Then one of the angels said, "Run for your lives! Don't look back and don't stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won't be killed."

You have done me a great favor and saved my life. But the hills are too far away; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die before I get there.

He answered, "All right, I agree. I won't destroy that town.

"How can I do that?" Samuel asked. "If Saul hears about it, he will kill me!" The LORD answered, "Take a calf with you and say that you are there to offer a sacrifice to the LORD.

Ananias answered, "Lord, many people have told me about this man and about all the terrible things he has done to your people in Jerusalem.

And he has come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who worship you."

Then they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.

While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.

"This God is our God forever and ever; he will lead us for all time to come."

You guide me with your instruction and at the end you will receive me with honor.

Then in their trouble they called to the LORD, and he saved them from their distress.

He led them by a straight road to a city where they could live.

He will protect you as you come and go now and forever.

If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, "Here is the road. Follow it."

The holy God of Israel, the LORD who saves you, says: "I am the LORD your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go.

"If only you had listened to my commands! Then blessings would have flowed for you like a stream that never goes dry. Victory would have come to you like the waves that roll on the shore.

At that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

When Joseph and Mary had finished doing all that was required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to their hometown of Nazareth in Galilee.

Others said, "He is the Messiah!" But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee!

The scripture says that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David and will be born in Bethlehem, the town where David lived."

"Well," they answered, "are you also from Galilee? Study the Scriptures and you will learn that no prophet ever comes from Galilee."