The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday December 23, 2019 (NIV)

The Vision of the Lampstand

4 The angel who had been speaking to me came again and roused me as if I had been sleeping. ² “What do you see?” he asked.

“A lampstand made of gold,” I answered. “At the top is a bowl for the oil. On the lampstand are seven lamps, each one with places for seven wicks. ^3 (A)There are two olive trees beside the lampstand, one on each side of it.” ⁴ Then I asked the angel, “What do these things stand for, sir?”

⁵ “Don't you know?” he asked me.

“No, I don't, sir,” I replied.

^10b The angel said to me, “The seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lord, which see all over the earth.”^[a]

^11 (B)Then I asked him, “What do the two olive trees on either side of the lampstand mean? ¹² And what is the meaning of the two olive branches beside the two gold pipes from which the olive oil pours?”

¹³ He asked me, “Don't you know?”

“No, I don't, sir,” I answered.

¹⁴ Then he said, “These are the two men whom God has chosen and anointed to serve him, the Lord of the whole earth.”

God's Promise to Zerubbabel

⁶ The angel told me to give Zerubbabel this message from the Lord: “You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit. ⁷ Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you. You will rebuild the Temple, and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, ‘Beautiful, beautiful!’”

⁸ Another message came to me from the Lord. ⁹ He said, “Zerubbabel has laid the foundation of the Temple, and he will finish the building. When this happens, my people will know that it is I who sent you to them. ^10a They are disappointed because so little progress is being made. But they will see Zerubbabel continuing to build the Temple, and they will be glad.”

The Vision of the Flying Scroll

5 I looked again, and this time I saw a scroll flying through the air. ² The angel asked me what I saw. I answered, “A scroll flying through the air; it is thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

³ Then he said to me, “On it is written the curse that is to go out over the whole land. On one side of the scroll it says that every thief will be removed from the land; and on the other side it says that everyone who tells lies under oath will also be taken away. ⁴ The Lord Almighty says that he will send this curse out, and it will enter the house of every thief and the house of everyone who tells lies under oath. It will remain in their houses and leave them in ruins.”

The Vision of the Woman in the Basket

⁵ The angel appeared again and said, “Look! Something else is coming!”

⁶ “What is it?” I asked.

He replied, “It is a basket, and it stands for the sin^[b] of the whole land.”

⁷ The basket had a lid made of lead. As I watched, the lid was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman!

⁸ The angel said, “This represents wickedness.” Then he pushed her down into the basket and put the lid back down. ⁹ I looked up and saw two women flying toward me with powerful wings like those of a stork. They picked up the basket and flew off with it.

¹⁰ I asked the angel, “Where are they taking it?”

¹¹ He answered, “To Babylonia, where they will build a temple for it. When the temple is finished, the basket will be placed there to be worshiped.”

The Lamb and His People

14 ^(A)Then I looked, and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion; with him were 144,000 people who have his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. ^2 (B)And I heard a voice from heaven that sounded like a roaring waterfall, like a loud peal of thunder. It sounded like the music made by musicians playing their harps. ³ The 144,000 people stood before the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders; they were singing a new song, which only they could learn. Of the whole human race they are the only ones who have been redeemed. ⁴ They are the men who have kept themselves pure by not having sexual relations with women; they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the rest of the human race and are the first ones to be offered to God and to the Lamb. ^5 (C)They have never been known to tell lies; they are faultless.

The Three Angels

⁶ Then I saw another angel flying high in the air, with an eternal message of Good News to announce to the peoples of the earth, to every race, tribe, language, and nation. ⁷ He said in a loud voice, “Honor God and praise his greatness! For the time has come for him to judge all people. Worship him who made heaven, earth, sea, and the springs of water!”

^8 (D)A second angel followed the first one, saying, “She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She made all peoples drink her wine—the strong wine of her immoral lust!”

⁹ A third angel followed the first two, saying in a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image and receive the mark on their forehead or on their hand ^10 (E)will themselves drink God's wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger! All who do this will be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and the Lamb. ^11 (F)The smoke of the fire that torments them goes up forever and ever. There is no relief day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, for anyone who has the mark of its name.”

¹² This calls for endurance on the part of God's people, those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Happy are those who from now on die in the service of the Lord!”

“Yes indeed!” answers the Spirit. “They will enjoy rest from their hard work, because the results of their service go with them.”

The Harvest of the Earth

^14 (G)Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was what looked like a human being, with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. ^15 (H)Then another angel came out from the temple and cried out in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap the harvest, because the time has come; the earth is ripe for the harvest!” ¹⁶ Then the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth's harvest was reaped.

¹⁷ Then I saw another angel come out of the temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.

¹⁸ Then another angel, who is in charge of the fire, came from the altar. He shouted in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sickle, and cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, because the grapes are ripe!” ¹⁹ So the angel swung his sickle on the earth, cut the grapes from the vine, and threw them into the wine press of God's furious anger. ^20 (I)The grapes were squeezed out in the wine press outside the city, and blood came out of the wine press in a flood two hundred miles long and about five feet deep.

^(A)A Prayer for Help^[a]

²¹ There are four things that the earth itself cannot tolerate: