Week 36, Day 5 in the LEB

Sep 6, 2024

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The reading for today is Isaiah 41-44; 1 Corinthians 12.

Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.

Isaiah 41

Listen to me in silence, coastlands,
    and let nations renew their strength.
Let them approach, then let them speak;
    let us draw near together for judgment.
Who has roused salvation from the east,
    summoned him to his foot,
gives nations in his presence,
    and subjugates kings?
He makes them like the dust with his sword,
    like scattered stubble with his bow.
He pursues them and passes on in peace;
    he does not enter the path with his feet.
Who has accomplished and done this,
    calling the generations from the beginning?
I, Yahweh, am first;
    and I am the one with the last.
The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
    the ends of the earth tremble.
They have drawn near,
    and they have come.
Each one helps his neighbor;
    he says to his brother, "Take courage!"
And the artisan encourages the goldsmith,
    the one who makes smooth with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, "It is good!"
    And they strengthen it with nails so it cannot be knocked over.
But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you, the offspring of Abraham my friend,
you whom I grasped from the ends of the earth
    and called from its remotest parts
and told, "You are my servant;
    I have chosen you and I have not rejected you."
You must not fear, for I am with you;
    you must not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you,
    indeed I will take hold of you with the right hand of my salvation.
Look! All those who are angry with you shall be ashamed and humiliated;
    your opponents shall be like nothing and shall become lost.
You shall seek them,
    but you shall not find them;
your opponents shall be like nothing,
    and the men of your war like nothing.
For I, Yahweh your God, am grasping your right hand;
    it is I who say to you,
"You must not fear;
    I myself, I will help you.
You must not fear, O worm of Jacob;
    people of Israel,
I myself, I will help you," declares Yahweh,
    "and your redeemer is the holy one of Israel.
Look! I will make you into a new sharp threshing sledge,
    with sharp edges.
You shall thresh and crush the mountains,
    and you shall make the hills like chaff.
You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them,
    and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you yourself shall rejoice in Yahweh;
    you shall boast in the holy one of Israel.
The poor and the needy are seeking water and there is none;
    their tongue is dried up with thirst.
I, Yahweh, will answer them;
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the barren heights
    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness like a pool of water
    and the land of dryness like springs of water.
I will put the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive oil tree in the wilderness;
    I will set the cypress, elm, and box tree together in the desert
so that they may see and know,
    and take to heart and understand together
that the hand of Yahweh has done this,
    and the holy one of Israel has created it."
"Present your legal case," says Yahweh.
    "Bring your evidence," says the king of Jacob.
Let them bring them,
    and let them tell us what will happen.
Tell us what the former things are
    so that we may take them to our heart
        and know their outcome.
Declare to us the things to come;
    tell us the things coming hereafter,
        that we may know that you are gods.
Indeed, do good or do evil,
    that we may be afraid and see together.
Look! you are nothing,
    and your work is something worthless;
        whoever chooses you is an abomination.
I stirred up one from the north,
    and he has come from the rising of the sun.

He shall call on my name,

and he shall come on officials as on mortar,
    and as the potter treads clay.
Who declared it from the beginning so that we might know,
    and beforehand so that we might say, "He is right!"
Indeed, there was no one who declared it;
    Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it.
        Indeed there was no one who heard your words.

First to Zion, look! Look at them!

And I give a herald of good tidings to Jerusalem.

But I look and there is no man,
    and I look among these and there is no counselor,
        that I might ask them and they might answer a word.
Look! All of them are deception;
    their works are nothing;
        their images are wind and emptiness.

Isaiah 42

Look! here is my servant; I hold him,
    my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.
I have put my spirit on him;
    he will bring justice forth to the nations.
He will not cry out and lift up
    and make his voice heard in the street.
He will not break a broken reed,
    and he not will extinguish a dim wick.
        He will bring justice forth in faithfulness.
He will not grow faint,
    and he will not be broken
until he has established justice in the earth.
    And the coastlands wait for his teaching.
Thus says the God, Yahweh,
    who created the heavens
and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and its offspring,
who gives breath to the people upon it
    and spirit to those who walk in it.
"I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness,
    and I have grasped your hand and watched over you;
and I have given you as a covenant of the people,
    as a light of the nations,
to open the blind eyes,
    to bring the prisoner out from the dungeon,
        those who sit in darkness from the house of imprisonment.

I am Yahweh; that is my name,

and I do not give my glory to another,
    nor my praise to the idols.
Look! the former things have come,
    and I declare new things.
        I announce them to you before they sprout up."

Sing a new song to Yahweh;
    praise him from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea and that which fills it,
    the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
    let them shout loudly from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory to Yahweh
    and declare his praise in the coastlands.
Yahweh goes forth like a mighty warrior;
    he stirs up zeal like a man of war.
He raises the war cry, indeed he raises the battle shout;
    he prevails against his foes.
I have been silent for a long time;
    I have kept silent;
I have restrained myself like one giving birth;
    I will moan, pant, and gasp together.
I will cause mountains and hills to dry up,
    and I will cause all their herbage to wither;
and I will make rivers like islands,
    and I will cause pools to dry up.
And I will lead the blind by a road they do not know;
    I will cause them to tread on paths they have not known.
I will make darkness in their presence into light
    and rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
    and I will not forsake them.
They shall turn back;
    they shall be greatly ashamed,
those who trust in an image,
    who say to a cast image, "You are our gods."

Deaf people, listen!
    And blind people, look to see!
Who is blind but my servant
    or deaf like my messenger whom I sent?
Who is blind like the one who is repaid
    or blind like the servant of Yahweh?
You see many things, but you do not observe.
    His ears are open, but he does not hear.
Yahweh was willing for the sake of his righteousness;
    he showed his teaching to be great and proved it to be glorious.
But this is a people plundered and looted; all of them are trapped in holes,
    and they are kept hidden in houses of imprisonment.
They have become like plunder, and there is no one who saves;
    like booty, and there is no one who says, "Restore!"
Who among you will heed this,
    will listen attentively and listen, for the time to come?
Who gave Jacob to a plunderer
    and Israel to those who plunder?

Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned?

And they were not willing to walk in his ways,
    and they would not obey his law.
So he poured the wrath of his anger upon him
    and the strength of war.
And it set him afire all around, but he did not understand;
    and it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

Isaiah 43

But now thus says Yahweh,

he who created you, Jacob,
    and he who formed you, Israel:
"You must not fear, for I have redeemed you.
    I have called you by your name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
    and through the rivers, they shall not flow over you.
When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not scorch you.
For I am Yahweh, your God,
    the holy one of Israel, your savior.
I give you Egypt as ransom,
    Cush and Seba in place of you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
    you are honored, and I myself love you,
and I give people in place of you,
    and nations in place of your life.
You must not fear,
    for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east,
    and I will gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give!’
    and to the south, ‘You must not withhold!’
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
    and whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed,
    indeed whom I made."
Bring out the people blind yet with eyes,
    and deaf, though they have ears.
Let all the nations gather together,
    and let the peoples assemble.
Who among them has declared this,
    and declared the former things to us?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be in the right,
    and let them hear and say, "It is true!"
"You are my witnesses," declares Yahweh,
    "and my servant whom I have chosen
so that you may know and believe in me
    and understand that I am he.
No god was formed before me,
    and none shall be after me.
I myself am Yahweh,
    and there is no savior besides me!
I myself declared and saved,
    and I proclaimed. And there was no strange god among you.
And you are my witnesses," declares Yahweh,
    "and I am God.
Indeed, from this day I am the one,
    and no one can deliver from my hand.
        I perform, and who can cancel it?"

Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer,
    the holy one of Israel:
"For your sake I will send to Babylon,
    and I will cause all of them to fall down as fugitives,
        and the Chaldeans, their rejoicing on the ships.
I am Yahweh, your holy one,
    the creator of Israel, your king."
Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea
    and a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse,
    army and mighty one.
Together they lie down;
    they cannot rise.
They are extinguished,
    quenched like a wick.
"You must not remember the former things,
    and you not must consider the former things.
Look! I am about to do a new thing! Now it sprouts!
    Do you not perceive it?
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert.
The animals of the field will honor me,
    jackals and daughters of the ostrich,
for I give water in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert,
to give a drink to my chosen people,
    this people whom I formed for myself,
so they might make known my praise.
But you did not call me, Jacob;
    for you have become weary of me, Israel.
You have not brought me your sheep for a burnt offering
    nor honored me with your sacrifice.
I have not made you serve with offerings,
    nor have I made you weary with frankincense.
You have not bought me spice reed with money
    or satisfied me with the fat of sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins;
    you have made me weary with your iniquities.
I, I am the one who blots out your transgressions for my sake,
    and I will not remember your sins.
Take me to court; let us enter into judgment together.
    You, make an account so that you may be in the right.
Your first ancestor sinned,
    and your representatives transgressed against me.
And I profaned the princes of the sanctuary,
    and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reviling.

Isaiah 44

"But now hear, Jacob my servant,
    and Israel, whom I have chosen.
Thus says Yahweh, who made you,
    and who formed you in the womb and will help you:
you must not fear, my servant Jacob,
    and Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
For I will pour out water on a thirsty land
    and streams on dry ground.
I will pour my spirit out on your descendants
    and my blessing on your offspring.
And they shall sprout among the grass
    like willows by a watercourse of water.
This one will say, ‘I belong to Yahweh!’
    And that one will be called by the name of Jacob,
and another will write on his hand ‘Yahweh’s’
    and take the name of Israel."

Thus says Yahweh, the king of Israel,
    and its redeemer, Yahweh of hosts:
"I am the first, and I am the last,
    and there is no god besides me.
And who is like me? Let him proclaim it!
    And let him declare it and set it in order for me
since I established an eternal people and things that are to come,
    and let them tell them the things that are coming.
You must not tremble,
    and you must not be paralyzed with fear.
Have I not made you hear from of old
    and declared it, and you are my witnesses?
Is there a god besides me?
    And there is no rock! I know none!"

All those who form an idol are nothing,
    and their delightful things do not profit.
And their witnesses do not see or know,
    so they will be ashamed.
    Who would form a god
    and cast an image of which he cannot profit?
Look! all his companions shall be ashamed,
    and the artisans are human!
Let all of them assemble;
    let them stand up.
They shall tremble;
    they shall be ashamed together.
The ironsmith works in the coals with his tool
    and forms it with hammers.
And he makes it with his strong arm;
    indeed, he becomes hungry, and he lacks strength;
    he does not drink water, and he is faint.
The woodworker stretches out a line;
    he makes an outline of it with a marker.
He makes it with a knife
    and makes an outline of it with a compass.
He makes it like the image of a man,
    like the beauty of a human, to dwell in a temple.
Cutting down cedars for himself,
    he chooses a holm tree and an oak,
and he lets it grow strong for him among the trees of the forest.
    He plants a cedar, and the rain makes it grow.
And it becomes fuel for a human,
    and he takes some of it and grows warm;
    also, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
Also, he makes a god and bows in worship;
    he makes himself an image and bows down to it!
He burns half of it in the fire;
    he eats meat over half of it;
    he roasts a roast and is satisfied.
Also he grows warm and says, "Ah!
    I am warm! I see the fire!"
And he makes the remainder of it into a god!
    He bows down to his idol,
and he bows in worship and prays to him,
    and he says, "Save me, for you are my god!"
They do not know,
    and they do not understand,
for their eyes are besmeared so that they cannot see,
    their minds so that they have no insight.
And no one takes it to heart, and there is no knowledge
    and no understanding to say, "I burned half of it in the fire
and also I baked bread on its coals;
    I roasted meat, and I have eaten.
And I shall make the rest of it into an abomination!
    I shall bow down to a block of wood!"
He feeds on ashes; a deceived mind misleads him.
    And he cannot save himself, and he cannot say,
        "Is this not an illusion in my right hand?"

"Remember these things, Jacob,
    and Israel, for you are my servant:
I formed you; you are my servant;
    Israel, you will not be forgotten by me!
I have wiped your transgressions out like a cloud
    and your sins like mist.
Return to me,
    for I have redeemed you!"
Sing for joy, heavens, for Yahweh has done it!
    Shout, depths of the earth!
Break forth, mountains, in rejoicing,
    forest and every tree in it,
for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob,
    and he will show his glory in Israel!

Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer,
    and he who formed you in the womb:
"I am Yahweh, who made everything,
    who stretched out the heavens alone,
    who spread out the earth—who was with me?—
who frustrates the signs of oracle priests
    and makes a fool of diviners,
who drives the wise men back
    and makes their knowledge foolish,
who keeps the word of his servant
    and carries out the plan of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’
    and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,
    and I will restore its ruins’;
who says to the deep, ‘Dry up!
    And I will cause your rivers to dry up’;
who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd,’
    and he shall carry out all my wishes;
and saying of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be rebuilt,’
    and the temple, ‘It shall be founded.’"

1 Corinthians 12

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the speechless idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed," and no one is able to say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but the same God, who works all things in all people. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is beneficial to all. For to one is given a word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another a word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. But in all these things one and the same Spirit is at work, distributing to each one individually just as he wishes.

For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, although they are many, are one body, thus also Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free persons, and all were made to drink one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," not because of this is it not a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, not because of this is it not a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as he wanted. And if they all were one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body.

Now the eye is not able to say to the hand, "I do not have need of you," or again, the head to the feet, "I do not have need of you." But by much more the members of the body which are thought to be weaker are necessary, and the parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor, and our unpresentable parts come to have more abundant presentability, but our presentable parts do not have need of this. Yet God composed the body by giving more abundant honor to the part which lacked it, in order that there not be a division in the body, but the members would have the same concern for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer together; if a member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and members of it individually, and whom God has appointed in the church: first, apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, kinds of tongues. Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all are workers of miracles, are they? Not all have gifts of healing, do they? Not all speak with tongues, do they? Not all interpret, do they? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.