Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
68 Zacharias: May the Lord God of Israel be blessed indeed!
For God’s intervention has begun,
and He has moved to rescue us, the people of God.
69 And the Lord has raised up a powerful sign of liberation for us
from among the descendants of God’s servant, King David.
70 As was prophesied through the mouths of His holy prophets in ancient times:
71 God will liberate us from our enemies
and from the hand of our oppressors![a]
72-74 God will show mercy promised to our ancestors,
upholding the abiding covenant He made with them,
Remembering the original vow He swore to Abraham,
from whom we are all descended.
God will rescue us from the grasp of our enemies
so that we may serve Him without fear all our days
75 In holiness and justice, in the presence of the Lord.
76 And you, my son, will be called the prophet of the Most High.
For you will be the one to prepare the way for the Lord[b]
77 So that the Lord’s people will receive knowledge of their freedom
through the forgiveness of their sins.
78 All this will flow from the kind and compassionate mercy of our God.
A new day is dawning:
the Sunrise from the heavens will break through in our darkness,
79 And those who huddle in night,
those who sit in the shadow of death,
Will be able to rise and walk in the light,[c]
guided in the pathway of peace.
4 Eternal One: For behold the day of burning will come, smoldering like a furnace. The arrogant and the evil will be set ablaze like the worthless chaff of grain. Neither roots nor branch will remain. I, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, promise this. 2 But for you, the ones who tremble at the sound of My name, a warm sun of righteousness will come forth with healing in its rays, and you will go out, springing from the stalls like calves in open pasture. 3 Then you will trample the criminal; your feet will make them ash on the day I am preparing. I, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, promise this.
4 Remember the instructions which Moses, My faithful servant, received from Me at Mount Horeb and gave to all Israel. Remember its statutes and judgments.
5 Keep watch. I am sending Elijah the prophet to you before the arrival of the great and terrible day of the Eternal One, 6 and he will return parents’ hearts to their children and children’s hearts to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land of promise with a curse of annihilation.
These verses simultaneously display retrospective and prospective dimensions of Malachi’s conversation with the people, especially the temple priests, of Jerusalem. Malachi calls his contemporaries to remember the life and message of Moses and future generations to look forward to the life and message of the Elijah who is to come. As Ezra in the fifth century b.c. is like Elijah, reflecting these expectations, so John the Baptist is the messenger par excellence 400 years later when he prepares the world for Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Anointed One.
So concludes an almost breathtaking succession of encounters between Jesus and people in need. Each story is unique; Jesus responds to each person as an individual, and there is no detectable formula to His way of treating people—except that in every case, His interactions are characterized by love and compassion.
Now Jesus takes His ministry of teaching the kingdom of God in word and deed to a new level: He sends out His disciples to do what they have seen Him do. Jesus commissions the twelve to multiply His ministry. They will go out from and then return to Jesus with reports of what they’ve experienced and learned. But it’s hard for them to get any time alone to talk. There are so many people who want time with Jesus!
9 Jesus convened a gathering of the twelve. He gave them power and authority to free people from all demonic spirits and to heal them of diseases. 2 He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3-5 These were His instructions:
- Travel light on your journey: don’t take a staff, backpack, bread, money, or even an extra change of clothes.
- When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that city.
- If a town rejects you, shake the dust from your feet as you leave as a witness against them.
6 The disciples left on their journeys from village to village. They preached the good news, and they healed the sick everywhere they went.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.