Isaiah 48-49 - The Furnace of Affliction

From yesterday's Bible reading:

Isaiah 48:

You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?

From this time forth I announce to you new things,
hidden things that you have not known.

They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.

For my name's sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.

Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.

My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand forth together.

Thus says the LORD,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.

(A businessman's life verse!)

There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.

Isaiah 49:

Listen to me, O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.

The LORD called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and raise my signal to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
Kings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
and lick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the LORD;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.

Then all flesh shall know
that I am the LORD your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.