“It is all true! Everything that Gabriel had said to her! Everything that God had promised about her child!”

A Service of Lessons and Carols.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible . . . For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Israel, having been delivered by God from their slavery in Egypt, having been led and preserved through forty years of wandering in the wilderness, is now just on the verge of entering into the Promised Land and taking possession of it. And in Deuteronomy 26, God gives instructions to His people on how to live as His people in this new land, in this new situation– how to remain His faithful people once they are settled into this land overflowing with milk and honey and all manner of good things.