowing wrath for a moment

    I hid my face from you,

    but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,

    says the Lord, your Redeemer.

    This is like the days of Noah to me:

    Just as I swore that the waters of Noah

    would never again go over the earth,

    so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you

    and will not rebuke you.

    For the mountains may depart

    and the hills be removed,

    but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,

    and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,

    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

    O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,

    I am about to set your stones in antimony

    and lay your foundations with sapphires.

    I will make your pinnacles of rubies,

    your gates of jewels,

    and all your wall of precious stones.

    All your children shall be taught by the Lord,

    and great shall be the prosperity of your children.

    In righteousness you shall be established;

    you shall be far from oppression; indeed, you shall not fear;

    and from terror; indeed, it shall not come near you.

    If anyone stirs up strife,

    it is not from me;

    whoever stirs up strife with you

    shall fall because of you.

    See, it is I who have created the smith

    who blows the fire of coals

    and produces a weapon fit for its purpose;

    I have also created the ravager to destroy.

    No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper,

    and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

    This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord

    and their vindication from me, says the Lord.

  • Isaiah 55 & 56

    An Invitation to Abundant Life

    Hear, everyone who thirsts;

    come to the waters;

    and you who have no money,

    come, buy and eat!

    Come, buy wine and milk

    without money and without price.

    Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread

    and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?

    Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,

    and delight yourselves in rich food.

    Incline your ear, and come to me;

    listen, so that you may live.

    I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

    my steadfast, sure love for David.

    See, I made him a witness to the peoples,

    a leader and commander for the peoples.

    Now you shall call nations that you do not know,

    and nations that do not know you shall run to you,

    because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,

    for he has glorified you.

    Seek the Lord while he may be found;

    call upon him while he is near;

    let the wicked forsake their way

    and the unrighteous their thoughts;

    let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,

    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

    For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

    For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

    making it bring forth and sprout,

    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

    so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

    it shall not return to me empty,

    but it shall accomplish that which I purpose

    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

    For you shall go out in joy

    and be led back in peace;

    the mountains and the hills before you

    shall burst into song,

    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

    Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle,

    and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,

    for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

    The Covenant Extended to All Who Obey

    Thus says the Lord:

    Maintain justice, and do what is right,

    for soon my salvation will come

    and my deliverance be revealed.

    Happy is the mortal who does this,

    the one who holds it fast,

    who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,

    and refrains from doing any evil.

    Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,

    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”

    and do not let the eunuch say,

    “I am just a dry tree.”

    For thus says the Lord:

    To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

    who choose the things that please me

    and hold fast my covenant,

    I will give, in my house and within my walls,

    a monument and a name

    better than sons and daughters;

    I will give them an everlasting name

    that shall not be cut off.

    And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,

    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,

    and to be his servants,

    all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it

    and hold fast my covenant —

    these I will bring to my holy mountain

    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

    their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

    will be accepted on my altar,

    for my house shall be called a house of prayer

    for all peoples.

    Thus says the Lord God,

    who gathers the outcasts of Israel:

    I will gather others to them

    besides those already gathered.

    The Corruption of Israel’s Rulers

    All you wild animals,

    all you wild animals in the forest, come to devour!

    Israel’s sentinels are blind;

    they are all without knowledge;

    they are all silent dogs

    that cannot bark,

    dreaming, lying down,

    loving to slumber.

    The dogs have a mighty appetite;

    they never have enough.

    The shepherds also have no understanding;

    they have all turned to their own way,

    to their own gain, one and all.

    “Come,” they say, “let us get wine;

    let us fill ourselves with strong drink.

    And tomorrow will be like today,

    great beyond measure.”

  • Isaiah 57 & 58

    Israel’s Futile Idolatry

    The righteous perish,

    and no one considers why;

    the devout are taken away,

    while no one understands

    that it is due to evil that the righteous are taken away.

    Those who walk uprightly enter into peace

    and rest on their couches.

    But as for you, come here,

    you children of a sorceress,

    you offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.

    Whom are you mocking?

    Against whom do you open your mouth wide

    and stick out your tongue?

    Are you not children of transgression,

    the offspring of deceit —

    you who burn with lust among the oaks,

    under every green tree;

    you who slaughter your children in the valleys,

    under the clefts of the rocks?

    Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;

    it is they who are your lot;

    to them you have poured out a drink offering;

    you have brought a grain offering.

    Should these acts cause me to relent?

    Upon a high and lofty mountain

    you have set your bed,

    and there you went up to offer sacrifice.

    Behind the door and the doorpost

    you have set up your symbol,

    for in deserting me you have uncovered your bed;

    you have gone up to it;

    you have made it wide;

    and you have made a bargain for yourself with them;

    you have loved their bed;

    you have gazed on their nakedness.

    You journeyed to Molech with oil

    and multiplied your perfumes;

    you sent your envoys far away

    and sent them down to Sheol.

    You grew weary from your many wanderings,

    but you did not say, “It is no use!”

    You found your desire rekindled,

    and so you did not weaken.

    Whom did you dread and fear

    so that you lied

    and did not remember me

    or give me a thought?

    Have I not kept silent and closed my eyes,

    and so you do not fear me?

    I will announce your verdict,

    and the objects you made will not help you.

    When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!

    The wind will carry them off;

    a breath will take them away.

    But whoever takes refuge in me shall possess the land

    and inherit my holy mountain.

    A Promise of Help and Healing

    It shall be said,

    “Build up, build up, prepare the way;

    remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”

    For thus says the high and lofty one

    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

    I dwell in the high and holy place

    and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit,

    to revive the spirit of the humble

    and to revive the heart of the contrite.

    For I will not continually accuse,

    nor will I always be angry,

    for then the spirits would grow faint before me,

    even the souls that I have made.

    Because of their wicked covetousness I was angry;

    I struck them; I hid and was angry,

    but they kept turning back to their own ways.

    I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;

    I will lead them and repay them with comfort,

    creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips.

    Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the Lord,

    and I will heal them.

    But the wicked are like the tossing sea

    that cannot keep still;

    its waters toss up mire and mud.

    There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

    False and True Worship

    Shout out; do not hold back!

    Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

    Announce to my people their rebellion,

    to the house of Jacob their sins.

    Yet day after day they seek me

    and delight to know my ways,

    as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness

    and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

    they ask of me righteous judgments;

    they want God on their side.

    “Why do we fast, but you do not see?

    Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

    Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day

    and oppress all your workers.

    You fast only to quarrel and to fight

    and to strike with a wicked fist.

    Such fasting as you do today

    will not make your voice heard on high.

    Is such the fast that I choose,

    a day to humble oneself?

    Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush

    and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

    Will you call this a fast,

    a day acceptable to the Lord?

    Is not this the fast that I choose:

    to loose the bonds of injustice,

    to undo the straps of the yoke,

    to let the oppressed go free,

    and to break every yoke?

    Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

    and bring the homeless poor into your house;

    when you see the naked, to cover them

    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

    Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

    and your healing shall spring up quickly;

    your vindicator shall go before you;

    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

    Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

    you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”

    If you remove the yoke from among you,

    the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

    if you offer your food to the hungry

    and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

    then your light shall rise in the darkness

    and your gloom be like the noonday.

    The Lord will guide you continually

    and satisfy your needs in parched places

    and make your bones strong,

    and you shall be like a watered garden,

    like a spring of water

    whose waters never fail.

    Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

    you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

    you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

    the restorer of streets to live in.

    If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath,

    from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;

    if you call the Sabbath a delight

    and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

    if you honor it, not going your own ways,

    serving your own interests or pursuing your own affairs;

    then you shall take delight in the Lord,

    and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;

    I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,

    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

  • Isaiah 59

    Injustice and Oppression to Be Punished

    See, the Lord’s arm is not too short to save,

    nor his ear too dull to hear.

    Rather, your iniquities have been barriers

    between you and your God,

    and your sins have hidden his face from you

    so that he does not hear.

    For your hands are defiled with blood

    and your fingers with iniquity;

    your lips have spoken lies;

    your tongue mutters wickedness.

    No one brings suit justly;

    no one goes to law honestly;

    they rely on empty pleas; they speak lies,

    conceiving mischief and bearing iniquity.

    They hatch adders’ eggs

    and weave the spider’s web;

    whoever eats their eggs dies,

    and the crushed egg hatches out a viper.

    Their webs cannot serve as clothing;

    they cannot cover themselves with what they make.

    Their works are works of iniquity,

    and deeds of violence are in their hands.

    Their feet run to evil,

    and they rush to shed innocent blood;

    their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

    desolation and destruction are in their highways.

    The way of peace they do not know,

    and there is no justice in their ways.

    Their roads they have made crooked;

    no one who walks in them knows peace.

    Therefore justice is far from us,

    and deliverance does not reach us;

    we wait for light, but there is only darkness;

    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

    We grope like the blind along a wall,

    groping like those who have no eyes;

    we stumble at noon as in the twilight,

    among the vigorous as though we were dead.

    We all growl like bears;

    like doves we moan mournfully.

    We wait for justice, but there is none;

    for salvation, but it is far from us.

    For our transgressions before you are many,

    and our sins testify against us.

    Our transgressions indeed are with us,

    and we know our iniquities:

    transgressing and denying the Lord

    and turning away from following our God,

    talking oppression and revolt,

    conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.

    Justice is turned back,

    and deliverance stands at a distance,

    for truth stumbles in the public square,

    and uprightness cannot enter.

    Truth is lacking,

    and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.

    The Lord saw it, and it displeased him

    that there was no justice.

    He saw that there was no one

    and was appalled that there was no one to intervene,

    so his own arm brought him victory,

    and his righteousness upheld him.

    He put on righteousness like a breastplate

    and a helmet of salvation on his head;

    he put on garments of vengeance for clothing

    and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.

    According to their deeds, so will he repay

    wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;

    to the coastlands he will render requital.

    So those in the west shall fear the name of the Lord,

    and those in the east, his glory,

    for he will come like a pent-up stream

    that the wind of the Lord drives on.

    And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,

    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord.

    And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouths of your children or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from now on and forever.

  • Isaiah 60 & 61

    The Ingathering of the Dispersed

    Arise, shine, for your light has come,

    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

    For darkness shall cover the earth

    and thick darkness the peoples,

    but the Lord will arise upon you,

    and his glory will appear over you.

    Nations shall come to your light

    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

    Lift up your eyes and look around;

    they all gather together; they come to you;

    your sons shall come from far away,

    and your daughters shall be carried in their nurses’ arms.

    Then you shall see and be radiant;

    your heart shall thrill and rejoice,

    because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you;

    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

    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 proclaim the praise of the Lord.

    All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;

    the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;

    they shall be acceptable on my altar,

    and I will glorify my glorious house.

    Who are these that fly like a cloud

    and like doves to their windows?

    For the coastlands shall wait for me,

    the ships of Tarshish first,

    to bring your children from far away,

    their silver and gold with them,

    for the name of the Lord your God

    and for the Holy One of Israel,

    because he has glorified you.

    Foreigners shall build up your walls,

    and their kings shall minister to you,

    for in my wrath I struck you down,

    but in my favor I have had mercy on you.

    Your gates shall always be open;

    day and night they shall not be shut,

    so that nations shall bring you their wealth,

    with their kings led in procession.

    For the nation and kingdom

    that will not serve you shall perish;

    those nations shall be utterly laid waste.

    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 glorify where my feet rest.

    The descendants of those who oppressed 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.

    Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,

    with no one passing through,

    I will make you majestic forever,

    a joy from age to age.

    You shall suck the milk of nations;

    you shall suck the breasts of kings,

    and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior

    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

    Instead of bronze I will bring gold;

    instead of iron I will bring silver;

    instead of wood, bronze;

    instead of stones, iron.

    I will appoint Peace as your overseer

    and Righteousness as your taskmaster.

    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.

    God the Glory of Zion

    The sun shall no longer be

    your light by day,

    nor for brightness shall the moon

    give light to you by night,

    but the Lord will be your everlasting light,

    and your God will be your glory.

    Your sun shall no more go down

    or your moon withdraw itself,

    for the Lord will be your everlasting light,

    and your days of mourning shall be ended.

    Your people shall all be righteous;

    they shall possess the land forever.

    They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands,

    so that I might be glorified.

    The least of them shall become a clan

    and the smallest one a mighty nation;

    I am the Lord;

    in its time I will accomplish it quickly.

    The Good News of Deliverance

    The spirit of the Lord God is upon me

    because the Lord has anointed me;

    he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

    to bind up the brokenhearted,

    to proclaim liberty to the captives

    and release to the prisoners,

    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

    and the day of vengeance of our God,

    to comfort all who mourn,

    to provide for those who mourn in Zion —

    to give them a garland instead of ashes,

    the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

    the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

    They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

    They shall build up the ancient ruins;

    they shall raise up the former devastations;

    they shall repair the ruined cities,

    the devastations of many generations.

    Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks;

    foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines,

    but you shall be called priests of the Lord;

    you shall be named ministers of our God;

    you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,

    and in their riches you shall glory.

    Because their shame was double

    and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot,

    therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;

    everlasting joy shall be theirs.

    For I, the Lord, love justice,

    I hate robbery and wrongdoing;

    I will faithfully give them their recompense,

    and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

    Their descendants shall be known among the nations

    and their offspring among the peoples;

    all who see them shall acknowledge

    that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.

    I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

    my whole being shall exult in my God,

    for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

    as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland

    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

    For as the earth brings forth its shoots

    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,

    so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise

    to spring up before all the nations.

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Weekly Greeting - August 25th, 2023

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Bethlehem News - August 25th, 2023