Home > Reading > Daily Reading – August 14, 2019

2 Kings 13:14–25

13:14 Now Elisha had a terminal illness. King Jehoash of Israel went down to visit him. He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” 15Elisha told him, “Take a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. 16Then Elisha told the king of Israel, “Aim the bow.” He did so, and Elisha placed his hands on the king’s hands. 17Elisha said, “Open the east window,” and he did so. Elisha said, “Shoot!” and he did so. Elisha said, “This arrow symbolizes the victory the Lord will give you over Syria. You will annihilate Syria in Aphek!” 18Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows,” and he did so. He told the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” He struck the ground three times and stopped. 19The prophet got angry at him and said, “If you had struck the ground five or six times, you would have annihilated Syria! But now, you will defeat Syria only three times.”

20Elisha died and was buried. Moabite raiding parties invaded the land at the beginning of the year. 21One day some men were burying a man when they spotted a raiding party. So they threw the dead man into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man came to life and stood on his feet.

22Now King Hazael of Syria oppressed Israel throughout Jehoahaz’s reign. 23But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them. He extended his favor to them because of the promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day. 24When King Hazael of Syria died, his son Ben Hadad replaced him as king. 25Jehoahaz’s son Jehoash took back from Ben Hadad son of Hazael the cities that he had taken from his father Jehoahaz in war. Jehoash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite cities.

(NET Bible)

Ps. 43

43:1 Vindicate me, O God!

Fight for me against an ungodly nation.

Deliver me from deceitful and evil men.

2For you are the God who shelters me.

Why do you reject me?

Why must I walk around mourning

because my enemies oppress me?

3Reveal your light and your faithfulness.

They will lead me;

they will escort me back to your holy hill,

and to the place where you live.

4Then I will go to the altar of God,

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy,

so that I may express my thanks to you, O God, my God, with a harp.

5Why are you depressed, O my soul?

Why are you upset?

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention.

(NET Bible)

Matt. 21:28–44

21:28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29The boy answered, ‘I will not.’ But later he had a change of heart and went. 30The father went to the other son and said the same thing. This boy answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go. 31Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God! 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe. Although you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

33“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. 34When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop. 35But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 37Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 39So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43“For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” (NET Bible)

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

Here (II Samuel 23:2, ‘The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue’) it becomes too marvelous and soars too high for me. God grant that I may at least partially attain to it, for he here begins to speak of the Holy Triune essence of the divine Godhead. First he mentions the Holy Ghost; to Him he ascribes all that the prophets foretell. It is these and similar statements to which St. Peter refers in the II Epistle 1:21, ‘For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, etc … ’Therefore we sing in the Creed, concerning the Holy Ghost, ‘Who spake by the Prophets.’ So we refer all of Scripture to the Holy Ghost.” In the same way he refers to Dan. 7:13, 14. “So it is the Spirit who speaks through Daniel, for such secret thing no one could know if the Holy Ghost had not revealed it through the prophets as we have frequently said before, that Holy Scripture has been spoken by the Holy Ghost.” (36–37)

–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.

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