ISAIAH 60-63

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A Glorified Zion60:1 “Arise, shine; for your light has come,

And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

2 “For behold, darkness will cover the earth

And deep darkness the peoples;

But the LORD will rise upon you

And His glory will appear upon you.

3 “Nations will come to your light,

And kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 “Lift up your eyes round about and see;

They all gather together, they come to you.

Your sons will come from afar,

And your daughters will be carried in the arms.

5 “Then you will see and be radiant,

And your heart will thrill and rejoice;

Because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you,

The wealth of the nations will come to you.

6 “A multitude of camels will cover you,

The young camels of Midian and Ephah;

All those from Sheba will come;

They will bring gold and frankincense,

And will bear good news of the praises of the LORD.

7 “All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you,

The rams of Nebaioth will minister to you;

They will go up with acceptance on My altar,

And I shall glorify My glorious house.

8 “Who are these who fly like a cloud

And like the doves to their lattices?

9 “Surely the coastlands will wait for Me;

And the ships of Tarshish will come first,

To bring your sons from afar,

Their silver and their gold with them,

For the name of the LORD your God,

And for the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you.

10 “Foreigners will build up your walls,

And their kings will minister to you;

For in My wrath I struck you,

And in My favor I have had compassion on you.

11 “Your gates will be open continually;

They will not be closed day or night,

So that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations,

With their kings led in procession.

12 “For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish,

And the nations will be utterly ruined.

13 “The glory of Lebanon will come to you,

The juniper, the box tree and the cypress together,

To beautify the place of My sanctuary;

And I shall make the place of My feet glorious.

14 “The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you,

And all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet;

And they will call you the city of the LORD,

The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

15 “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated

With no one passing through,

I will make you an everlasting pride,

A joy from generation to generation.

16 “You will also suck the milk of nations

And suck the breast of kings;

Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior

And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

17 “Instead of bronze I will bring gold,

And instead of iron I will bring silver,

And instead of wood, bronze,

And instead of stones, iron.

And I will make peace your administrators

And righteousness your overseers.

18 “Violence will not be heard again in your land,

Nor devastation or destruction within your borders;

But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.

19 “No longer will you have the sun for light by day,

Nor for brightness will the moon give you light;

But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light,

And your God for your glory.

20 “Your sun will no longer set,

Nor will your moon wane;

For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light,

And the days of your mourning will be over.

21 “Then all your people will be righteous;

They will possess the land forever,

The branch of My planting,

The work of My hands,

That I may be glorified.

22 “The smallest one will become a clan,

And the least one a mighty nation.

I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”

Exaltation of the Afflicted61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

Because the LORD has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to captives

And freedom to prisoners;

2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

3 To grant those who mourn in Zion,

Giving them a garland instead of ashes,

The oil of gladness instead of mourning,

The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,

They will raise up the former devastations;

And they will repair the ruined cities,

The desolations of many generations.

5 Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks,

And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.

6 But you will be called the priests of the LORD;

You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.

You will eat the wealth of nations,

And in their riches you will boast.

7 Instead of your shame you will have a double portion,

And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.

Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land,

Everlasting joy will be theirs.

8 For I, the LORD, love justice,

I hate robbery in the burnt offering;

And I will faithfully give them their recompense

And make an everlasting covenant with them.

9 Then their offspring will be known among the nations,

And their descendants in the midst of the peoples.

All who see them will recognize them

Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.

10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD,

My soul will exult in my God;

For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,

He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,

As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,

And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,

So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise

To spring up before all the nations.

Zion’s Glory and New Name62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet,

Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness,

And her salvation like a torch that is burning.

2 The nations will see your righteousness,

And all kings your glory;

And you will be called by a new name

Which the mouth of the LORD will designate.

3 You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,

And a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4 It will no longer be said to you, “Forsaken,”

Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “Desolate”;

But you will be called, “My delight is in her,”

And your land, “Married”;

For the LORD delights in you,

And to Him your land will be married.

5 For as a young man marries a virgin,

So your sons will marry you;

And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

So your God will rejoice over you.

6 On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen;

All day and all night they will never keep silent.

You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves;

7 And give Him no rest until He establishes

And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

8 The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm,

“I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies;

Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.”

9 But those who garner it will eat it and praise the LORD;

And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.

10 Go through, go through the gates,

Clear the way for the people;

Build up, build up the highway,

Remove the stones, lift up a standard over the peoples.

11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth,

Say to the daughter of Zion, “Lo, your salvation comes;

Behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.”

12 And they will call them, “The holy people,

The redeemed of the LORD”;

And you will be called, “Sought out, a city not forsaken.”

God’s Vengeance on the Nations63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom,

With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah,

This One who is majestic in His apparel,

Marching in the greatness of His strength?

“It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

2 Why is Your apparel red,

And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?

3 “I have trodden the wine trough alone,

And from the peoples there was no man with Me.

I also trod them in My anger

And trampled them in My wrath;

And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,

And I stained all My raiment.

4 “For the day of vengeance was in My heart,

And My year of redemption has come.

5 “I looked, and there was no one to help,

And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;

So My own arm brought salvation to Me,

And My wrath upheld Me.

6 “I trod down the peoples in My anger

And made them drunk in My wrath,

And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

God’s Ancient Mercies Recalled7 I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, the praises of the LORD,

According to all that the LORD has granted us,

And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,

Which He has granted them according to His compassion

And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.

8 For He said, “Surely, they are My people,

Sons who will not deal falsely.”

So He became their Savior.

9 In all their affliction He was afflicted,

And the angel of His presence saved them;

In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them,

And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled

And grieved His Holy Spirit;

Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy,

He fought against them.

11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses.

Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock?

Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,

12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,

Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,

13 Who led them through the depths?

Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble;

14 As the cattle which go down into the valley,

The Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.

So You led Your people,

To make for Yourself a glorious name.

“You Are Our Father”15 Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation;

Where are Your zeal and Your mighty deeds?

The stirrings of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me.

16 For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us

And Israel does not recognize us.

You, O LORD, are our Father,

Our Redeemer from of old is Your name.

17 Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways

And harden our heart from fearing You?

Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

18 Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while,

Our adversaries have trodden it down.

19 We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,

Like those who were not called by Your name.

2 CORINTHIANS 1

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Introduction  1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
    To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia:
    2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.
    8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; 9 indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; 10 who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, 11 you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.
Paul’s Integrity    12 For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. 13 For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end; 14 just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.
    15 In this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; 16 that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea. 17 Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? 18 But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. 19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us--by me and Silvanus and Timothy--was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. 20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. 21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
    23 But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm.