Daily Bible CEV December 24 Scroll

The Birth of John the Baptist

Luke 1 ⁵⁷When Elizabeth's son was born, ⁵⁸her neighbors and relatives heard how kind the Lord had been to her, and they too were glad.

⁵⁹Eight days later they did for the child what the Law of Moses commands. They were going to name him Zechariah, after his father. ⁶⁰But Elizabeth said, "No! His name is John."

⁶¹The people argued, "No one in your family has ever been named John." ⁶²So they motioned to Zechariah to find out what he wanted to name his son.

⁶³Zechariah asked for a writing tablet. Then he wrote, "His name is John." Everyone was amazed. ⁶⁴Right away, Zechariah started speaking and praising God.

⁶⁵All the neighbors were frightened because of what had happened, and everywhere in the hill country people kept talking about these things. ⁶⁶Everyone who heard about this wondered what this child would grow up to be. They knew that the Lord was with him.

Zechariah Praises the Lord

⁶⁷The Holy Spirit came upon Zechariah, and he began to speak:

⁶⁸Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!

He has come to save his people.

⁶⁹Our God has given us a mighty Savior

from the family of David his servant.

⁷⁰Long ago the Lord promised

by the words of his holy prophets

⁷¹to save us from our enemies

and from everyone who hates us.

⁷²God said he would be kind to our people

and keep his sacred promise.

⁷³He told our ancestor Abraham

⁷⁴

that he would rescue us from our enemies.

Then we could serve him without fear,

⁷⁵

by being holy and good as long as we live.

⁷⁶You, my son, will be called

a prophet of God in heaven above.

You will go ahead of the Lord

to get everything ready for him.

⁷⁷You will tell his people

that they can be saved when their sins are forgiven.

⁷⁸God's love and kindness will shine upon us

like the sun that rises in the sky.

⁷⁹On us who live in the dark shadow of death

this light will shine

to guide us into a life of peace.

⁸⁰As John grew up, God's Spirit gave him great power. John lived in the desert until the time he was sent to the people of Israel.

Edom Will Be a Wasteland

Ezekiel 35 The LORD said:

²Ezekiel, son of man, condemn the people of Edom ³and say to them:

I, the LORD God, am now your enemy!

And I will turn your nation into an empty wasteland,

⁴

leaving your towns in ruins.

Your land will be a desert,

and then you will know that I am the LORD.

⁵People of Edom, not only have you been Israel's longtime enemy, you simply watched when disaster wiped out its people as punishment for their sins. ⁶And so, as surely as I am the living LORD God, you are guilty of murder and must be put to death. ⁷I will destroy your nation and kill anyone who travels through it. ⁸Dead bodies will cover your mountains and fill up your valleys, ⁹and your land will lie in ruins forever. No one will live in your towns ever again. You will know that I am the LORD.

¹⁰You thought the nations of Judah and Israel belonged to you, and that you could take over their territory. But I am their God, ¹¹and as surely as I live, I will punish you for treating my people with anger and hatred. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am punishing you! ¹²And you will finally realize that I heard you laugh at their destruction and say their land was yours to take. ¹³You even insulted me, but I heard it all.

¹⁴Everyone on earth will celebrate when I destroy you, ¹⁵just as you celebrated when Israel was destroyed. Your nation of Edom will be nothing but a wasteland. Then everyone will know that I am the LORD.

A Message for Israel's Mountains

Ezekiel 36 The LORD said:

Ezekiel, son of man, tell the mountains of Israel ²that I, the LORD God, am saying:

Your enemies sneered and said that you mountains belonged to them. ³They ruined and crushed you from every side, and foreign nations captured and made fun of you. ⁴So all you mountains and hills, streams and valleys, listen to what I will do. Your towns may now lie in ruins, and nations may laugh and insult you. ⁵But in my fierce anger, I will turn against those nations, and especially the Edomites, because they laughed at you the loudest and took over your pasturelands. ⁶You have suffered long enough, and, I, the LORD God, am very angry! Nations have insulted you, ⁷so I will now insult and disgrace them. That is my solemn promise.

⁸Trees will grow on you mountains of Israel and produce fruit for my people, because they will soon come home. ⁹I will take care of you by plowing your soil and planting crops on your fertile slopes. ¹⁰The people of Israel will return and rebuild your ruined towns and live in them. ¹¹Children will be born, and animals will give birth to their young. You will no longer be deserted as you are now, but you will be covered with people and treated better than ever. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹²I will bring my people Israel home, and they will live on you mountains, because you belong to them, and your fertile slopes will never again let them starve. ¹³It's true that you have been accused of not producing enough food and of letting your people starve. ^14-15But I, the LORD, promise that you won't hear other nations laugh and sneer at you ever again. From now on, you will always produce plenty of food for your people. I, the LORD God, have spoken.

The LORD Will Be Honored

¹⁶The LORD said:

¹⁷Ezekiel, son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own country, they made the land unclean by the way they behaved, just as a woman's monthly period makes her unclean. ¹⁸They committed murders and worshiped idols, which made the land even worse. So in my anger, I punished my people ¹⁹and scattered them throughout the nations, just as they deserved. ²⁰Wherever they went, my name was disgraced, because foreigners insulted my people by saying I had forced them out of their own land.

²¹I care what those foreigners think of me, ²²so tell the Israelites that I am saying:

You have disgraced my holy name among the nations where you now live. So you don't deserve what I'm going to do for you. I will lead you home to bring honor to my name ²³and to show foreign nations that I am holy. Then they will know that I am the LORD God. I have spoken.

²⁴I will gather you from the foreign nations and bring you home. ²⁵I will sprinkle you with clean water, and you will be clean and acceptable to me. I will wash away everything that makes you unclean, and I will remove your disgusting idols. ²⁶I will take away your stubborn heart and give you a new heart and a desire to be faithful. You will have only pure thoughts, ²⁷because I will put my Spirit in you and make you eager to obey my laws and teachings. ²⁸You will once again live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

²⁹I will protect you from anything that makes you unclean. Your fields will overflow with grain, and no one will starve. ³⁰Your trees will be filled with fruit, and crops will grow in your fields, so that you will never again feel ashamed for not having enough food. ³¹You will remember your evil ways and hate yourselves for what you've done. ³²People of Israel, I'm not doing these things for your sake. You sinned against me, and you must suffer shame and disgrace for what you have done. I, the LORD God, have spoken.

³³After I have made you clean, I will let you rebuild your ruined towns and let you live in them. ³⁴Your land will be plowed again, and nobody will be able to see that it was once barren. ³⁵Instead, they will say that it looks as beautiful as the garden of Eden. They won't see towns lying in ruins, but they will see your strong cities filled with people. ³⁶Then the nearby nations that survive will know that I am the one who rebuilt the ruined places and replanted the barren fields. I, the LORD, make this promise.

³⁷I will once again answer your prayers, and I will let your nation grow until you are like a large flock of sheep. ³⁸The towns that now lie in ruins will be filled with people, just as Jerusalem was once filled with sheep to be offered as sacrifices during a festival. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Social Injustice Is Condemned

Isaiah 59 The LORD hasn't lost his powerful strength;

he can still hear and answer prayers.

²Your sins are the roadblock between you and your God.

That's why he doesn't answer your prayers

or let you see his face.

³Your talk is filled with lies and plans for violence;

every finger on your hands is covered with blood.

⁴You falsely accuse others and tell lies in court;

sin and trouble are the names of your children.

⁵You eat the deadly eggs of poisonous snakes,

and more snakes crawl out

from the eggs left to hatch.

You weave spider webs, ⁶but you can't make clothes

with those webs or hide behind them.

You're sinful and brutal.

⁷

You hurry off to do wrong or murder innocent victims.

All you think about is sin;

you leave ruin and destruction wherever you go.

⁸You don't know how to live in peace

or to be fair with others.

The roads you make are crooked;

your followers cannot find peace.

The People Confess Their Sins

⁹No one has come to defend us or to bring about justice.

We hoped for a day of sunshine,

but all we found was a dark, gloomy night.

¹⁰We feel our way along, as if we were blind;

we stumble at noon, as if it were night.

We can see no better than someone dead.

¹¹We growl like bears and mourn like doves.

We hope for justice and victory,

but they escape us.

¹²How often have we sinned and turned against you,

the LORD God?

Our sins condemn us! We have done wrong.

¹³We have rebelled and refused to follow you.

Our hearts were deceitful, and so we lied;

we planned to abuse others and turn our backs on you.

¹⁴Injustice is everywhere; justice seems far away.

Truth is chased out of court; honesty is shoved aside.

¹⁵Everyone tells lies; those who turn from crime

end up ruined.

The LORD Will Rescue His People

When the LORD noticed that justice had disappeared,

he became very displeased.

¹⁶It disgusted him even more to learn

that no one would do a thing about it.

So with his own powerful arm,

he won victories for truth.

¹⁷Justice was the LORD's armor;

saving power was his helmet;

anger and revenge were his clothes.

¹⁸Now the LORD will get furious and do to his enemies,

both near and far, what they did to his people.

¹⁹He will attack like a flood in a mighty windstorm.

Nations in the west and the east

will then honor and praise his wonderful name.

²⁰The LORD has promised to rescue the city of Zion

and Jacob's descendants who turn from sin.

²¹The LORD says: "My people,

I promise to give you my Spirit and my message.

These will be my gifts to you and your families forever.

I, the LORD, have spoken."

These daily Bible readings from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. BibleCard® images copyright iCreative. All rights reserved.