2 Chron. 33:10–34:7
33:10 The Lord confronted Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 11So the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria. They seized Manasseh, put hooks in his nose, bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon. 12In his pain Manasseh asked the Lord his God for mercy and truly humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. 13When he prayed to the Lord, the Lord responded to him and answered favorably his cry for mercy. The Lord brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh realized that the Lord is the true God.
14After this Manasseh built up the outer wall of the City of David on the west side of the Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate and all around the terrace; he made it much higher. He placed army officers in all the fortified cities in Judah.
15He removed the foreign gods and images from the Lord’s temple and all the altars he had built on the hill of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem; he threw them outside the city. 16He erected the altar of the Lord and offered on it peace offerings and thank offerings. He told the people of Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17However, the people continued to offer sacrifices at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
18The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the prophets spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 19The Annals of the Prophets include his prayer, give an account of how the Lord responded to it, record all his sins and unfaithful acts, and identify the sites where he built high places and erected Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself. 20Manasseh passed away and was buried in his palace. His son Amon replaced him as king.
21Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. 22He did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh had done. Amon offered sacrifices to all the idols his father Manasseh had made and worshiped them. 23He did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done. Amon was guilty of great sin. 24His servants conspired against him and killed him in his palace. 25The people of the land executed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2He did what the Lord approved and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; he did not deviate to the right or the left.
3In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David. In his twelfth year he began ridding Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, Asherah poles, idols, and images. 4He ordered the altars of the Baals to be torn down and broke the incense altars that were above them. He smashed the Asherah poles, idols, and images, crushed them, and sprinkled the dust over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them. 5He burned the bones of the pagan priests on their altars; he purified Judah and Jerusalem. 6In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, 7he tore down the altars and Asherah poles, demolished the idols, and smashed all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
(NET Bible)Ps. 108
108:1 A song, a psalm of David.
I am determined, O God.
I will sing and praise you with my whole heart.
2Awake, O stringed instrument and harp.
I will wake up at dawn.
3I will give you thanks before the nations, O Lord.
I will sing praises to you before foreigners.
4For your loyal love extends beyond the sky,
and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.
5Rise up above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.
6Deliver by your power and answer me,
so that the ones you love may be safe.
7God has spoken in his sanctuary:
“I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem;
the Valley of Sukkoth I will measure off.
8Gilead belongs to me,
as does Manasseh.
Ephraim is my helmet,
Judah my royal scepter.
9Moab is my washbasin.
I will make Edom serve me.
I will shout in triumph over Philistia.”
10Who will lead me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me to Edom?
11Have you not rejected us, O God?
O God, you do not go into battle with our armies.
12Give us help against the enemy,
for any help men might offer is futile.
13By God’s power we will conquer;
he will trample down our enemies.
(NET Bible)Luke 17:20–37
17:20 Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 21nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
22Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23Then people will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them. 24For just like the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 27People were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage—right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 29but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day, anyone who is on the roof, with his goods in the house, must not come down to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. 32Remember Lot’s wife! 33Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35There will be two women grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
37Then the disciples said to him, “Where, Lord?” He replied to them, “Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.”
(NET Bible)Wilhelm Walther truthfully says: “It never entered the mind of Luther to deny all authority in the Church. Rather, by dethroning the mass of false authorities to which men bowed during the Catholic period, he enthroned another authority as the only one duly authenticated. Indeed, only to this end did he militate against the infallibility of the Church Fathers, Popes, Councils, and universities with such force, to make room for the ‘Empress’ who alone is worthy of all sovereignty, the Holy Scripture. Anyone to whom this must rst be proved lacks even elementary knowledge in the eld of the history of the Reformation. (19)
–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.