Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Malachi 1

¹An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

²"I have loved you," says the LORD.

"But you ask, 'How have you loved us?'

"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, ³but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

⁴Edom may say, "Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins."

But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD. ⁵You will see it with your own eyes and say, 'Great is the LORD--even beyond the borders of Israel!'

⁶"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.

"But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?'

⁷"You place defiled food on my altar.

"But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?'

"By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. ⁸When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty.

⁹"Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?"--says the LORD Almighty.

¹⁰"Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. ¹¹My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty.

¹²"But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' ¹³And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty.

"When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD. ¹⁴"Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.

 

 

Psalm 147

¹Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! ²The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. ³He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. ⁴He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. ⁵Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. ⁶The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. ⁷Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. ⁸He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. ⁹He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. ¹⁰His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; ¹¹the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. ¹²Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion, ¹³for he strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. ¹⁴He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat. ¹⁵He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. ¹⁶He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. ¹⁷He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? ¹⁸He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow. ¹⁹He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. ²⁰He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.

 

 

Revelation 20:1–10

¹And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

⁴I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth--Gog and Magog--to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. ⁹They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. ¹⁰And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.