Daily Readings - 23/12/2025

^3:1 Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

^3:2 Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali.

^3:3 He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to Yahweh as it should be made.

^3:4 The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by Yahweh as in former days, as in the years of old.

^3:23 Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day.

^3:24 He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.

^24:1 To Yahweh belong earth and all it holds, the world and all who live in it;

^24:2 he himself founded it on the ocean, based it firmly on the nether sea

^24:3 Who has the right to climb the mountain of Yahweh, who the right to stand in his holy place?

^24:4 He whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, whose soul does not pay homage to worthless things and who never swears to a lie.

^24:5 The blessing of Yahweh is his, and Vindication from God his saviour.

^24:6 Such are the people who seek him, who seek your presence, God of Jacob! (pause)

^24:7 Gates, raise your arches, rise, you ancient doors, let the king of glory in!

^24:8 Who is this king of glory? Yahweh the strong, the valiant, Yahweh valiant in battle!

^24:9 Gates, raise your arches, rise you ancient doors, let the king of glory in!

^24:10 Who is this king of glory? He is Yahweh Sabaoth, King of glory, he! (pause)

^1:57 Meanwhile the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son;

^1:58 and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.

^1:59 Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call[*j] him Zechariah after his father,

^1:60 but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’

^1:61 They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’,

^1:62 and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called.

^1:63 The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John’. And they were all astonished.

^1:64 At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God.

^1:65 All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea.

^1:66 All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.