Remember your congregation. Long ago you made it your own. You bought this tribe to be your possession. This tribe is Mount Zion, where you have made your home.
Terror and dread will fall on them. Because of the power of your arm, they will be petrified until your people pass by, O Lord, until the people you purchased pass by.
When the branches are dried up, they will be broken off. Women will come and build a fire with them. These people don’t understand ⌞these things⌟. That is why their maker won’t have compassion on them, and their Creator won’t have pity on them.
The Lord created Jacob and formed Israel. Now, this is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid, because I have reclaimed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.
The Lord made you, formed you in the womb, and will help you. This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
You are our Father. Even though Abraham doesn’t know us and Israel doesn’t pay attention to us, O Lord, you are our Father. Your name is our Defender From Everlasting.
“My people are fools. They don’t know me. They are stupid people. They don’t understand. They are experts in doing wrong, and they don’t know how to do good.”
They have the opportunity to live again, but they are not smart enough to take it. They are like a baby who is about to be born but won’t come out of its mother’s womb.
“This is what the Lord of Armies says: A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master. So if I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my respect? You priests despise my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised your name?’
Pay attention to yourselves and to the entire flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to be shepherds for God’s church which he acquired with his own blood.
You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba! Father!”
and in the desert.” There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as parents carry their children. He carried you wherever you went until you came to this place.
Jeshurun got fat and disrespectful. (You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!) They abandoned the God who made them and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool.
False prophets were among God’s people ⌞in the past⌟, as false teachers will be among you. They will secretly bring in their own destructive teachings. They will deny the Lord, who has bought them, and they will bring themselves swift destruction.
Consider this: The Father has given us his love. He loves us so much that we are actually called God’s dear children. And that’s what we are. For this reason the world doesn’t recognize us, and it didn’t recognize him either.