Sunday 26 August 2040

18“For I know their works and their thoughts.The time comesthat I will gather all nations and languages,and they will come,and will see my glory.

19“I will set a sign among them,and I will send those who escape of them to the nations,to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud,who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan,to far-away islands,who have not heard my fame,nor have seen my glory;and they shall declare my glory among the nations.20They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to the Lord,on horses, in chariots,in litters, on mules,and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem,says the Lord, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the Lord’s house.21Of them I will also select priestsand Levites,” says the Lord.

1Praise the Lord, all you nations!Extol him, all you peoples!

2For his loving kindness is great toward us.The Lord’s faithfulness endures forever.Praise the Lord!

5You have forgotten the exhortationwhich reasons with you as with children,

“My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord,nor faint when you are reproved by him;6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines,and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7It is for discipline that you endure.God deals with you as with children,for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?· · · verses 8–10 are not read11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous;yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to thosewho have been trained by it.12Therefore lift up the handsthat hang down and the feeble knees,13and make straight paths for your feet,so what is lame may not be dislocated,but rather be healed.

22He went on his way through cities and villages,teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.23One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?”

He said to them,24“Strive to enter in by the narrow door,for many, I tell you,will seek to enter in and will not be able.25When once the master of the house has risen upand has shut the door,and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door,saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’then he will answer and tell you,‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’26Then you will begin to say,‘We ate and drank in your presence,and you taught in our streets.’27He will say, ‘I tell you,I don’t know where you come from.Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’28There will be weeping and gnashing of teethwhen you see Abraham,Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom,and yourselves being thrown outside.29They will come from the east,west, north, and south,and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.30Behold, there are some who are last who will be first,and there are some who are first who will be last.”