Prepare the Way for the LORD
(Matthew 3:1–12; Mark 1:1–8; Luke 3:1–20; John 1:19–28)

1“Be consoled, be consoled, O my people!” says your God.

2Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.

3The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight the paths of our God, in a solitary place.

4Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be straightened, and the uneven will become level ways.

5And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all flesh together will see that the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Enduring Word
(1 Peter 1:22–25)

6The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

7The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. For the Spirit of the Lord has blown over it. Truly, the people are like grass.

8The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. But the Word of our Lord remains for eternity.”

Here Is Your God!
(Romans 11:33–36)

9You who evangelize Zion, climb a high mountain! You who evangelize Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah: “Behold, your God!”

10Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.

11He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.

12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers, and who has weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a scale?

13Who has assisted the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor and has revealed things to him?

14With whom has he consulted? And who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and guided him to knowledge, and revealed the way of understanding to him?

15Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a bucket, and they are considered as the smallest grain on a balance. Behold, the islands are like a little dust.

16And Lebanon will not be sufficient to start a fire, and its animals will not be sufficient for a burnt offering.

17All the nations in his sight are as if they did not exist, and they are considered by him as if they were nothingness and emptiness.

18Therefore, to whom would you liken God? Or with what image would you replace him?

19Should the workman cast a statue? Or has the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?

20He has chosen strong wood that will not decay. The skillful artisan seeks a way to set up an idol that cannot be moved.

21Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?

22He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell.

23He has brought those who examine what is secret to nothingness. He has brought the judges of the earth to emptiness.

24And certainly, their stalk was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the ground. He has suddenly blown them across them, and they have withered, and a whirlwind will carry them away like chaff.

25“And to whom would you compare me or equate me?” says the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. He leads forth their army by number, and he calls them all by name. Because of the fullness of his strength and robustness and virtue, not one of them was left behind.

27Why do you say this, O Jacob, and why do you speak this way, O Israel? “My way has been hidden from the Lord, and my judgment escaped notice by my God.”

28Do you not know, or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, who has created the limits of the earth. He does not diminish, and he does not struggle. Neither is his wisdom searchable.

29It is he who gives strength to the weary, and it is he who increases fortitude and strength in those who are failing.

30Servants will struggle and fail, and young men will fall into infirmity.

31But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will take up wings like eagles. They will run and not struggle. They will walk and not tire.