Refuse to Be Trapped by Your Past

⁶ Save us and help us with your right hand,
   that those you love may be delivered.
⁷ God has spoken from his sanctuary:
   “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
   and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.
⁸ Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;
   Ephraim is my helmet,
   Judah is my scepter.
⁹ Moab is my washbasin,
   on Edom I toss my sandal;
   over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

¹⁰ Who will bring me to the fortified city?
   Who will lead me to Edom?
¹¹ Is it not you, God, you who have rejected us
   and no longer go out with our armies?
¹² Give us aid against the enemy,
   for human help is worthless.
¹³ With God we will gain the victory,
   and he will trample down our enemies.

Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³ His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,
   you who never bore a child;
break forth and cry aloud,
   you who were never in labour;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
   than of her who has a husband.”

²⁸ Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹ At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ³¹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Freedom in Christ

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is required to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Jerusalem to Be Inhabited

²⁴ “This is what the Lord says—
   your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:

I am the Lord,
   the Maker of all things,
   who stretches out the heavens,
   who spreads out the earth by myself,
²⁵ who foils the signs of false prophets
   and makes fools of diviners,
who overthrows the learning of the wise
   and turns it into nonsense,
²⁶ who carries out the words of his servants
   and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,

who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’
   of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’
   and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’
²⁷ who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry,
   and I will dry up your streams,’
²⁸ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd
   and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,”
   and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’

45 “This is what the Lord says to his anointed,
   to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
   and to strip kings of their armour,
to open doors before him
   so that gates will not be shut:
² I will go before you
   and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze

   and cut through bars of iron.
³ I will give you hidden treasures,
   riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
   the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
⁴ For the sake of Jacob my servant,
   of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
   and bestow on you a title of honour,
though you do not acknowledge me.
⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other;
   apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
   though you have not acknowledged me,
⁶ so that from the rising of the sun
   to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
   I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
   I bring prosperity and create disaster;
   I, the Lord, do all these things.

⁸ “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;
   let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
   let salvation spring up,
let righteousness flourish with it;
   I, the Lord, have created it.

⁹ “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,
   those who are nothing but potsherds
   among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
   ‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
   ‘The potter has no hands’?
¹⁰ Woe to the one who says to a father,
   ‘What have you begotten?’
or to a mother,
   ‘What have you brought to birth?’

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says—
   the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
   do you question me about my children,
   or give me orders about the work of my hands?
¹² It is I who made the earth
   and created mankind on it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
   I marshaled their starry hosts.
¹³ I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:
   I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
   and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
   says the Lord Almighty.”

¹⁴ This is what the Lord says:

“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
   and those tall Sabeans —
they will come over to you
   and will be yours;
they will trudge behind you,
   coming over to you in chains.
They will bow down before you
   and plead with you, saying,
‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
   there is no other god. ’”

¹⁵ Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself,
   the God and Saviour of Israel.
¹⁶ All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced;
   they will go off into disgrace together.
¹⁷ But Israel will be saved by the Lord
   with an everlasting salvation;
you will never be put to shame or disgraced,
   to ages everlasting.

¹⁸ For this is what the Lord says—
   he who created the heavens,
he is God;
   he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
   he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited —
   he says:
“I am the Lord,
   and there is no other.
¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret,
   from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
   ‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the Lord, speak the truth;
   I declare what is right.

²⁰ “Gather together and come;
   assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
   who pray to gods that cannot save.
²¹ Declare what is to be, present it—
   let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
   who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
   And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Saviour;
   there is none but me.

²² “Turn to me and be saved,
   all you ends of the earth;
   for I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn,
   my mouth has uttered in all integrity
   a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
   by me every tongue will swear.
²⁴ They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
   are deliverance and strength. ’”
All who have raged against him
   will come to him and be put to shame.
²⁵ But all the descendants of Israel
   will find deliverance in the Lord
   and will make their boast in him.

Gods of Babylon

46 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
   their idols are borne by beasts of burden.
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
   a burden for the weary.
² They stoop and bow down together;
   unable to rescue the burden,
   they themselves go off into captivity.

³ “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
   all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
   and have carried since you were born.
⁴ Even to your old age and gray hairs
   I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
   I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

⁵ “With whom will you compare me or count me equal?
   To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?
⁶ Some pour out gold from their bags
   and weigh out silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god,
   and they bow down and worship it.
⁷ They lift it to their shoulders and carry it;
   they set it up in its place, and there it stands.
   From that spot it cannot move.
Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer;
   it cannot save them from their troubles.

⁸ “Remember this, keep it in mind,
   take it to heart, you rebels.
⁹ Remember the former things, those of long ago;
   I am God, and there is no other;
   I am God, and there is none like me.
¹⁰ I make known the end from the beginning,
   from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
   and I will do all that I please.’
¹¹ From the east I summon a bird of prey;
   from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
   what I have planned, that I will do.
¹² Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,
   you who are now far from my righteousness.
¹³ I am bringing my righteousness near,
   it is not far away;
and my salvation will not be delayed.
   I will grant salvation to Zion,
   my splendour to Israel.