Daily Lectionary

Isaiah 43:1-24

¹ But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
³ For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
⁴ 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.
⁵ Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.
⁶ I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,
⁷ everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
⁸ Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!
⁹ All 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 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
¹¹ I, 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 you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.
¹³ Also henceforth 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: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even 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, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
¹⁷ who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
¹⁸ “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
²⁰ The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for 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 that they might declare my praise.
²² “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
²³ You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or 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. (ESV)

Revelation 9:1-12

¹ And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
² He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
³ Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
⁵ They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
⁶ And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
⁷ In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
⁸ their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;
⁹ they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
¹⁰ They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.
¹¹ They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
¹² The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come. (ESV)