Study Desk

Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and worship it!

Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me.

"Listen to me, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and call on the God of Israel. You don't keep your promises,

even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord of Heaven's Armies.

That is why I told you what would happen; I told you beforehand what I was going to do. Then you could never say, ‘My idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!'

"Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel my chosen one! I alone am God, the First and the Last.

This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow.

I replied, "But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord 's hand; I will trust God for my reward."

And now the Lord speaks— the one who formed me in my mother's womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.

For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the Lord of Heaven's Armies.

For your children have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless as antelopes caught in a net. The Lord has poured out his fury; God has rebuked them.

This is what the Sovereign Lord , your God and Defender, says: "See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands. You will drink no more of my fury.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!

The Lord has demonstrated his holy power before the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth will see the victory of our God.

You will not leave in a hurry, running for your lives. For the Lord will go ahead of you; yes, the God of Israel will protect you from behind.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven's Armies is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.

For the Lord has called you back from your grief— as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband," says your God.

You also will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious."