The Living Bible (230 page)

Isaiah
41

Listen in silence before me, O lands beyond the sea. Bring your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.

    
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 Who has stirred up this one from the east,
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whom victory meets at every step? Who, indeed, but the Lord? God has given him victory over many nations and permitted him to trample kings underfoot and to put entire armies to the sword.
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 He chases them away and goes on safely, though the paths he treads are new.
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 Who has done such mighty deeds, directing the affairs of generations of mankind as they march by? It is I, the Lord, the First and Last; I alone am he.

    
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 The lands beyond the sea watch in fear and wait for word of Cyrus’s
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new campaigns. Remote lands tremble and mobilize for war.
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 The craftsmen encourage each other as they rush to make new idols to protect them. The carver hurries the goldsmith, and the molder helps at the anvil. “Good,” they say. “It’s coming along fine. Now we can solder on the arms.” Carefully they join the parts together and then fasten the thing in place so it won’t fall over!

    
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 But as for you, O Israel, you are mine, my chosen ones; for you are Abraham’s family, and he was my friend.
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 I have called you back from the ends of the earth and said that you must serve but me alone, for I have chosen you and will not throw you away.
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 Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
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 See, all your angry enemies lie confused and shattered. Anyone opposing you will die.
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 You will look for them in vain—they will all be gone.
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 I am holding you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God—and I say to you, Don’t be afraid; I am here to help you.
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 Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer; I am the Holy One of Israel.
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 You shall be a new and sharp-toothed threshing instrument to tear all enemies apart, making chaff of mountains.
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 You shall toss them in the air; the wind shall blow them all away; whirlwinds shall scatter them. And the joy of the Lord shall fill you full; you shall glory in the God of Israel.

    
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 When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I will answer when they cry to me. I, Israel’s God, will never forsake them.
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 I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus! I will give them fountains of water in the valleys! In the deserts will be pools of water, and rivers fed by springs shall flow across the dry, parched ground.
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 I will plant trees—cedars, myrtle, olive trees, cypress, fir, and pine—on barren land.
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 Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is God who did it, Israel’s Holy One.

    
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 Can your idols make such claims as these? Let them come and show what they can do, says God, the King of Israel.
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 Let them try to tell us what occurred in years gone by or what the future holds.
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 Yes, that’s it! If you are gods, tell what will happen in the days ahead! Or do some mighty miracle that makes us stare, amazed.
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 But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all. Anyone who chooses you needs to have his head examined!

    
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 But I have stirred up Cyrus from the north and east; he will come against the nations and call on my name, and I will give him victory over kings and princes. He will tread them as a potter tramples clay.

    
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 Who but I have told you this would happen? Who else predicted this, making you admit that he was right? No one else! None other said one word!
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 I was the first to tell Jerusalem, “Look! Look! Help is on the way!”
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 Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked.
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 See, they are all foolish, worthless things; your idols are all as empty as the wind.

Isaiah
42

See my servant,
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whom I uphold; my Chosen One in whom I delight. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will reveal justice to the nations of the world.
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 He will be gentle—he will not shout nor quarrel in the streets.
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 He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the dimly burning flame. He will encourage the fainthearted, those tempted to despair. He will see full justice given to all who have been wronged.
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 He won’t be satisfied
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until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the earth, nor until even distant lands beyond the seas have put their trust in him.

    
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 The Lord God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who created the earth and everything in it, who gives life and breath and spirit to everyone in all the world, he is the one who says to his Servant, the Messiah
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:
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 “I the Lord have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will guard and support you, for I have given you to my people as the personal confirmation of my covenant with them.
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You shall also be a light to guide the nations unto me.
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 You will open the eyes of the blind and release those who sit in prison darkness and despair.
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 I am the Lord! That is my name, and I will not give my glory to anyone else; I will not share my praise with carved idols.
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 Everything I prophesied came true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.”

    
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 Sing a new song to the Lord; sing his praises, all you who live in earth’s remotest corners! Sing, O sea! Sing, all you who live in distant lands beyond the sea!
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 Join in the chorus, you desert cities—Kedar and Sela! And you, too, dwellers in the mountaintops.
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 Let the western coastlands glorify the Lord and sing his mighty power.

    
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 The Lord will be a mighty warrior, full of fury toward his foes. He will give a great shout and prevail.
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 Long has he been silent; he has restrained himself. But now he will give full vent to his wrath; he will groan and cry like a woman delivering her child.
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 He will level the mountains and hills and blight their greenery. He will dry up the rivers and pools.
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 He will bring blind Israel along a path they have not seen before. He will make the darkness bright before them and smooth and straighten out the road ahead. He will not forsake them.
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 But those who trust in idols and call them gods will be greatly disappointed; they will be turned away.

    
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 Oh, how blind and deaf you are toward God! Why won’t you listen? Why won’t you see?
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 Who in all the world is as blind as my own people,
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who are designed to be my messengers of truth? Who is so blind as my “dedicated one,” the “servant of the Lord”?
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 You see and understand what is right but won’t heed nor do it; you hear, but you won’t listen.

    
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 The Lord has magnified his law and made it truly glorious. Through it he had planned to show the world that he is righteous.
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 But what a sight his people are—these who were to demonstrate to all the world the glory of his law;
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for they are robbed, enslaved, imprisoned, trapped, fair game for all, with no one to protect them.
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 Won’t even one of you apply these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you up ahead?
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 Who let Israel be robbed and hurt? Did not the Lord? It is the Lord they sinned against, for they would not go where he sent them nor listen to his laws.
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 That is why God poured out such fury and wrath on his people and destroyed them in battle. Yet, though set on fire and burned, they will not understand the reason why—that it is God, wanting them to repent.
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Isaiah
43

But now the Lord who created you, O Israel, says: Don’t be afraid, for I have ransomed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.
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 When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you.
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 For I am the Lord your God, your Savior, the Holy One of Israel. I gave Egypt and Ethiopia and Seba to Cyrus
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in exchange for your freedom, as your ransom.
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 Others died that you might live; I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me and honored, and I love you.

    
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 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather you from east and west,
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 from north and south. I will bring my sons and daughters back to Israel from the farthest corners of the earth.
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 All who claim me as their God will come, for I have made them for my glory; I created them.
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 Bring them back to me—blind as they are and deaf when I call (although they see and hear!).

    
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 Gather the nations together! Which of all their idols ever has foretold such things? Which can predict a single day ahead? Where are the witnesses of anything they said? If there are no witnesses, then they must confess that only God can prophesy.

    
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 But I have witnesses, O Israel, says the Lord! You are my witnesses and my servants, chosen to know and to believe me and to understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never was and never will be.
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 I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.
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 Whenever you have thrown away your idols, I have shown you my power. With one word I have saved you. You have seen me do it; you are my witnesses that it is true.
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 From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do.

    
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 The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: For your sakes I will send an invading army against Babylon that will walk in, almost unscathed. The boasts of the Babylonians will turn to cries of fear.
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 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King.
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 I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a path right through the sea.
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 I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses, to lie beneath the waves, dead, their lives snuffed out like candlewicks.

    
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 But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I’m going to do!
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 For I’m going to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it? I will make a road through the wilderness of the world for my people to go home, and create rivers for them in the desert!
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 The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and ostriches too, for giving them water in the wilderness, yes, springs in the desert, so that my people, my chosen ones, can be refreshed.
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 I have made Israel for myself, and these my people will some day honor me before the world.

    
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 But O my people, you won’t ask my help; you have grown tired of me!
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 You have not brought me the lambs for burnt offerings; you have not honored me with sacrifices. Yet my requests for offerings and incense have been very few! I have not treated you as slaves.
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 You have brought me no sweet-smelling incense nor pleased me with the sacrificial fat. No, you have presented me only with sins and wearied me with all your faults.

    
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 I, yes, I alone am he who blots away your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.
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 Oh, remind me of this promise of forgiveness, for we must talk about your sins. Plead your case for my forgiving you.
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 From the very first your ancestors sinned against me—all your forebears transgressed my law.
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 That is why I have deposed your priests and destroyed Israel, leaving her to shame.