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MARCH 25
For you will go before the face of the 79 To give light to those who sit in
Lord to prepare His ways, darkness and the shadow of death,
To give knowledge of salvation to His To guide our feet into the way of
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people peace.”
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God, 80 So the child grew and became strong in
With which the Dayspring from on high spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his
has visited us; manifestation to Israel.
DAY 24: For whom did Luke write?

Luke,like Mark,and in contrast to Matthew,appears to target a Gentile readership.He identified
locations that would have been familiar to all Jews (4:31; 23:51; 24:13), suggesting that his audience
went beyond those who already had knowledge of Palestinian geography. He usually preferred
Greek terminology over Hebraisms (e.g.,“Calvary”instead of “Golgotha”in 23:33).The other Gospels
all use occasional Semitic terms such as “Abba”(Mark 14:36),“rabbi”(Matt.23:7,8; John 1:38,49), and
“hosanna” (Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:9,10; John 12:13)—but Luke either omitted them or used Greek
equivalents.
Luke quoted the Old Testament more sparingly than Matthew;and when citing Old Testament
passages,he nearly always employed the Septuagint,a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Furthermore,most of Luke’s Old Testament citations are allusions rather than direct quotations,and
many of them appear in Jesus’words rather than Luke’s narration (2:23,24; 3:4–6; 4:4,8,10–12,18,19;
7:27; 10:27; 18:20; 19:46; 20:17,18,37,42,43; 22:37).
Luke,more than any of the other Gospel writers,highlighted the universal scope of the gospel
invitation. He portrayed Jesus as the Son of Man, rejected by Israel, and then offered to the world.
He repeatedly related accounts of Gentiles, Samaritans, and other outcasts who found grace in
Jesus’eyes.This emphasis is precisely what we would expect from a close companion of the “apos-
tle to the Gentiles”(Rom. 11:13).

“Therefore you shall keep every com-
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MARCH 25 mandment which I command you today, that
you may be strong, and go in and possess the
land which you cross over to possess, and
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that you may prolong your days in the land
Deuteronomy 11:1–12:32
which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to
“Therefore you shall love the LORD your them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing
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11 God, and keep His charge, His statutes, with milk and honey.’ For the land which you
His judgments, and His commandments go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from
always. Know today that I do not speak with which you have come, where you sowed your
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your children, who have not known and who seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable gar-
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have not seen the chastening of the LORD your den; but the land which you cross over to
God, His greatness and His mighty hand and possess is a land of hills and valleys, which
His outstretched arm— His signs and His drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land
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acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; of the LORD your God are always on it, from
4 the beginning of the year to the very end of
what He did to the army of Egypt, to their
horses and their chariots: how He made the the year.
waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they 13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey
pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed My commandments which I command you
them to this day; what He did for you in the today, to love the LORD your God and serve
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wilderness until you came to this place; and Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
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what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its
Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth season, the early rain and the latter rain, that
opened its mouth and swallowed them up, you may gather in your grain, your new wine,
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their households, their tents, and all the sub- and your oil. And I will send grass in your
stance that was in their possession, in the fields for your livestock, that you may eat and
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midst of all Israel— but your eyes have seen be filled.’ Take heed to yourselves, lest your
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every great act of the LORD which He did. heart be deceived, and you turn aside and
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