
I want to share something powerful with you. God has offered divine forgiveness to Israel. He's redeemed them, forgiven them. Think about that – innocent blood, forgiven. It’s a reminder of the incredible grace available to all of us.
God has exalted Jesus as Prince and Savior, offering repentance and forgiveness of sins. This is a gift, not just for Israel, but for everyone who believes. I encourage you to pray for Israel's salvation. Blessing this holy nation brings blessings in return. God’s grace and favor will become evident in your life when you hold His chosen people close to your heart. They are precious in His sight.
Remember this: never curse Israel. Speaking against them invites judgment and can bring real hardship into your life. Instead, let's lift them up in prayer and show the same love and forgiveness that God has shown us.
But you, Israel my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham, whom I love,you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant; I chose you and didn’t reject you”:
Israel, listen! Our God is the LORD! Only the LORD! Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength.
“So now put aside the foreign gods that are among you. Focus your hearts on the LORD, the God of Israel.”
LORD, please forgive your people Israel, whom you saved. Don’t put the guilt of innocent bloodshed on your people Israel.” Then the bloodguilt will be forgiven them.
Go proclaim these words to the north and say: Return, unfaithful Israel, declares the LORD. I won’t reject you, for I’m faithful, declares the LORD; I won’t stay angry forever.
Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you struggled with God and with men and won.”
You are my witnesses, says the LORD, my servant, whom I chose, so that you would know and believe me and understand that I am the one. Before me no god was formed; after me there has been no other.
But now hear this, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.The LORD your maker, who formed you in the womb and will help you, says: Don’t fear, my servant Jacob, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I called you by name. I gave you an honored title, though you didn’t know me.
So now, if you faithfully obey me and stay true to my covenant, you will be my most precious possession out of all the peoples, since the whole earth belongs to me.You will be a kingdom of priests for me and a holy nation. These are the words you should say to the Israelites.”
Now in light of all that, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you? Only this: to revere the LORD your God by walking in all his ways, by loving him, by serving the LORD your God with all your heart and being,and by keeping the LORD’s commandments and his regulations that I’m commanding you right now. It’s for your own good!
because you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God chose you to be his own treasured people beyond all others on the fertile land.
You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I lifted you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to me.So now, if you faithfully obey me and stay true to my covenant, you will be my most precious possession out of all the peoples, since the whole earth belongs to me.You will be a kingdom of priests for me and a holy nation. These are the words you should say to the Israelites.”
As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, though you are the least significant of Judah’s forces, one who is to be a ruler in Israel on my behalf will come out from you. His origin is from remote times, from ancient days.
Israel, wait for the LORD! Because faithful love is with the LORD; because great redemption is with our God!
Don’t fear, because I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.But you, Israel my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham, whom I love,you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant; I chose you and didn’t reject you”:
I’ll take you as my people, and I’ll be your God. You will know that I, the LORD, am your God, who has freed you from Egyptian forced labor.
God has exalted Jesus to his right side as leader and savior so that he could enable Israel to change its heart and life and to find forgiveness for sins.
The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the LORD.No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the LORD. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the LORD!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.
I will cleanse them of all the wrongdoing they committed against me, and I will forgive them for all of their guilt and rebellion.
But God, being compassionate, kept forgiving their sins, kept avoiding destruction; he took back his anger so many times, wouldn’t stir up all his wrath!
You only have I loved so deeply of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your wrongdoing.
They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the LORD!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.
After all, is there any great nation that has gods as close to it as the LORD our God is close to us whenever we call to him?
But now, says the LORD— the one who created you, Jacob, the one who formed you, Israel: Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.
The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims (after his glory sent me) concerning the nations plundering you: Those who strike you strike the pupil of my eye.
if my people who belong to me will humbly pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD’s glory has shone upon you.Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the LORD will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you.Nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning radiance.
The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will bring back my people Israel and Judah from captivity, says the LORD. I will bring them home to the land that I gave to their ancestors, and they will possess it.
I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your own fertile land.I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed of all your pollution. I will cleanse you of all your idols.I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one,and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws.Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you will be my people, and I will be your God.
God set it up as binding law for Jacob, as an eternal covenant for Israel,promising, “I hereby give you the land of Canaan as your allotted inheritance.”The LORD—he is our God. His justice is everywhere throughout the whole world.God remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded to a thousand generations,which he made with Abraham, the solemn pledge he swore to Isaac.
Be strong! Be fearless! Don’t be afraid and don’t be scared by your enemies, because the LORD your God is the one who marches with you. He won’t let you down, and he won’t abandon you.
He said: It is not enough, since you are my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the survivors of Israel. Hence, I will also appoint you as light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
So I ask you, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! I’m an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.God hasn’t rejected his people, whom he knew in advance. Or don’t you know what the scripture says in the case of Elijah, when he pleads with God against Israel?
The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you.”
speak to them, This is what the LORD God says: I will take the Israelites from among the nations where they’ve gone, I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their fertile land.I will make them into a single nation in the land on Israel’s highlands. There will be just one king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.
In those days the people of Judah and Israel will leave the north together for the land that I gave their ancestors as an inheritance.
For Zion’s sake I won’t keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I won’t sit still until her righteousness shines out like a light, and her salvation blazes like a torch.
As the new heavens and the new earth that I’m making will endure before me, says the LORD, so your descendants and your name will endure.
The LORD will establish you as his own, a holy nation, just as he swore to you, if you keep the LORD your God’s commandments and walk in his ways.All the earth’s peoples will see that you are called by the LORD’s name, and they will be in awe of you.
Comfort, comfort my people! says your God.Speak compassionately to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended, that her penalty has been paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins!
The people who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion: never shaken, lasting forever.Mountains surround Jerusalem. That’s how the LORD surrounds his people from now until forever from now!
The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and the earth quake. But the LORD is a refuge for his people, a shelter for the people of Israel.
but now I will heal and mend them. I will make them whole and bless them with an abundance of peace and security.
They will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are my people. This is what the LORD God says.
Many nations will go and say: “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob’s God, so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in God’s paths!” Instruction will come from Zion and the LORD’s word from Jerusalem.
The one marrying you is the one who made you— the LORD of heavenly forces is his name. The one redeeming you is the holy one of Israel, the one called the God of all the earth.
It’s a land that the LORD cares for: the LORD’s eyes are on it constantly from the first of the year until the very end of the year.
Israel, wait for the LORD! Because faithful love is with the LORD; because great redemption is with our God!He is the one who will redeem Israel from all its sin.
They are Israelites. The adoption as God’s children, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises belong to them.The Jewish ancestors are theirs, and the Christ descended from those ancestors. He is the one who rules over all things, who is God, and who is blessed forever. Amen.
Listen to the LORD’s word, you nations, and announce it to the distant islands: The one who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them safe, as a shepherd his flock.
Therefore, say, The LORD God proclaims: I will gather you from the nations, assemble you from the countries where you were scattered, and I will give you Israel’s fertile land.
The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims: I’m about to deliver my people from the land of the east and the land of the west.I’ll bring them back so they will dwell in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God—in truth and in righteousness.
Israel has been saved by the LORD of everlasting salvation. You won’t be shamed, and you won’t be disgraced forever and always.
God has remembered his loyal love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; every corner of the earth has seen our God’s salvation.
And who can compare to your people Israel? They are the one nation on earth that God redeemed as his own people, establishing his name by doing great and awesome things for them, by driving out nations and their gods before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt.You established your people Israel as your own people forever, and you, LORD, became their God.
while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him from the mountain, “This is what you should say to Jacob’s household and declare to the Israelites:You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I lifted you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to me.So now, if you faithfully obey me and stay true to my covenant, you will be my most precious possession out of all the peoples, since the whole earth belongs to me.You will be a kingdom of priests for me and a holy nation. These are the words you should say to the Israelites.”
The LORD will have compassion on Jacob, will again choose Israel, and will give them rest in their own land. Immigrants will join them, and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
I will restore your health, and I will heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because you were labeled an outcast, “Zion, the lost cause.”
the LORD appeared to them from a distance: I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. And so with unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself.
God found Israel in a wild land— in a howling desert wasteland— he protected him, cared for him, watched over him with his very own eye.Surely the LORD’s property was his people; Jacob was his part of the inheritance.