Bible Reading November 8 (World English Bible)
Isaiah
49-52
Isa
49:1 Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far:
Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has
he made mention of my name:
Isa
49:2 and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of
his hand has he hid me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his
quiver has he kept me close:
Isa
49:3 and he said to me, "You are my servant; Israel, in whom I
will be glorified."
Isa
49:4 But I said, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my
strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due
to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God."
Isa
49:5 Now says Yahweh who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him (for
I am honorable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God is become my
strength);
Isa
49:6 yes, he says, "It is too light a thing that you should be
my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the
preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations,
that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth."
Isa
49:7 Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and
his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation
abhors, to a servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise;
princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful,
even the
Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
Isa
49:8 Thus says Yahweh, "In an acceptable time have I answered
you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve
you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land,
to make them inherit the desolate heritage:
Isa
49:9 saying to those who are bound, 'Come out!'; to those who are in
darkness, 'Show yourselves!' "They shall feed in the ways, and
on all bare heights shall be their pasture.
Isa
49:10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor
sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by
springs of water he will guide them.
Isa
49:11 I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be
exalted.
Isa
49:12 Behold, these shall come from far; and behold, these from the
north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim."
Isa
49:13 Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break forth into
singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will
have compassion on his afflicted.
Isa
49:14 But Zion said, "Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has
forgotten me."
Isa
49:15 "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget,
yet I will not forget you!
Isa
49:16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your
walls are continually before me.
Isa
49:17 Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made
you waste shall go forth from you.
Isa
49:18 Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather
themselves together, and come to you. As I live," says Yahweh,
"you shall surely clothe you with them all as with an ornament,
and gird yourself with them, like a bride.
Isa
49:19 "For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and
your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small
for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far
away.
Isa
49:20 The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears,
The place is too small for me; give place to me that I may dwell.
Isa
49:21 Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has conceived these for
me, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an
exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?' "
Isa
49:22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I will lift up my
hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they
shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be
carried on their shoulders.
Isa
49:23 Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your
nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the
earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am
Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed."
Isa
49:24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful
captives be delivered?
Isa
49:25 But thus says Yahweh, "Even the captives of the mighty
shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered;
for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save
your children.
Isa
49:26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and
they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and
all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."
Isa
50:1 Thus says Yahweh, "Where is the bill of your mother's
divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is
it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you
sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.
Isa
50:2 Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there
none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or
have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I
make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no
water, and die for thirst.
Isa
50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their
covering."
Isa
50:4 The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are
taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary:
he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who
are taught.
Isa
50:5 The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away backward.
Isa
50:6 I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who
plucked off the hair; I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting.
Isa
50:7 For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been
confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know
that I shall not be disappointed.
Isa
50:8 He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me?
Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to
me.
Isa
50:9 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall
condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth
shall eat them up.
Isa
50:10 Who is among you who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of his
servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in
the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God.
Isa
50:11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves about
with firebrands; walk you in the flame of your fire, and among the
brands that you have kindled. You shall have this of my hand; you
shall lie down in sorrow.
Isa
51:1 "Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who
seek Yahweh: look to the rock whence you were cut, and to the hold of
the pit whence you were dug.
Isa
51:2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for
when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him
many.
Isa
51:3 For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste
places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like
the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Isa
51:4 "Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation:
for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for
a light of the peoples.
Isa
51:5 My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my
arms shall judge the peoples; the islands shall wait for me, and on
my arm shall they trust.
Isa
51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth
beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth
shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die
in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my
righteousness shall not be abolished.
Isa
51:7 "Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in
whose heart is my law; don't you fear the reproach of men, neither be
you dismayed at their insults.
Isa
51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm
shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and
my salvation to all generations."
Isa
51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the
days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who did
cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
Isa
51:10 Isn't it 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 pass
over?
Isa
51:11 The ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to
Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads: they shall obtain
gladness and joy; and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isa
51:12 "I, even 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 shall be
made as grass;
Isa
51:13 and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched forth the
heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually
all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready
to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
Isa
51:14 The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not
die and go down
into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.
Isa
51:15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its
waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
Isa
51:16 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.' "
Isa
51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand
of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup
of staggering, and drained it.
Isa
51:18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has
brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among
all the sons who she has brought up.
Isa
51:19 These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you?
Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I
comfort you?
Isa
51:20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the
streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of
Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.
Isa
51:21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now
with wine:
Isa
51:22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause
of his people, "Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of
staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more
drink it again:
Isa
51:23 and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who
have said to your soul, 'Bow down, that we may walk over you;' and
you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those
who walk over."
Isa
52:1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful
garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no
more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Isa
52:2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit on
your throne, Jerusalem: loose yourself
from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion.
Isa
52:3 For thus says Yahweh, "You were sold for nothing; and you
shall be redeemed without money."
Isa
52:4 For thus says the Lord Yahweh, "My people went down at the
first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian has oppressed
them without cause.
Isa
52:5 "Now therefore, what do I here," says Yahweh, "seeing
that my people are taken away for nothing? those who rule over them
mock," says Yahweh, "and my name continually all the day is
blasphemed.
Isa
52:6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they
shall know in that day that I am he who
does speak; behold, it is I."
Isa
52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings
good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who
publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Isa
52:8 The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do
they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to
Zion.
Isa
52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of
Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people, he has redeemed
Jerusalem.
Isa
52:10 Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the
nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
God.
Isa
52:11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no
unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves,
you who bear the vessels of Yahweh.
Isa
52:12 For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by
flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be
your rearward.
Isa
52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and
lifted up, and shall be very high.
Isa
52:14 Like as many were astonished at you (his visage was so marred
more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),
Isa
52:15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their
mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see;
and that which they had not heard shall they understand.
2 Timothy
2
2Ti 2:1
You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus.
2Ti 2:2
The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit
the same to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
2Ti 2:3
You therefore must endure hardship, as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus.
2Ti 2:4
No soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he
may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.
2Ti 2:5
Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he isn't crowned unless he has
competed by the rules.
2Ti 2:6
The farmers who labor must be the first to get a share of the crops.
2Ti 2:7
Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all
things.
2Ti 2:8
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David,
according to my Good News,
2Ti 2:9
in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But
God's word isn't chained.
2Ti 2:10
Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones' sake, that they
also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory.
2Ti 2:11
This saying is faithful: "For if we died with him, we will also
live with him.
2Ti 2:12
If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also
will deny us.
2Ti 2:13
If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He can't deny himself."
2Ti 2:14
Remind them of these things, charging them in the sight of the Lord,
that they don't argue about words, to no profit, to the subverting of
those who hear.
2Ti 2:15
Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who
doesn't need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.
2Ti 2:16
But shun empty chatter, for they will proceed further in ungodliness,
2Ti 2:17
and their word will consume like gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and
Philetus;
2Ti 2:18
men who have erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection
is already past, and overthrowing the faith of some.
2Ti 2:19
However God's firm foundation stands, having this seal, "The
Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let every one who
names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."
2Ti 2:20
Now in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and of
silver, but also of wood and of clay. Some are for honor, and some
for dishonor.
2Ti 2:21
If anyone therefore purges himself from these, he will be a vessel
for honor, sanctified, and suitable for the master's use, prepared
for every good work.
2Ti 2:22
Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and
peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2Ti 2:23
But refuse foolish and ignorant questionings, knowing that they
generate strife.
2Ti 2:24
The Lord's servant must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, able
to teach, patient,
2Ti 2:25
in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give
them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
2Ti 2:26
and they may recover themselves out of the devil's snare, having been
taken captive by him to his will.
The
concept of creation by a supernatural Creator has been a powerful and
persuasive aspect of truth since the beginning of time. The idea that
there is no supernatural Creator, and that everything we see in the
Universe—from hummingbirds to humans—has evolved through mindless,
chance processes has been advanced in an attempt to dispel the truth of
creation. One reason that naturalistic evolution has not made more
head-way against creation than it has is because, intuitively, humans
can see the obvious fact that the world exhibits every indication of
intelligent design. Even the most outspoken atheistic evolutionists
tacitly admit this to be the case.
Recently
I read the statement, “Jesus was a vegetarian.” Supposedly, since Jesus
did not eat meat, neither should we. There are several problems with
this line of reasoning.