Study Desk

Then those who respected the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. A scroll was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

"They will belong to me," says the Lord who rules over all, "in the day when I prepare my own special property. I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife,

saying, "Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."

As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

After they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to look for the child to kill him."

Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt.

saying, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead."

So he got up and took the child and his mother and returned to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the regions of Galilee.

For he is the one about whom Isaiah the prophet had spoken: " The voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘ Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight .'"

Now John wore clothing made from camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

"I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am—I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire."

and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, ‘ He will command his angels concerning you ' and ‘ with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone .'"