Joel 1:13–20
1:13 Get dressed and lament, you priests.
Wail, you who minister at the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,
because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple of your God anymore.
14Announce a holy fast;
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
15How awful that day will be!
For the day of the Lord is near;
it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer.
16Our food has been cut off right before our eyes!
There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God.
17The grains of seed have shriveled beneath their shovels.
Storehouses have been decimated,
and granaries have been torn down
because the grain has dried up.
18Listen to the cattle groan!
The herds of livestock wander around in confusion
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19To you, O Lord, I call out for help,
for fire has burned up the pastures of the wilderness,
flames have razed all the trees in the fields.
20Even the wild animals cry out to you,
for the river beds have dried up;
fire has destroyed the pastures of the wilderness.
(NET Bible)Ps. 80
80:1 For the music director, according to the shushan-eduth style; a psalm of Asaph.
O Shepherd of Israel, pay attention,
you who lead Joseph like a flock of sheep.
You who sit enthroned above the cherubim, reveal your splendor.
2In the sight of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh reveal your power.
Come and deliver us.
3O God, restore us.
Smile on us. Then we will be delivered.
4O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,
how long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you?
5You have given them tears as food;
you have made them drink tears by the measure.
6You have made our neighbors dislike us
and our enemies insult us.
7O God of Heaven’s Armies, restore us.
Smile on us. Then we will be delivered.
8You uprooted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out nations and transplanted it.
9You cleared the ground for it;
it took root
and filled the land.
10The mountains were covered by its shadow,
the highest cedars by its branches.
11Its branches reached the Mediterranean Sea,
and its shoots the Euphrates River.
12Why did you break down its walls,
so that all who pass by pluck its fruit?
13The wild boars of the forest ruin it;
the insects of the field feed on it.
14O God of Heaven’s Armies, come back.
Look down from heaven and take notice.
Take care of this vine,
15the root your right hand planted,
the shoot you made to grow.
16It is burned and cut down.
May those who did this die because you are displeased with them.
17May you give support to the one you have chosen,
to the one whom you raised up for yourself.
18Then we will not turn away from you.
Revive us and we will pray to you.
19O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, restore us.
Smile on us. Then we will be delivered.
(NET Bible)Rom. 11:11–24
11:11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. 12Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?
13Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.
17Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, 18do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20Granted! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. 22Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God—harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23And even they—if they do not continue in their unbelief—will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?
(NET Bible)
Here we might add what Luther said in 1528 in his Vom Abendmahl Christi, Bekenntnis … “So we must say that Matthew and Mark have placed after the New Supper what took place after the old Supper and is to be located there. For they were not greatly concerned about the order but were satisfied if they wrote history and truth. Luke, however, who wrote after them, states that the reason for his writing was that many others had written such accounts without regard to the order of events, and that he, therefore, had resolved to write them in proper order.” (47–48)
–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.