Daily Reader's Bible - Flipbook - Page 9
John—but you will be called
Cephas” (which means “Peter”).
The next day Jesus decided
to go to Galilee. He found Philip
and said to him, “Come, follow
me.” Philip was from Bethsaida,
Andrew and Peter’s hometown.
Philip went to look for
Nathanael and told him, “We
have found the very person
Moses and the prophets wrote
about! His name is Jesus, the
son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
“Nazareth!” exclaimed
Nathanael. “Can anything
good come from Nazareth?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
As they approached, Jesus said,
“Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”
“How do you know about
me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus replied, “I could
see you under the fig tree
before Philip found you.”
Then Nathanael exclaimed,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of
God—the King of Israel!”
Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I
had seen you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than
this.” Then he said, “I tell you
the truth, you will all see heaven
open and the angels of God
going up and down on the Son of
Man, the one who is the stairway
between heaven and earth.”
The next day there was a
wedding celebration in the
2
village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’
mother was there, and Jesus
and his disciples were also
invited to the celebration. The
wine supply ran out during the
festivities, so Jesus’ mother told
him, “They have no more wine.”
“Dear woman, that’s not
our problem,” Jesus replied.
“My time has not yet come.”
But his mother told
the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Standing nearby were six
stone water jars, used for
Jewish ceremonial washing.
Each could hold twenty to
thirty gallons. Jesus told the
servants, “Fill the jars with
water.” When the jars had been
filled, he said, “Now dip some
out, and take it to the master of
ceremonies.” So the servants
followed his instructions.
When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was
now wine, not knowing where
it had come from (though, of
course, the servants knew), he
called the bridegroom over. “A
host always serves the best
wine first,” he said. “Then,
when everyone has had a lot
to drink, he brings out the less
expensive wine. But you have
kept the best until now!”
This miraculous sign at Cana
in Galilee was the first time
Jesus revealed his glory. And
his disciples believed in him.
After the wedding he
went to Capernaum for a
I HAVE RETURNED TO SHOW MERCY TO JERUSALEM
In November of the second year of King Darius’s
reign, the LORD gave this message to the prophet
Zechariah son of Berekiah and grandson of Iddo:
“I, the LORD, was very angry with your ancestors. Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is
what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Return
to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of
Heaven’s Armies.’ Don’t be like your ancestors
who would not listen or pay attention when
the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what
the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from
your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’
1
4
few days with his mother, his
brothers, and his disciples.
It was nearly time for the Jewish
Passover celebration, so Jesus
went to Jerusalem. In the Temple
area he saw merchants selling
cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables
exchanging foreign money. Jesus
made a whip from some ropes and
chased them all out of the Temple.
He drove out the sheep and cattle,
scattered the money changers’
coins over the floor, and turned
over their tables. Then, going over
to the people who sold doves, he
told them, “Get these things out
of here. Stop turning my Father’s
house into a marketplace!”
Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the
Scriptures: “Passion for God’s
house will consume me.”
But the Jewish leaders
demanded, “What are you
doing? If God gave you
authority to do this, show us a
miraculous sign to prove it.”
“All right,” Jesus replied.
“Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up.”
“What!” they exclaimed. “It
has taken forty-six years to build
this Temple, and you can rebuild
it in three days?” But when Jesus
said “this temple,” he meant his
own body. After he was raised
from the dead, his disciples
remembered he had said this,
and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
[ZECHARIAH 1:1–2:5]
“Where are your ancestors now? They and
the prophets are long dead. But everything I
said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said. As a
result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the LORD of
Heaven’s Armies. He has done what he said
he would do.’”
Three months later, on February 15, the LORD
sent another message to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah and grandson of Iddo.
