In just this way the people of Israel will have to live for a long time without kings or leaders, without sacrifices or sacred stone pillars, without idols or images to use for divination.

and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's promised Messiah.

Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God:

With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,

"My Father has given me all things. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Then Jesus turned to the disciples and said to them privately, "How fortunate you are to see the things you see!

Then he said to the disciples, "The time will come when you will wish you could see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

Again Jesus said to them, "I will go away; you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot go where I am going."

That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. And you will die in your sins if you do not believe that 'I Am Who I Am'."

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad."

Jesus answered, "For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, 'Show us the Father'?

In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live.

The crowds walking in front of Jesus and those walking behind began to shout, "Praise to David's Son! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise be to God!"

May God bless the one who comes in the name of the LORD! From the Temple of the LORD we bless you.

Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news! Call out with a loud voice, Zion; announce the good news! Speak out and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming!

He will take care of his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs together and carry them in his arms; he will gently lead their mothers.

"I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.

There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.

Their minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.

But it can be removed, as the scripture says about Moses: "His veil was removed when he turned to the Lord."

All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.