Welcome to a special recording of the Bible Book Club.

This week, because it is Christmas, we present to you a special reading of Jesus's birth.

So this is a great thing to read right now because for those of you who have been listening as we drop episodes, we're going into Christmas.

And so we're going to start in January with Exodus.

But before we get there, we want to read the Christmas story and to set the scene, the scene that I

know you're all aware of, but you may not have ever heard these words before. In this short two

chapters in Luke, you're going to hear that Mary was from the

line of David and that Joseph was from the line of David. In our final episode of Genesis,

we read the genealogy that Jesus would come from the line of Judah. And here you have it.

The Bible is clearly saying from both as parents that they are from that line of David, which is the house of Judah. The other thing I want to just set the scene about is you're going to hear about John the Baptist's father's mouth being shut. And we're not going to read that part. But remember, it was because he laughed. Was it because he laughed?

Why did the Lord?

Because he didn't believe.

He questioned.

He questioned.

Yeah.

His mouth is shut because he doubted that his elderly wife Elizabeth was going to have a baby.

So we want to say Merry Christmas from all of us at the Bible Book Club, Susan and I, but also Haley, our producer and Buck, our editor.

And we hope that you enjoy this special reading of Jesus's birth foretold.

Yeah. Luke 1, verse 26.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,

a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said,

Greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and

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