Jonah 1
1:1 The Lord’s message came to Jonah son of Amittai, 2“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.”
3Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish, far away from the Lord.
4But the Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up! 5The sailors were so afraid that each cried out to his own god and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make the ship lighter.
Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold below deck, had lain down, and was sound asleep. 6The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Cry out to your god! Perhaps your god might take notice of us so that we might not die!”
7The sailors said to one another, “Come on, let’s cast lots to find out whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us.” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out. 8They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?”
9He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10Hearing this, the men became even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape from the Lord, because he had previously told them.) 11Because the storm was growing worse and worse, they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?”
12He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that the sea will calm down for you, because I know it’s my fault you are in this severe storm.”
13Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse. 14So they cried out to the Lord, “Oh, please, Lord, don’t let us die on account of this man! Don’t hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood. After all, you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” 15So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. 16The men feared the Lord greatly and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord.
17(2:1) The Lord sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
(NET Bible)Ps. 62
62:1 For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.
For God alone I patiently wait;
he is the one who delivers me.
2He alone is my protector and deliverer.
He is my refuge; I will not be upended.
3How long will you threaten a man like me?
All of you are murderers,
as dangerous as a leaning wall or an unstable fence.
4They spend all their time planning how to bring their victim down.
They love to use deceit;
they pronounce blessings with their mouths,
but inwardly they utter curses. (Selah)
5Patiently wait for God alone, my soul!
For he is the one who gives me hope.
6He alone is my protector and deliverer.
He is my refuge; I will not be shaken.
7God delivers me and exalts me;
God is my strong protector and my shelter.
8Trust in him at all times, you people!
Pour out your hearts before him.
God is our shelter. (Selah)
9Men are nothing but a mere breath;
human beings are unreliable.
When they are weighed in the scales,
all of them together are lighter than air.
10Do not trust in what you can gain by oppression.
Do not put false confidence in what you can gain by robbery.
If wealth increases, do not become attached to it.
11God has declared one principle;
two principles I have heard:
God is strong,
12and you, O Lord, demonstrate loyal love.
For you repay men for what they do.
(NET Bible)Matt. 27:57–66
27:57 Now when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61(Now Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there, opposite the tomb.)
62The next day (which is after the day of preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate 63and said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come and steal his body and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65Pilate said to them, “Take a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you can.” 66So they went with the soldiers of the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
(NET Bible)
In his exposition of the rst and the second chapters of St. John, which was written during 1537 and 1538, Luther discusses the questions as to how this account of the cleansing of the Temple is related to that given by the Synoptists. He says: “The first question is as to how the two evangelists, Matthew and John, agree with each other; for Matthew states that it happened on Palm Sunday when the Lord entered Jerusalem, while here in John it is placed some- where in the Easter [Passover] season, soon after the baptism of Christ, just as the miracle in which Christ turned water into wine took place about Easter, after which He journeyed to Capernaum. For He was baptized at Epiphany and he may easily have tarried a short time in Capernaum until Easter and began to preach and did what John here narrates about Easter. But these are questions that remain questions which I will not solve and that do not give me much concern, only there are people so sly and keen that they raise all kinds of questions for which they want to have answers. If one, however, has a correct understanding of Scripture and possesses the true statement of our faith that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has suffered and died for us, it will not be a serious defect if we are not able to answer them. The evangelists do not observe the same order, and what one places first another on occasion places last, just as Mark places the account of this event on the day following Palm Sunday. It is quite possible that the Lord did this more than once, and that John describes the first time and Matthew the second. Let that be as it may, it was before or after; it happened once or twice, in no case does it detract anything from our faith.” (45–46)
–Johann Michael Reu, Luther on the Scriptures
This daily Bible reading guide, Reading the Word of God, was conceived and prepared as a result of the ongoing discussions between representatives of three church bodies: Lutheran Church—Canada (LCC), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). The following individuals have represented their church bodies and approved this introduction and the reading guide: LCC: President Robert Bugbee; NALC: Bishop John Bradosky, Revs. Mark Chavez, James Nestingen, and David Wendel; LCMS: Revs. Albert Collver, Joel Lehenbauer, John Pless, and Larry Vogel.