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The Future House of God

2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² In days to come
   the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
   and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
³   Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
   to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
   and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
   and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
   and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
   and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
   neither shall they learn war any more.

Judgement Pronounced on Arrogance

⁵ O house of Jacob,
   come, let us walk
   in the light of the Lord!
⁶ For you have forsaken the ways of^* your people,
   O house of Jacob.
Indeed they are full of diviners^* from the east
   and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
   and they clasp hands with foreigners.
⁷ Their land is filled with silver and gold,
   and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
   and there is no end to their chariots.
⁸ Their land is filled with idols;
   they bow down to the work of their hands,
   to what their own fingers have made.
⁹ And so people are humbled,
   and everyone is brought low—
   do not forgive them!
¹⁰ Enter into the rock,
   and hide in the dust
from the terror of the Lord,
   and from the glory of his majesty.
¹¹ The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low,
   and the pride of everyone shall be humbled;
and the Lord alone will be exalted
   on that day.

13 We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers. ¹⁴For you, brothers and sisters,^* became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets,^* and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone ¹⁶by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last.^*

Paul’s Desire to Visit the Thessalonians Again

17 As for us, brothers and sisters,^* when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face. ¹⁸For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again—but Satan blocked our way. ¹⁹For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? ²⁰Yes, you are our glory and joy!

¹⁹When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.

The Question about Paying Taxes

20 So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. ²¹So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. ²²Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ ²³But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, ²⁴‘Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?’ They said, ‘The emperor’s.’ ²⁵He said to them, ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ ²⁶And they were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent.