Study Desk

For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back.

In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.

"For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.

In righteousness you will be established, far from oppression, for you will have no fear, and removed from terror, for it will not come near you.

Behold, I have created the craftsman who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its task; and I have created the destroyer to wreak havoc.

Surely you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, has bestowed glory on you."

Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up; they will make a name for the LORD as an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed."

This is what the LORD says: "Maintain justice and do what is right, for My salvation is coming soon, and My righteousness will be revealed.

For this is what the LORD says: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant-

I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations."

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble of spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.

But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.

"There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God."

Is this the fast I have chosen, a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?