Thursday, March 19, 2026

²I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.” ³“I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant, ⁴‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’” Selah. ⁵The heavens will praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones. ²⁷I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. ²⁹I will also make his offspring endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

¹³For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁶For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. ¹⁸Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” ²²Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”

¹⁶Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. ¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. ²⁰But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” ²⁴Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself;