You’re our God. Won’t you judge them? We don’t have the strength to face this large crowd that is attacking us. We don’t know what to do, so we’re looking to you.”
This is what the Almighty Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: You can be saved by returning to me. You can have rest. You can be strong by being quiet and by trusting me. But you don’t want that.
“Bring ⌞your idols⌟ so they can tell us what’s going to happen. Explain past events that your idols told you about so that we may consider them and know what their outcome will be. Tell us about future events.
I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not keep them.” Bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
Speak and present your case. Yes, let them consult one another. Who revealed this in the distant past and predicted it long ago? Wasn’t it I, the Lord? There is no other God except me. There is no other righteous God and Savior besides me.
Now, the Lord says, “You are not just my servant who restores the tribes of Jacob and brings back those in Israel whom I have preserved. I have also made you a light for the nations so that you would save people all over the world.”
You will summon a nation that you don’t know, and a nation that doesn’t know you will run to you because of the Lord your God, because of the Holy One of Israel. He has honored you.”
The child will become the shepherd of his flock. ⌞He will lead them⌟ with the strength of the Lord, with the majestic name of the Lord his God. They will live in safety because his greatness will reach the ends of the earth.
“I will pour out the Spirit of blessing and mercy on David’s family and on those who live in Jerusalem. They will look at me, whom they have stabbed. Then they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will cry bitterly for him as one cries for a firstborn son.
We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Now he holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.
From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have obtained a faith that is as valuable as ours, a faith based on the approval that comes from our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.