John the Baptist's Message
(Matthew 3.1-12; Mark 1.1-8; Luke 3.1-18)

John 1 ¹⁹The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John to ask him, "Who are you?"
²⁰John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: "I am not the Messiah."
²¹"Who are you, then?" they asked. "Are you Elijah?"
"No, I am not," John answered.
"Are you the Prophet?" they asked.
"No," he replied.
²²"Then tell us who you are," they said. "We have to take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself ?"
²³John answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah:
"I am 'the voice of someone shouting in the desert:
Make a straight path for the Lord to travel!'"
²⁴The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees, ²⁵then asked John, "If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?"
²⁶John answered, "I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know. ²⁷He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals."
²⁸All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.

The Lamb of God

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is the one I was talking about when I said, 'A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.' ³¹I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel."
³²And John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him. ³³I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, 'You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' ³⁴I have seen it," said John, "and I tell you that he is the Son of God."

The Descendants of Issachar

1 Chronicles 7 Issachar had four sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.
²Tola had six sons: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel. They were heads of families of the clan of Tola and were famous soldiers. At the time of King David their descendants numbered 22,600.
³Uzzi had one son, Izrahiah. Izrahiah and his four sons, Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah, were all heads of families. ⁴They had so many wives and children that their descendants were able to provide 36,000 men for military duty.
⁵The official records of all the families of the tribe of Issachar listed 87,000 men eligible for military duty.

The Descendants of Benjamin and Dan

⁶Benjamin had three sons: Bela, Becher, and Jediael.
⁷Bela had five sons: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri. They were heads of families in the clan and were all famous soldiers. Their descendants included 22,034 men eligible for military duty.
⁸Becher had nine sons: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. ⁹The official record of their descendants by families listed 20,200 men eligible for military duty.
¹⁰Jediael had one son, Bilhan, and Bilhan had seven sons: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. ¹¹They were heads of families in the clan and were all famous soldiers. Their descendants included 17,200 men eligible for military duty. ¹²Shuppim and Huppim also belonged to this tribe.
Dan had one son, Hushim.

The Descendants of Naphtali

¹³Naphtali had four sons: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shallum. (They were descendants of Bilhah.)

The Descendants of Manasseh

¹⁴By his Aramean concubine, Manasseh had two sons, Asriel and Machir. Machir was the father of Gilead. ¹⁵Machir found a wife for Huppim and one for Shuppim. His sister's name was Maacah. Machir's second son was Zelophehad, and he had only daughters.
¹⁶Maacah, Machir's wife, gave birth to two sons, whom they named Peresh and Sheresh. Peresh had two sons, Ulam and Rakem, ¹⁷and Ulam had a son named Bedan. These are all descendants of Gilead, the son of Machir and grandson of Manasseh.
¹⁸Gilead's sister Hammolecheth had three sons: Ishod, Abiezer, and Mahlah. ( ¹⁹Shemida had four sons: Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam.)

The Descendants of Ephraim

²⁰These are the descendants of Ephraim from generation to generation: Shuthelah, Bered, Tahath, Eleadah, Tahath, ²¹Zabad, Shuthelah. Ephraim had two other sons besides Shuthelah: Ezer and Elead, who were killed when they tried to steal the livestock belonging to the native inhabitants of Gath. ²²Their father Ephraim mourned for them for many days, and his relatives came to comfort him. ²³Then he had intercourse with his wife again, and she became pregnant and had a son. They named him Beriah, because of the trouble that had come to their family.
²⁴Ephraim had a daughter named Sheerah. She built the towns of Upper and Lower Beth Horon, and Uzzen Sheerah.
²⁵Ephraim also had a son named Rephah, whose descendants were as follows: Resheph, Telah, Tahan, ²⁶Ladan, Ammihud, Elishama, ²⁷Nun, Joshua.
²⁸The territory which they took and settled included Bethel and the towns around it, as far east as Naaran and as far west as Gezer and the towns around it. It also included the cities of Shechem and Ayyah, and the towns around them.
²⁹The descendants of Manasseh controlled the cities of Beth Shan, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor, and the towns around them.
All these are the places where the descendants of Joseph son of Jacob lived.

The Descendants of Asher

³⁰These are the descendants of Asher. He had four sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah; and one daughter, Serah.
³¹Beriah had two sons, Heber and Malchiel. (Malchiel founded the city of Birzaith.)
³²Heber had three sons: Japhlet, Shomer, and Hotham; and one daughter, Shua.
³³Japhlet also had three sons: Pasach, Bimhal, and Ashvath.
³⁴His brother Shomer had three sons: Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram.
³⁵His brother Hotham had four sons: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal.
³⁶The descendants of Zophah were Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, ³⁷Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, and Beera.
³⁸The descendants of Jether were Jephunneh, Pispa, and Ara, ³⁹and the descendants of Ulla were Arah, Hanniel, and Rizia.
⁴⁰All of these were descendants of Asher. They were heads of families, famous fighting men, outstanding leaders. Asher's descendants included 26,000 men eligible for military duty.

The Descendants of Benjamin

1 Chronicles 8 Benjamin had five sons. In order of age they were Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, ²Nohah, and Rapha.
³The descendants of Bela were Addar, Gera, Abihud, ⁴Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, ⁵Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram.
^6-7The descendants of Ehud were Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera. They were heads of families that lived in Geba, but which were forced out and went to live in Manahath. Gera, the father of Uzza and Ahihud, led them in this move.
^8-9Shaharaim divorced two wives, Hushim and Baara. Later, when he lived in the country of Moab, he married Hodesh and had seven sons: Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam, ¹⁰Jeuz, Sachia, and Mirmah. His sons all became heads of families.
¹¹He also had two sons by Hushim: Abitub and Elpaal.
¹²Elpaal had three sons: Eber, Misham, and Shemed. It was Shemed who built the cities of Ono and Lod and the surrounding villages.

The Benjaminites in Gath and Aijalon

¹³Beriah and Shema were heads of families that settled in the city of Aijalon and drove out the people who lived in the city of Gath. ¹⁴Beriah's descendants included Ahio, Shashak, Jeremoth, ¹⁵Zebadiah, Arad, Eder, ¹⁶Michael, Ishpah, and Joha.

The Benjaminites in Jerusalem

¹⁷Elpaal's descendants included Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hizki, Heber, ¹⁸Ishmerai, Izliah, and Jobab.
¹⁹Shimei's descendants included Jakim, Zichri, Zabdi, ²⁰Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel, ²¹Adaiah, Beraiah, and Shimrath.
²²Shashak's descendants included Ishpan, Eber, Eliel, ²³Abdon, Zichri, Hanan, ²⁴Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah, ²⁵Iphdeiah, and Penuel.
²⁶Jeroham's descendants included Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah, ²⁷Jaareshiah, Elijah, and Zichri.
²⁸These were the ancestral heads of families and their principal descendants who lived in Jerusalem.

The Benjaminites in Gibeon and Jerusalem

²⁹Jeiel founded the city of Gibeon and settled there. His wife was named Maacah, ³⁰and his oldest son, Abdon. His other sons were Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab, ³¹Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, ³²and Mikloth, the father of Shimeah. Their descendants lived in Jerusalem near other families of their clan.

The Family of King Saul

³³Ner was the father of Kish, and Kish was the father of King Saul. Saul had four sons: Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal. ³⁴Jonathan was the father of Meribbaal, who was the father of Micah.
³⁵Micah had four sons: Pithon, Melech, Tarea, and Ahaz. ³⁶Ahaz was the father of Jehoaddah, who was the father of three sons: Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri was the father of Moza, ³⁷Moza the father of Binea, Binea of Raphah, Raphah of Eleasah, and Eleasah of Azel.
³⁸Azel had six sons: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. ³⁹Azel's brother Eshek had three sons: Ulam, Jeush, and Eliphelet.
⁴⁰Ulam's sons were outstanding soldiers and archers. He had a hundred and fifty sons and grandsons in all. All those named above were members of the tribe of Benjamin.

Jerusalem's Sin and Redemption

Zephaniah 3 Jerusalem is doomed, that corrupt, rebellious city that oppresses its own people. ²It has not listened to the LORD or accepted his discipline. It has not put its trust in the LORD or asked for his help. ³Its officials are like roaring lions; its judges are like hungry wolves, too greedy to leave a bone until morning. ⁴The prophets are irresponsible and treacherous; the priests defile what is sacred, and twist the law of God to their own advantage. ⁵But the LORD is still in the city; he does what is right and never what is wrong. Every morning without fail, he brings justice to his people. And yet the unrighteous people there keep on doing wrong and are not ashamed.
⁶The LORD says, "I have wiped out whole nations; I have destroyed their cities and left their walls and towers in ruins. The cities are deserted; the streets are empty--no one is left. ⁷I thought that then my people would have reverence for me and accept my discipline, that they would never forget the lesson I taught them. But soon they were behaving as badly as ever.
⁸"Just wait," the LORD says. "Wait for the day when I rise to accuse the nations. I have made up my mind to gather nations and kingdoms in order to let them feel the force of my anger. The whole earth will be destroyed by the fire of my fury.
⁹"Then I will change the people of the nations, and they will pray to me alone and not to other gods. They will all obey me. ¹⁰Even from distant Ethiopia my scattered people will bring offerings to me. ¹¹At that time you, my people, will no longer need to be ashamed that you rebelled against me. I will remove everyone who is proud and arrogant, and you will never again rebel against me on my sacred hill. ¹²I will leave there a humble and lowly people, who will come to me for help. ¹³The people of Israel who survive will do no wrong to anyone, tell no lies, nor try to deceive. They will be prosperous and secure, afraid of no one."

A Song of Joy

¹⁴Sing and shout for joy, people of Israel!
Rejoice with all your heart, Jerusalem!
¹⁵The LORD has stopped your punishment;
he has removed all your enemies.
The LORD, the king of Israel, is with you;
there is no reason now to be afraid.
¹⁶The time is coming when they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not be afraid, city of Zion!
Do not let your hands hang limp!
¹⁷The LORD your God is with you;
his power gives you victory.
The LORD will take delight in you,
and in his love he will give you new life.
He will sing and be joyful over you,
¹⁸ as joyful as people at a festival."
The LORD says,
"I have ended the threat of doom
and taken away your disgrace.
¹⁹The time is coming!
I will punish your oppressors;
I will rescue all the lame
and bring the exiles home.
I will turn their shame to honor,
and all the world will praise them.
²⁰The time is coming!
I will bring your scattered people home;
I will make you famous throughout the world
and make you prosperous once again."
The LORD has spoken.