Isaiah 42–43; Psalm 95; Acts 19

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Isaiah 42–43

The Lord’s Chosen Servant

eBehold fmy servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, gin whom my soul delights;

hI have put my Spirit upon him;

ihe will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

ja bruised reed he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

khe will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged1

till he has established justice in the earth;

and lthe coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the Lord,

who created the heavens mand stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

nwho gives breath to the people on it

and spirit to those who walk in it:

I am the Lord; oI have called you2 in righteousness;

I will take you by the hand and keep you;

I will give you pas a covenant for the people,

qa light for the nations,

rto open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

sfrom the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord; that is my name;

tmy glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols.

Behold, the former things have come to pass,

uand new things I now declare;

before they spring forth

I tell you of them.

Sing to the Lord a New Song

10  vSing to the Lord a new song,

his praise from the end of the earth,

wyou who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,

lthe coastlands and their inhabitants.

11  Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,

the villages that xKedar inhabits;

let the habitants of ySela sing for joy,

let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12  Let them give glory to the Lord,

and declare his praise in lthe coastlands.

13  zThe Lord goes out like a mighty man,

like a man of war ahe stirs up his zeal;

he cries out, bhe shouts aloud,

he shows himself mighty against his foes.

14  For a long time I have held my peace;

I have kept still and restrained myself;

now I will cry out clike a woman in labor;

I will gasp and pant.

15  dI will lay waste mountains and hills,

and dry up all their vegetation;

I will turn the rivers into islands,3

and dry up the pools.

16  eAnd I will lead the blind

in a way that they do not know,

in paths that they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

fthe rough places into level ground.

These are the things I do,

and I do not forsake them.

17  gThey are turned back and utterly put to shame,

who trust in carved idols,

who say to metal images,

You are our gods.

Israel’s Failure to Hear and See

18  Hear, you deaf,

and look, you blind, that you may see!

19  Who is blind but my servant,

or deaf as my messenger whom I send?

Who is blind as my dedicated one,4

or blind as the servant of the Lord?

20  hHe sees many things, but does not observe them;

ihis ears are open, but he does not hear.

21  The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,

to magnify his law and make it glorious.

22  But this is a people plundered and looted;

they are all of them trapped in holes

jand hidden in prisons;

they have become plunder with none to rescue,

spoil with none to say, Restore!

23  Who among you will give ear to this,

will attend and listen for the time to come?

24  Who gave up Jacob to the looter,

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,

in whose ways they would not walk,

and whose law they would not obey?

25  So he poured on him the heat of his anger

and the might of battle;

it set him on fire all around, kbut he did not understand;

it burned him up, lbut he did not take it to heart.

Israel’s Only Savior

But now thus says the Lord,

mhe who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

nFear not, for I have redeemed you;

oI have called you by name, you are mine.

pWhen you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

pwhen you walk through fire qyou shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For rI am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

sI give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and tSeba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you,

peoples in exchange for your life.

uFear not, for I am with you;

vI will bring your offspring from the east,

and from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, Give up,

and to the south, Do not withhold;

bring wmy sons from afar

and wmy daughters from the end of the earth,

everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.

Bring out xthe people who are blind, yet have eyes,

who are deaf, yet have ears!

yAll the nations gather together,

and the peoples assemble.

Who among them can declare this,

and show us the former things?

Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right,

and let them hear and say, It is true.

10  zYou are my witnesses, declares the Lord,

and amy servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am he.

bBefore me no god was formed,

nor shall there be any after me.

11  cI, I am the Lord,

and besides me there is no savior.

12  I declared and saved and proclaimed,

when there was no strange god among you;

and zyou are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God.

13  Also dhenceforth I am he;

there is none who can deliver from my hand;

I work, and who can turn it back?

14  Thus says the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

eFor your sake I send to Babylon

and fbring them all down as fugitives,

geven the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.

15  I am the Lord, your Holy One,

the Creator of Israel, your King.

16  Thus says the Lord,

hwho makes a way in the sea,

a path in the mighty waters,

17  who ibrings forth chariot and horse,

army and warrior;

they lie down, they cannot rise,

jthey are extinguished, kquenched like a wick:

18  lRemember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

19  mBehold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

nI will make a way in the wilderness

oand rivers in the desert.

20  The wild beasts will honor me,

pthe jackals and the ostriches,

qfor I give water in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

21  the people whom I formed for myself

rthat they might declare my praise.

22  Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;

but syou have been weary of me, O Israel!

23  tYou have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,

or honored me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with offerings,

sor wearied you with frankincense.

24  You have not bought me sweet cane with money,

or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins;

you have wearied me with your iniquities.

25  I, I am he

uwho blots out vyour transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

26  Put me in remembrance; wlet us argue together;

set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

27  xYour first father sinned,

and yyour mediators transgressed against me.

28  Therefore zI will profane the princes of the sanctuary,

and adeliver Jacob to utter destruction

and Israel to reviling.


Psalm 95

Let Us Sing Songs of Praise

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us fmake a joyful noise to gthe rock of our salvation!

Let us hcome into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us fmake a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the Lord is ia great God,

and a great King jabove all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for khe made it,

and his hands formed kthe dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us lkneel before the Lord, our mMaker!

For he is our nGod,

and we are the people of his opasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

pToday, if you qhear his voice,

rdo not harden your hearts, as at sMeribah,

as on the day at tMassah in the wilderness,

when your fathers put me to the utest

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my vwork.

10  wFor forty years I loathed that generation

and said, They are a people who go astray in their heart,

and they have not known xmy ways.

11  Therefore I yswore in my wrath,

They shall not enter zmy rest.


Acts 19

Paul in Ephesus

And it happened that while tApollos was at Corinth, Paul passed uthrough the inland1 country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, vDid you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No, wwe have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, xInto what then were you baptized? They said, Into yJohn’s baptism. And Paul said, yJohn baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people zto believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. On hearing this, athey were baptized in2 the name of the Lord Jesus. And bwhen Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and cthey began speaking in tongues and dprophesying. There were about twelve men in all.

And ehe entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them fabout the kingdom of God. gBut when some became stubborn and hcontinued in unbelief, speaking evil of ithe Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.3 10 This continued for jtwo years, so that kall the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

11 And lGod was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 lso that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and mthe evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish nexorcists oundertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, pI adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, qJesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you? 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all4 of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and rthe name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, sconfessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord tcontinued to increase and prevail mightily.

A Riot at Ephesus

21 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit uto pass through vMacedonia and Achaia and wgo to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, xI must also see Rome. 22 And having sent into Macedonia two of yhis helpers, zTimothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia afor a while.

23 About that time bthere arose no little disturbance concerning cthe Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, dbrought no little business to the craftsmen. 25 dThese he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, esaying that fgods made with hands are not gods. 27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the ggreat goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.

28 When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, gGreat is Artemis of the Ephesians! 29 So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and hAristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s icompanions in travel. 30 But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. 31 And even some of the Asiarchs,5 who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. 32 jNow some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. 33 Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, kmotioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, lGreat is Artemis of the Ephesians!

35 And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from mthe sky?6 36 Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. 37 For you have brought nthese men here who are neither osacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. 38 If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are pproconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. 39 But if you seek anything further,7 it shall be settled in the regular assembly. 40 For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion. 41 And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.