Isaiah 51-53
51 Listen closely, you who diligently work for justice
and look for the Eternal One, for what is fair and true.
It would be good for you to look back, look to the place from where you came,
the rock out of which you were shaped and the quarry from where you were mined.
2 Look to your spiritual ancestors—
Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who birthed you.
Abraham was only one person when I called him.
But with generous goodness, I made from him a numerous people.
3 The Eternal One will relieve the troubles and worries of Zion
and bring comfort to the rubble of its destruction.
God will turn deserted places into a flourishing garden like Eden of old;
happy voices will ring out in the Eternal’s garden;
Buoyant music and thanksgiving will fill the air.
4 Eternal One: Listen closely, you who are Mine; lend an ear, My nation;
for My instruction will go straight out into all the world
And My justice will illuminate all people wherever they are.
5 My justice is coming closer. My rescue is on the way.
My strong arm will extend justice to the nations.
Distant shores are looking to Me with hope that I will accomplish it.
6 Don’t worry—look up at the sky and down at the earth.
The sky will disappear like smoke; the earth will wear out like a well-used garment;
Every last thing may perish and dissolve, but My salvation is for all time.
My justice will not end.
7 Listen to Me, you who already live out what is true and right,
who treasure My instruction within your hearts:
Don’t be afraid of people’s scorn.
Don’t let their dismissive criticism, bitter anger, or hatred get you down.
8 For they’ll come to nothing; they’ll be eaten up as a moth eats a shirt;
they’ll be consumed as a worm feeds on wool.
But My justice will endure. I will extend My saving action to every generation.
This sounds too good to be true. God’s people fear He is asleep, so they attempt to rouse Him to action. They remind Him—and themselves—of when God rescued His people long ago and defeated Egypt. Rahab, a monster of mythic character, is linked to Egypt, a nation of legendary power and cruelty. The prophet assures his discouraged audience that God will come through again for His people. It will be for them like it was when God rescued the Hebrew slaves. The exiled people of God will be freed from Babylon, and God will smooth out and level off the perilous desert highway that leads from Mesopotamia to the promised land.
9 Get up, power of God! Rise up and strengthen Yourself, arm of God.
Get up and do like in the olden days, when You saved Your special people—
Like when You cut Rahab, that dragon-monster of chaos, in two.
10 And remember when You made the sea dry up
and the waters of the deep retreated for Moses and company;
Then You laid down a road right through for the people You saved to cross over?
11 It’ll be like that for those the Eternal One ransomed from captivity
to return to Zion, Jerusalem. And they’ll come singing with joy.
Overwhelming, never-ending joy will crown their heads with happiness and delight
while desperation and depression melt away.
12 Eternal One: I am the One who comforts you and gives you peace.
So why are you afraid of human beings?
The children of men are only grass; they’ll wither and die.
13 Have you forgotten Me, the One who made you and the whole world,
who stretched out the skies and made sure the earth’s foundations?
Yet you constantly worry about others—how they hate and might harm you.
But their anger counts for nothing.
14 In an instant, those who cower in fear and trepidation will be free to go in confidence;
they won’t die in chains or suffer from hunger.
15 Because I, the Eternal, am your God,
I can make the oceans roil with storm and roll with great waves.
They call Me, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.
16 I have given you My words to speak and protected you with the shadow of My hand.
I am the One who pulled the skies tight and made the earth rock solid.
And I am the same who said to Zion, “You are indeed Mine!”
17 Get up. Get up, and get moving! Stand up, Jerusalem,
you who have experienced firsthand the punishing anger of God.
You have drunk that terrible cup to the last gritty drop,
and it left you reeling, drunk on distress.
18 Ah, poor Jerusalem! No one comes to guide her along.
Of all her people, all the ones whom the city nurtured and raised to adulthood,
None take her hand now in her stupor of pain.
19 Twin disasters have befallen you:
devastation and destruction, famine and war.
Who can relieve your anguish and pain?
Who is left to provide comfort?
20 Her people are lying around on every corner,
weary and faint, like an antelope trapped in a net.
Each is overcome with the Eternal’s anger; each suffers His rebuke.
21 But now, listen! Listen, you who are miserable,
you who are intoxicated, but not on wine.
22 The Lord, your God, the Eternal, who pleads for His people, has this to say:
Eternal One: Look! I have taken away the cup that left you reeling—the cup of My anger—
and sobered you up; I will never make you drink it again.
23 And I will give that drink to those who abused and oppressed you—
who ordered you, “Get down so we can walk all over you.”
And your backs became the ground they walked on, the streets they passed by.
52 Wake up, fair Zion; dress in your strength.
Put on your most elegant clothes, O Jerusalem, holy city.
Never again will outsiders—uncircumcised and the unclean—
who once abused and denigrated you move within your elect borders.
2 So brush off any dust and dirt; rise, take your place of honor, Jerusalem.
Loose the chains from your neck and raise your head in freedom, captive children of Zion.
3 For the Eternal has this to say:
Eternal One: You were taken for nothing,
and it’s nothing for Me to get you back.
4 For the Lord, the Eternal, has this to say:
Eternal One: My people willingly went to live in Egypt long ago;
but now Assyria has oppressed My people for no good reason.
5 So what now? Babylon has assumed it can simply take My people away
with no recompense and no respect.
Their tyrannical rulers jeer and cheer
and continually deride My name.
6 Well, it’s not over. My people will know My name.
At the time that I determine,
My people will see again who I am.
I will tell them, “I am here. And I am ready.”
7 Ah, how beautiful the feet of those on the mountain
who declare the good news of victory, of peace and liberation,[a]
The voice that calls to Zion, that chosen place for God’s promise people,
announcing to them “Your God rules!”
8 Listen! The ones who watch and wait are crying out and laughing for joy:
Look now, for everyone will see the Eternal One coming back to Zion.
9 Let the rock and rubble of Jerusalem erupt in joyful song
for the Eternal has brought comfort to His people and redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Eternal has flexed His muscles, bared His holy arm
for the world to see His power;
Every nation, every person, every place on earth
will witness the victory of our God.
The prophet urges God’s exiled people to leave Babylon, trusting in God and bringing with them the sacred vessels necessary to restore the priestly service of the temple.
11 Servants of God, turn away from that place;
As for those who carry the vessels for the Eternal’s temple,
go, without touching any of Babylon’s impurity, and make yourselves pure.
12 Go in confidence and grace—no rushing, no frantic escape.
There’s no need to be anxious—the Eternal One goes before and behind you.
The God of Israel paves the way with assurance and strength.
He watches your back.
13 Eternal One: See here! My servant will succeed.
He will grow in character and reputation, achieving high standing and status.
14 Just as people used to be shocked by you,
even so his appearance was disfigured;
His form—once glorious—was marred until it hardly seemed human.
15 Now many nations will be astonished at his prominence;
world rulers will be speechless in his presence,
For they will see what they’ve never been told;
they will understand what they’ve never heard.[b]
53 Indeed, who would ever believe it?
Who would possibly accept what we’ve been told?[c]
Who has witnessed the awesome power and plan of the Eternal in action?[d]
2 Out of emptiness he came, like a tender shoot from rock-hard ground.
He didn’t look like anything or anyone of consequence—
he had no physical beauty to attract our attention.
3 So he was despised and forsaken by men,
this man of suffering, grief’s patient friend.
As if he was a person to avoid, we looked the other way;
he was despised, forsaken, and we took no notice of him.
4 Yet it was our suffering he carried,
our pain[e] and distress, our sick-to-the-soul-ness.
We just figured that God had rejected him,
that God was the reason he hurt so badly.
5 But he was hurt because of us; he suffered so.
Our wrongdoing wounded and crushed him.
He endured the breaking that made us whole.
The injuries he suffered became our healing.
6 We all have wandered off, like shepherdless sheep,
scattered by our aimless striving and endless pursuits;
The Eternal One laid on him, this silent sufferer,
the sins of us all.
7 And in the face of such oppression and suffering—silence.
Not a word of protest, not a finger raised to stop it.
Like a sheep to a shearing, like a lamb to be slaughtered,
he went—oh so quietly, oh so willingly.
8 Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away.
From this generation, who was there to complain?
Who was there to cry “Foul”?
He was, after all, cut off from the land of the living,
Smacked and struck, not on his account,
because of how my people (my people!)
Disregarded the lines between right and wrong.
They snuffed out his life.[f]
9 And when he was dead, he was buried with the disgraced
in borrowed space (among the rich),
Even though he did no wrong by word or deed.[g]
It is hard to understand why God would crush His innocent Servant. But it is in His suffering for sin that God deals decisively with sin and its harmful effects.
10 Yet the Eternal One planned to crush him all along,
to bring him to grief, this innocent servant of God.
When he puts his life in sin’s dark place, in the pit of wrongdoing,
this servant of God will see his children and have his days prolonged.
For in His servant’s hand, the Eternal’s deepest desire will come to pass and flourish.
11 As a result of the trials and troubles that wrack his soul,
God’s servant will see light and be content
Because He knows, really understands, what it’s about; as God says,
“My just servant will justify countless others by taking on their punishment and bearing it away.
12 Because he exposed his very self—
laid bare his soul to the vicious grasping of death—
And was counted among the worst, I will count him among the best.
I will allot this one, My servant, a share in all that is of any value,
Because he took on himself the sin of many
and acted on behalf of those who broke My law.”
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
Ephesians 5
We come to God as sinners; but He wants to transform our habits, attitudes, and practices into the ways of Jesus: to live, forgive, and love as He did.
5 So imitate God. Follow Him like adored children, 2 and live in love as the Anointed One loved you—so much that He gave Himself as a fragrant sacrifice, pleasing God.
3 Listen, don’t let any kind of immorality be breathed among you. Any demoralizing behaviors (perverse sexual acts, uncleanliness, greediness, and the like) are inappropriate topics of conversation for those set apart as God’s people. 4 Don’t swear or spurt nonsense. Don’t make harsh jokes or clown around. Make proper use of your words, and offer them thankfully in praise. 5 This is what we know for certain: no one who engages in loose sex, impure actions, and greed—which is just a form of idolatry—has any inheritance in the kingdom of God and His Anointed.
6 Don’t be fooled by people whose sentences are compounded with useless words, empty words—they just show they are empty souls. For, in His wrath, God will judge all the children of disobedience for these kinds of sins. 7 So don’t be persuaded into their ignorance; and don’t cast your lot with them 8 because, although you were once the personification of darkness, you are now light in the Lord. So act like children of the light. 9 For the fruit of the light is all that is good, right, and true. 10 Make it your aim to learn what pleases our Lord. 11 Don’t get involved with the fruitless works of darkness; instead, expose them to the light of God. 12 You see, it’s a disgrace to speak of their secrets (so don’t even talk about what they do when no one is looking). 13-14 When the light shines, it exposes even the dark and shadowy things and turns them into pure reflections of light. This is why they sing,
Awake, you sleeper!
Rise from your grave,
And the Anointed One will shine on you.
15 So be careful how you live; be mindful of your steps. Don’t run around like idiots as the rest of the world does. Instead, walk as the wise! 16 Make the most of every living and breathing moment because these are evil times. 17 So understand and be confident in God’s will, and don’t live thoughtlessly. 18 Don’t drink wine excessively. The drunken path is a reckless path. It leads nowhere. Instead, let God fill you with the Holy Spirit. 19 When you are filled with the Spirit, you are empowered to speak to each other in the soulful words of pious songs, hymns, and spiritual songs; to sing and make music with your hearts attuned to God; 20 and to give thanks to God the Father every day through the name of our Lord Jesus the Anointed for all He has done.
Wisdom is a rare commodity. Paul urges believers, then and now, to walk wisely. It involves living well every day. Time itself seems to be co-opted by dark forces. But when believers understand God’s will, avoid drunkenness, and allow God to fill them with His Spirit, they are able to walk wisely and live well. The Spirit-filled life is not just for a special few; it is the normal Christian life, and it affects everything, including how we live in community and how we treat others at home.
21 And the Spirit makes it possible to submit humbly to one another out of respect for the Anointed. 22 Wives, it should be no different with your husbands. Submit to them as you do to the Lord, 23 for God has given husbands a sacred duty to lead as the Anointed leads the church and serves as the head. (The church is His body; He is her Savior.) 24 So wives should submit to their husbands, respectfully, in all things, just as the church yields to the Anointed One.
25-26 Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His word. 27 He has given Himself so that He can present the church as His radiant bride, unstained, unwrinkled, and unblemished—completely free from all impurity—holy and innocent before Him. 28 So husbands should care for their wives as if their lives depended on it, the same way they care for their own bodies. As you love her, you ultimately are loving part of yourself (remember, you are one flesh). 29 No one really hates his own body; he takes care to feed and love it, just as the Anointed takes care of His church, 30 because we are living members of His body. 31 “And this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother and is united with his wife; the two come together as one flesh.”[a] 32 There is a great mystery reflected in this Scripture, and I say that it has to do with the marriage of the Anointed One and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each husband is to love and protect his own wife as if she were his very heart, and each wife is to respect her own husband.
Footnotes:
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
Psalm 69:19-36
19 You know all my opponents;
You see them, see the way they treat me—
humiliating me with insults, trying to disgrace me.
20 All this ridicule has broken my heart,
killed my spirit.
I searched for sympathy, and I came up empty.
I looked for supporters, but there was no one.
21 Even more, they gave me poison for my food
and offered me only sour vinegar to drink.
22 Let them be ambushed at the dinner table,
caught in a trap when they least expect it.
23 Cloud their vision so they cannot see;
make their bodies shake, their knees knock in terror.
24 Pour out Your fiery wrath upon them!
Make a clean sweep; engulf them with Your flaming fury.
25 May their camps be bleak
with not one left in any tent.
26 Because they have persecuted the one You have struck,
add insult to those whom You have wounded.
27 Compound their sins; don’t let them off the hook!
Keep them from entering into Your mercy.
28 Blot out their names from Your book of life
so they will not be recorded alongside those who are upright before You.
29 I am living in pain; I’m suffering,
so save me, True God, and keep me safe in troubled times!
30 The name of the True God will be my song,
an uplifting tune of praise and thanksgiving!
31 My praise will please the Eternal more than if I were to sacrifice an ox
or the finest bull. (Horns, hooves, and all!)
32 Those who humbly serve will see and rejoice!
All you seekers-after-God will revive your souls!
33 The Eternal listens to the prayers of the poor
and has regard for His people held in bondage.
34 All God’s creation: join together in His praise! All heaven, all earth,
all seas, all creatures of the ocean deep!
35 The True God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
So that His servants may own it and live there once again.
36 Their children and children’s children shall have it as their inheritance,
and those who love His name will live in it.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
Proverbs 24:7
7 Fools can’t grab hold of wisdom; it’s out of their reach;
they dare not open their mouths in public for no one would listen anyway.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.