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Old Testament Reading - A God who saves

¹⁵Truly, O God of Israel, Savior, you work in strange, mysterious ways. ¹⁶All who worship idols shall be disappointed and ashamed. ¹⁷But Israel shall be saved by Jehovah with eternal salvation; they shall never be disappointed in their God through all eternity. ¹⁸For Jehovah created the heavens and earth and put everything in place, and he made the world to be lived in, not to be an empty chaos. I am Jehovah, he says, and there is no other! ¹⁹I publicly proclaim bold promises; I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner so that no one can know what I mean. And I didn’t tell Israel to ask me for what I didn’t plan to give! No, for I, Jehovah, speak only truth and righteousness.

²⁰Gather together and come, you nations that escape from Cyrus’s hand. What fools they are who carry around the wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save! ²¹Consult together, argue your case and state your proofs that idol worship pays! Who but God has said that these things concerning Cyrus would come true? What idol ever told you they would happen? For there is no other God but me — a just God and a Savior — no, not one! ²²Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other. ²³I have sworn by myself, and I will never go back on my word, for it is true — that every knee in all the world shall bow to me, and every tongue shall swear allegiance to my name.