Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the book of
Isaiah, chapters 49 through 51. Chapter 49 Listen,
O coastlands, to me, and take heed, you peoples,
from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb,
from the matrix of my mother. He has made mention
of my name, and he has made my mouth like a sharp
sword. In the shadow of his hand He has hidden
me and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver
he has hidden me. And he said to me, You are
my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Then I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent
my strength for nothing and in vain. Yet surely
my just reward is with the Lord, and my work
with my God. And now the Lord says, Who formed
me from the womb to be his servant, to bring
Jacob back to him, so that Israel is gathered
to him? For I shall be glorious in the eyes of
the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. Indeed,
he says, It is too small a thing that you should
be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserved ones of Israel.
I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles,
that you should be my salvation to the ends of
the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of
Israel, their Holy One, to him whom man despises,
to him whom the nation abhors. to the servant
of rulers kings shall see and arise princes also
shall worship because of the lord who is faithful
the holy one of israel and he has chosen you
thus says the lord in an acceptable time i have
heard you and in the day of salvation i have
helped you i will preserve you and give you as
a covenant to the people to restore the earth
to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages,
that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth,
to those who are in darkness, show yourselves.
They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures
shall be on all desolate heights. They shall
neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun
shall strike them, for he who has mercy on them
will lead them. Even by the springs of water
he will guide them. I will make each of my mountains
And my highways shall be elevated. Surely these
shall come from afar. Look, those from the north
and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.
Sing, O heavens, be joyful, O earth, and break
out in singing, O mountains, for the Lord has
comforted his people and will have mercy on his
afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken
me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman
forget her nursing child, and not have compassion
on a son of her womb? Surely they may forget,
but I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed
you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are
continually before me. Your sons shall make haste,
your destroyers and those who laid you waste
shall go away from you. Lift up your eyes, look
around and see. All these gather together and
come to you, as I live, says the Lord. you shall
surely clothe yourselves with them all as an
ornament and bind them on you as a bride does
for your waste and desolate places and the land
of your destruction will even now be too small
for the inhabitants and those who swallowed you
up will be far away the children you will have
after you have lost the others will say again
in your ears the place is too small for me give
me a place where i may dwell Then you will say
in your heart, Who has begotten these for me,
since I have lost my children and am desolate,
a captive and wandering to and fro? And who has
brought these up? There I was, left alone, but
these, where were they? Thus says the Lord God,
Behold, I will lift my hand in an oath to the
nations, and set up my standard for the peoples.
They shall bring your sons in their arms, and
your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their
queens your nursing mothers. They shall bow down
to you with their faces to the earth, and lick
up the dust of your feet. Then you will know
that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed
who wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty, or the captives of the righteous
be delivered? But thus says the Lord, Even the
captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and
the prey of the terrible Chapter 50 Thus says
the Lord, Where is the certificate of your mother's
divorce? whom I have put away? Or which of my
creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For
your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and
for your transgressions your mother has been
put away. Why when I came was there no man? Why
when I called was there none to answer? Is my
hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed, with my
rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a
wilderness. Their fish stink because there is
no water, and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens
with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned,
that I should know how to speak. A word in season
to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by
morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the learned.
The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not
rebellious, nor did I turn away. I give my back
to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those
who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my
face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God
will help me, therefore I will not be disgraced.
Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and
I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near,
who justifies me, who will contend with me. Let
us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him
come near me. Surely the Lord God will help me.
who is he who will condemn me indeed they will
all grow old like a garment the moth will eat
them up who among you fears the lord who obeys
the voice of his servant who walks in darkness
and has no light let him trust in the name of
the lord and rely upon his god look all you who
kindle a fire who encircle yourselves with sparks
walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks
you have kindled this you shall have from my
hand you shall lie down in torment chapter 51
listen to me you who follow after righteousness
you who seek the lord look to the rock from which
you were hewn and to the hole of the pit from
which you were dug look to abraham your father
and to sarah who bore you for i called him alone
and blessed him and increased him for the lord
will comfort zion He will comfort all her waste
places. He will make her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy
and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving
and the voice of melody. Listen to me, my people,
and give ear to me, O my nation. For law will
proceed from me, and I will make my justice rest
as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is
near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms
will judge the peoples. The coastlands will wait
upon me. And on my arm they will trust. Lift
up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the
earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away
like smoke, and the earth will grow old like
a garment. And those who dwell in it will die
in like manner. But my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not be abolished. Listen
to me, you who know righteousness, you people
in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach
of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the
moth will eat them up like a garment, and the
worm will eat them like wool. But my righteousness
will be forever, and my salvation from generation
to generation. Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord. Awake as in the ancient days,
in the generations of old. Are you not the arm?
that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent?
Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the
waters of the great deep, that made the depth
of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over?
So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and
come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy
on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness.
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I, even I,
am he who comforts you. Who are you that you
should be afraid of a man who will die, and of
the son of a man who will be made like grass?
And you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched
out the heavens and laid the foundations of the
earth. You have feared continually every day
because of the fury of the oppressor when he
has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury
of the oppressor? The captive exile hastens that
he may be loosed, that he should not die in the
pit, and that his bread should not fail. but
i am the lord your god who divided the sea whose
waves roared the lord of hosts is his name and
i have put my words in your mouth i have covered
you with the shadow of my hand that i may plant
the heavens lay the foundations of the earth
and say to zion you are my people awake awake
stand up o jerusalem you who have drunk at the
hand of the lord the cup of his fury You have
drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling and drained
it out. There is no one to guide her among all
the sons she has brought forth, nor is there
any who takes her by the hand among all the sons
she has brought up. These two things have come
to you. Who will be sorry for you? Desolation
and destruction, famine and sword. By whom will
I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie
at the head of all the streets like an antelope
in a net. They are full of the fury of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God. Therefore, please hear
this, you afflicted, and drunk, but not with
wine. Thus says your Lord, the Lord and your
God, who pleads the cause of his people. See,
I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling,
the dregs of the cup of my fury. You shall no
longer drink it, but I will put it into the hand
of those who afflict you, who have said to you,
Lie down, that we may walk over you. and you
have laid your body like the ground and as the
street for those who walk over. I hope you enjoyed
today's reading as much as I did, and I look
forward to seeing you again tomorrow to continue
on our journey. God bless you and have a great
day.