Monday, February 22, 2021

 Isaiah 61

¹The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, ²to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, ³and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

⁴They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. ⁵Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. ⁶And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.

⁷Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.

⁸"For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed."

¹⁰I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

 

 

Psalm 49

¹For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, ²both low and high, rich and poor alike: ³My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding. ⁴I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle: ⁵Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me-- ⁶those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? ⁷No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him-- ⁸the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-- ⁹that he should live on forever and not see decay. ¹⁰For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. ¹¹Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. ¹²But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. ¹³This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. [Selah] ¹⁴Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions. ¹⁵But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. [Selah] ¹⁶Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; ¹⁷for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. ¹⁸Though while he lived he counted himself blessed-- and men praise you when you prosper-- ¹⁹he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light [of life]. ²⁰A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

 

 

Galatians 2:1–14

¹Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. ²I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. ³Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. ⁴[This matter arose] because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. ⁵We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

⁶As for those who seemed to be important--whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance--those men added nothing to my message. ⁷On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. ⁸For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. ⁹James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. ¹⁰All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?