Isaiah 63:7–9 A short offering of praise, noting that the salvation of God’s people was only achieved through God, and that it came when they were at their most desperate. God pronounced them (the Israelites) as God’s beloved and was their source of strength when they were weak.
Psalm 148 Another, more effusive offering of praise. The author goes through a long list of everything—animate and inanimate—that should shout out to God in praise. It reads almost like the second creation story in Genesis. The point is that all things, both material and spiritual, are of God and owe their existence to God.
Hebrews 2:10–18 The first big claim in this text is that the sanctifier (Jesus) and the sanctified (us) are born of the same spiritual father (God). This is why Jesus considers us all brothers and sisters. The second is about what is achieved by Jesus’s suffering and death: an atonement for human sin.
Matthew 2:13–23 An angel tells Joseph in a dream to get his new family out of the area because of the planned assassination by King Herod. They stay in Egypt until Herod dies, which, the author notes, fulfils the prophecy that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt. Herod is so mad about their escape that he punishes the Israelites by killing all of their male babies younger than two. After Herod’s death, Joseph and his family return but avoid their home territory because of a ruler they fear. They settle in Nazareth, which fulfils the prophecy that the Messiah would be a Nazarene.
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