April 17
Isaiah 40 & Luke 4
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Isaiah 40

Chapter 40

40:1"Comfort, comfort My people,"
says your God.
2"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of forced labor is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned,
and she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins."
3A voice of one crying out:
Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
4Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.
5And the glory of the Lord will appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
6A voice was saying, "Cry out!"
Another said, "What should I cry out?"
"All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the Lord blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.
8The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God remains forever."
9Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.
Jerusalem, herald of good news,
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
"Here is your God!"
10See, the Lord God comes with strength,
and His power establishes His rule.
His reward is with Him,
and His gifts accompany Him.
11He protects His flock like a shepherd;
He gathers the lambs in His arms
and carries them in the fold of His garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.
12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?
Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure
or weighed the mountains in a balance
and the hills in the scales?
13Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or who gave Him His counsel?
14Who did He consult with?
Who gave Him understanding
and taught Him the paths of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge
and showed Him the way of understanding?
15Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;
He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16Lebanon is not enough for fuel,
or its animals enough for a burnt offering.
17All the nations are as nothing before Him;
they are considered by Him
as nothingness and emptiness.
18Who will you compare God with?
What likeness will you compare Him to?
19To an idol?-something that a smelter casts,
and a metalworker plates with gold
and makes silver welds for it?
20To one who shapes a pedestal,
choosing wood that does not rot?
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.
21Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning?
Have you not considered
the foundations of the earth?
22God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23He reduces princes to nothing
and makes judges of the earth irrational.
24They are barely planted, barely sown,
their stem hardly takes root in the ground
when He blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.
25"Who will you compare Me to,
or who is My equal?" asks the Holy One.
26Look up and see:
who created these?
He brings out the starry host by number;
He calls all of them by name.
Because of His great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.
27Jacob, why do you say,
and Israel, why do you assert:
"My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my claim is ignored by my God"?
28Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the whole earth.
He never grows faint or weary;
there is no limit to His understanding.
29He gives strength to the weary
and strengthens the powerless.
30Youths may faint and grow weary,
and young men stumble and fall,
31but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not faint.

Luke 4

Chapter 4

4:1Then Jesus returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, He was hungry. 3The Devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4But Jesus answered him, "It is written: Man must not live on bread alone."
5So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6The Devil said to Him, "I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. 7If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours."
8And Jesus answered him, "It is written:
Worship the Lord your God,
and serve Him only."
9So he took Him to Jerusalem, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
He will give His angels orders concerning you,
to protect you, 11and
they will support you with their hands,
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone."
12And Jesus answered him, "It is said: Do not test the Lord your God."
13After the Devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him for a time.
14Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity. 15He was teaching in their synagogues, being acclaimed by everyone.
16He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written:
18The Spirit of the Lord is on Me,
because He has anointed Me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me
to proclaim freedom to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
20He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21He began by saying to them, "Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled."
22They were all speaking well of Him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from His mouth, yet they said, "Isn't this Joseph's son?"
23Then He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me: 'Doctor, heal yourself. So all we've heard that took place in Capernaum, do here in Your hometown also.'"
24He also said, "I assure you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah's days, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them-but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27And in the prophet Elisha's time, there were many in Israel who had serious skin diseases, yet not one of them was healed-only Naaman the Syrian."
28When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. 29They got up, drove Him out of town, and brought Him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl Him over the cliff. 30But He passed right through the crowd and went on His way.
31Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. 32They were astonished at His teaching because His message had authority. 33In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, 34"Leave us alone! What do You have to do with us, Jesus-Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are-the Holy One of God!"
35But Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet and come out of him!"
And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all. 36Amazement came over them all, and they kept saying to one another, "What is this message? For He commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out!" 37And news about Him began to go out to every place in the vicinity.
38After He left the synagogue, He entered Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him about her. 39So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them.
40When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them, He would heal them. 41Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, "You are the Son of God!" But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah.
42When it was day, He went out and made His way to a deserted place. But the crowds were searching for Him. They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving them. 43But He said to them, "I must proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose." 44And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

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