For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Palm 69:33

Isaiah 51-53

Isaiah 51

Salvation for Zion

¹ “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord.
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
² Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who gave birth to you,
for when Israel was only one, I called him,
I blessed him
and made him numerous.
³ For the Lord has comforted Zion.
He has comforted all her wastelands
and has made her wilderness like Eden
and her desert like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in them,
thanksgiving and the sound of melodies.

⁴ Listen to me, my people,
and hear me, my nation,
for I will give my instruction
and establish my justice as a light to the nations.

⁵ My righteousness is near.
My salvation is coming,
and my arms will judge the nations.
The islands will wait for me,
and they will trust in my strength.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens
and look at the earth beneath,
for the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like a garment.
Its inhabitants will die in the same way,
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not be abolished.

⁷ Listen to me, you who understand righteousness,
the people who hold my law in their hearts.
Do not fear the reproach of men
and do not be surprised by their insults.
⁸ For the moth will consume them like a garment,
and the worm will consume them like wool,
but my righteousness will be forever
and my salvation to all generations.”

⁹ Wake up, wake up, arm of the Lord!
Suite yourself up in strength.
Wake up, as in the days of old,
the generations of ancient times.
Is it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the monster?
¹⁰ Is it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made, in the depths of the sea,
a way for the redeemed to cross over?
¹¹ Those ransomed by the Lord will return
and come with singing to Zion.
Everlasting joy shall be on their heads.
Gladness and joy will be theirs
and sorrow and grief will vanish.

¹² I, yes I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die
and of the son of man who withers like the grass?
¹³ Have you forgotten the Lord your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth?
Do you live in constant, daily dread
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
whose purpose is destruction?
Where is the wrath of this oppressor?
¹⁴ The captive exile will soon be freed.
He will not die and go down into the pit.
His bread will not fail.
¹⁵ For I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar.
The Lord of Hosts is his name.
¹⁶ I have put my words in your mouth
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that I may plant the heavens
and lay the foundations of the earth
and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”

The Cup of Wrath

¹⁷ Wake up! Wake up! Stand up, Jerusalem,
who has drunk the cup of wrath,
at the hand of the Lord.
You have drunk to the bottom of the bowl,
from the cup of staggering, and drained it.
¹⁸ Among all the sons whom she has produced,
not one can guide her.
Among all the sons who she has brought up,
not one takes her by the hand to lead her.
¹⁹ These two things have happened to you—
who will grieve with you?—
desolation and destruction,
and famine and the sword.
How can I comfort you?
²⁰ Your sons have fainted.
They lie in the streets
like an antelope caught in a net.
They are full of the Lord’s wrath,
the rebuke of your God.

²¹ Therefore now hear this, you who are afflicted,
and drunken, but not with wine.
²² This is what the Lord says–your Lord Yahweh,
and your God who pleads the cause of his people,
“I have taken out of your hand, the cup of staggering,
and the bowl from the cup of my wrath,
and you will never drink it again.
²³ I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you,’
and you have laid your back like the ground,
like a street for them to walk on.”

Isaiah 52

Deliverance for Jerusalem

¹ Wake up! Wake up!
Put on your strength, Zion.
Put on your beautiful garments,
Jerusalem, the holy city,
for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean
will no longer enter you.
² Shake the dust off!
Get up!, Sit up, Jerusalem!
Release yourself from the bonds on your neck,
captive daughter of Zion!

³ For the Lord says, “You were sold for nothing,
and you will be redeemed without money.”

⁴ For the Lord God says,
“At first my people went down to Egypt to live there,
and then Assyria oppressed them for no reason.
⁵ So now, what do I have here,” says the Lord,
“seeing that my people are taken away for nothing?
Their rulers mock,” says the Lord,
“and my name is continually blasphemed all day long.
⁶ Therefore my people will know my name,
and then, in that day, they will know
that I am the one who has been speaking to them.”

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the one who brings good news,
who publishes peace,
who brings good tidings of happiness,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
⁸ Hear the voices of your watchmen!
They lift up their voices, and together they sing,
for they shall see eye to eye,
when the Lord returns to Zion.
⁹ Break out into joy!
Sing together, you wastelands of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people.
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm in the site of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

¹¹ Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!
Go out from among her!
Cleanse yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
¹² For you will not go out in haste,
nor will you go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

The Servant Exalted

¹³ My servant will act wisely.
He will be raised and lifted up
and will be highly exalted.
¹⁴ Just as many were appalled at you—
his appearance was marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men—
¹⁵ so he will cleanse many nations.
Kings will shut their mouths because of him,
for they will see that which had not been told to them,
and they will understand that which they had not heard.

Isaiah 53

The Suffering Servant

¹ Who has believed our message?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For he grew up before him as a tender plant
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
and acquainted with illness.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face,
and we did not respect him.

⁴ Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering,
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way,
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he did not open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ He was taken away by oppression and judgment.
As for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living
and struck for the disobedience of my people?

A Grave Assigned

⁹ They assigned his grave among the wicked,
but with the rich at his death,
although he had committed no violence,
nor did any deceit come from his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
When you make him an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days
and the Lord’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.
He will divide the plunder with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death
and was counted among sinners,
yet he bore the sins of many
and made intercession for the sinners.

Ephesians 5

Imitators of God

¹ Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² Walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet-smelling fragrance.

³ But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as is proper for saints; ⁴ nor filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor course jokes, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.

⁵ Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. ⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Children of Light

⁸ For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, ⁹ for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, ¹⁰ proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹ Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather reprove them. ¹² For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light. ¹⁴ Therefore it is said,

“Awake, you who sleep
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵ Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, ¹⁶ redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not be drunken with wine, which leads to recklessness, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; ²⁰ giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, the Father; ²¹ submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

Wives and Husbands

²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body. ²⁴ But as the church submits to Christ, so let wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ that he might present the church to himself gloriously, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without defect.

²⁸ In the same way, husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord also does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.” ^a

³² This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the church. ³³ Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

^{a Genesis 2:24}

Psalm 69:19-36

¹⁹ You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My adversaries are all before you.
²⁰ Insults have broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They also gave me poison for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

²² Let their table be a snare, a stumbling block,
and a trap for their allies.
²³ Let their eyes be darkened, that they cannot see.
Always keep their backs bent.
²⁴ Pour out your indignation on them.
Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
²⁵ Let their habitation be desolate.
Let no one dwell in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
²⁷ Charge them with crime upon crime.
Do not let them come into your righteousness.
²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
and not be written with the righteous.

²⁹ But I am in pain and distress.
Let your salvation, God, protect me.
³⁰ I will praise the name of God with a song
and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
³¹ It will please the Lord better than an ox
or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
³² The humble have seen it and are glad.
You who seek after God, let your heart live.
³³ For the Lord hears the needy
and does not despise his captive people.

³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them!
³⁵ For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah.
They shall settle there and own it.
³⁶ The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those who love his name shall dwell there.

Proverbs 24:7

⁷ Wisdom is too high for a fool.
He does not open his mouth in the gate.

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