The One Year Bible TLB (201 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The father of a godly man has cause for joy—what pleasure a wise son is! So give your parents joy!
September 22Soon afterwards, the king of Babylon (Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan) sent Hezekiah a present and his best wishes,
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for he had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick and now was well again.
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Hezekiah appreciated this and took the envoys from Babylon on a tour of the palace, showing them his treasure-house full of silver, gold, spices, and perfumes. He took them into his jewel rooms, too, and opened to them all his treasures—everything.
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Then Isaiah the prophet came to the king and said, “What did they say? Where are they from?”
“From far away in Babylon,” Hezekiah replied.
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“How much have they seen?” asked Isaiah.
And Hezekiah replied, “I showed them everything I own, all my priceless treasures.”
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Then Isaiah said to him, “Listen to this message from the Lord Almighty:
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“The time is coming when everything you have—all the treasures stored up by your fathers—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left.
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And some of your own sons will become slaves, yes, eunuchs, in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
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“All right,” Hezekiah replied. “Whatever the Lord says is good. At least there will be peace during my lifetime!”
40:
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“Comfort, yes, comfort my people,” says your God.
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“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her sad days are gone. Her sins are pardoned, and I have punished her in full for all her sins.”
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Listen! I hear the voice of someone shouting, “Make a road for the Lord through the wilderness; make him a straight, smooth road through the desert.
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Fill the valleys; level the hills; straighten out the crooked paths, and smooth off the rough spots in the road.
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The glory of the Lord will be seen by all mankind together.” The Lord has spoken—it shall be.
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The voice says, “Shout!”
“What shall I shout?” I asked.
“Shout that man is like the grass that dies away, and all his beauty fades like dying flowers.
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The grass withers, the flower fades beneath the breath of God. And so it is with fragile man.
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The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
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O crier of good news, shout to Jerusalem from the mountaintops! Shout louder—don’t be afraid—tell the cities of Judah, “Your God is coming!”
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Yes, the Lord God is coming with mighty power; he will rule with awesome strength. See, his reward is with him, to each as he has done.
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He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will carry the lambs in his arms and gently lead the ewes with young.
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Who else has held the oceans in his hands and measured off the heavens with his ruler? Who else knows the weight of all the earth and weighs the mountains and the hills?
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Who can advise the Spirit of the Lord or be his teacher or give him counsel?
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Has he ever needed anyone’s advice? Did he need instruction as to what is right and best?
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No, for all the peoples of the world are nothing in comparison with him—they are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all.
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All of Lebanon’s forests do not contain sufficient fuel to consume a sacrifice large enough to honor him, nor are all its animals enough to offer to our God.
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All the nations are as nothing to him; in his eyes they are less than nothing—mere emptiness and froth.
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How can we describe God? With what can we compare him?
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With an idol? An idol made from a mold, overlaid with gold, and with silver chains around its neck?
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The man too poor to buy expensive gods like that will find a tree free from rot and hire a man to carve a face on it, and that’s his god—a god that cannot even move!
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Are you so ignorant? Are you so deaf to the words of God—the words he gave before the world began? Have you never heard nor understood?
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It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. (The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers!) He is the one who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.
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He dooms the great men of the world and brings them all to naught.
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They hardly get started, barely take root, when he blows on them and their work withers, and the wind carries them off like straw.
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“With whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
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Look up into the heavens! Who created all these stars? As a shepherd leads his sheep,
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calling each by its pet name, and counts them to see that none are lost or strayed, so God does with stars and planets!
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O Jacob, O Israel, how can you say that the Lord doesn’t see your troubles and isn’t being fair?
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Don’t you yet understand? Don’t you know by now that the everlasting God, the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint or weary? No one can fathom the depths of his understanding.
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He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak.
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Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up.
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But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
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Listen in silence before me, O lands beyond the sea. Bring your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.
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Who has stirred up this one from the east,
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whom victory meets at every step? Who, indeed, but the Lord? God has given him victory over many nations and permitted him to trample kings underfoot and to put entire armies to the sword.
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He chases them away and goes on safely, though the paths he treads are new.
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Who has done such mighty deeds, directing the affairs of generations of mankind as they march by? It is I, the Lord, the First and Last; I alone am he.
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The lands beyond the sea watch in fear and wait for word of Cyrus’s
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new campaigns. Remote lands tremble and mobilize for war.
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The craftsmen encourage each other as they rush to make new idols to protect them. The carver hurries the goldsmith, and the molder helps at the anvil. “Good,” they say. “It’s coming along fine. Now we can solder on the arms.” Carefully they join the parts together and then fasten the thing in place so it won’t fall over!
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But as for you, O Israel, you are mine, my chosen ones; for you are Abraham’s family, and he was my friend.
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I have called you back from the ends of the earth and said that you must serve but me alone, for I have chosen you and will not throw you away.
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Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
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See, all your angry enemies lie confused and shattered. Anyone opposing you will die.
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You will look for them in vain—they will all be gone.
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I am holding you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God—and I say to you, Don’t be afraid; I am here to help you.
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Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer; I am the Holy One of Israel.
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You shall be a new and sharp-toothed threshing instrument to tear all enemies apart, making chaff of mountains.
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You shall toss them in the air; the wind shall blow them all away; whirlwinds shall scatter them. And the joy of the Lord shall fill you full; you shall glory in the God of Israel.
Dear Christian friends at Ephesus, ever loyal to the Lord: This is Paul writing to you, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger.
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May his blessings and peace be yours, sent to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
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How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ.
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Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love.
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His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to!
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Now all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son.
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So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved;
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and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.
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God has told us his secret reason for sending Christ, a plan he decided on in mercy long ago;
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and this was his purpose: that when the time is ripe he will gather us all together from wherever we are—in heaven or on earth—to be with him in Christ forever.
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Moreover, because of what Christ has done, we have become gifts to God that he delights in, for as part of God’s sovereign plan we were chosen from the beginning to be his, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
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God’s purpose in this was that we should praise God and give glory to him for doing these mighty things for us, who were the first to trust in Christ.
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And because of what Christ did, all you others too, who heard the Good News about how to be saved, and trusted Christ, were marked as belonging to Christ by the Holy Spirit, who long ago had been promised to all of us Christians.
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His presence within us is God’s guarantee that he really will give us all that he promised; and the Spirit’s seal upon us means that God has already purchased us and that he guarantees to bring us to himself. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.
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That is why, ever since I heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and of the love you have for Christians everywhere,
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I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you wisdom to see clearly and really understand who Christ is and all that he has done for you.
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I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share. I want you to realize that God has been made rich because we who are Christ’s have been given to him!
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I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is that same mighty power
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that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in heaven,
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far, far above any other king or ruler or dictator or leader. Yes, his honor is far more glorious than that of anyone else either in this world or in the world to come.
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And God has put all things under his feet and made him the supreme Head of the Church—
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which is his body, filled with himself, the Author and Giver of everything everywhere.
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
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Sing of his glorious name! Tell the world how wonderful he is.
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How awe-inspiring are your deeds, O God! How great your power! No wonder your enemies surrender!
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All the earth shall worship you and sing of your glories.
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Come, see the glorious things God has done. What marvelous miracles happen to his people!
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He made a dry road through the sea for them. They went across on foot. What excitement and joy there was that day!
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Because of his great power he rules forever. He watches every movement of the nations. O rebel lands, he will deflate your pride.
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Let everyone bless God and sing his praises;
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for he holds our lives in his hands, and he holds our feet to the path.
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You have purified us with fire,
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O Lord, like silver in a crucible.
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You captured us in your net and laid great burdens on our backs.
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You sent troops to ride across our broken bodies.
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We went through fire and flood. But in the end, you brought us into wealth and great abundance.
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Now I have come to your Temple with burnt offerings to pay my vows.
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For when I was in trouble, I promised you many offerings.
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That is why I am bringing you these fat male goats, rams, and calves. The smoke of their sacrifice shall rise before you.
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Come and hear, all of you who reverence the Lord, and I will tell you what he did for me:
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For I cried to him for help with praises ready on my tongue.
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He would not have listened if I had not confessed my sins.
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But he listened! He heard my prayer! He paid attention to it!
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Blessed be God, who didn’t turn away when I was praying and didn’t refuse me his kindness and love.