Home > Reading > Daily Reading – January 22, 2020

Is. 40:9–23

40:9 Go up on a high mountain, O herald Zion.

Shout out loudly, O herald Jerusalem!

Shout, don’t be afraid!

Say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10Look, the Sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior;

his military power establishes his rule.

Look, his reward is with him;

his prize goes before him.

11Like a shepherd he tends his flock;

he gathers up the lambs with his arm;

he carries them close to his heart;

he leads the ewes along.

12Who has measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or carefully measured the sky,

or carefully weighed the soil of the earth,

or weighed the mountains in a balance,

or the hills on scales?

13Who comprehends the mind of the Lord,

or gives him instruction as his counselor?

14From whom does he receive directions?

Who teaches him the correct way to do things,

or imparts knowledge to him,

or instructs him in skillful design?

15Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales.

He lifts the coastlands as if they were dust.

16Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice;

its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings.

17All the nations are insignificant before him;

they are regarded as absolutely nothing.

18To whom can you compare God?

To what image can you liken him?

19A craftsman casts an idol;

a metalsmith overlays it with gold

and forges silver chains for it.

20To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot;

he then seeks a skilled craftsman

to make an idol that will not fall over.

21Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been told to you since the very beginning?

Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?

22He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon;

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him.

He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain,

and spreads it out like a pitched tent.

23He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing;

he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.

(NET Bible)

Ps. 20

20:1 For the music director, a psalm of David.

May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble;

may the God of Jacob make you secure.

2May he send you help from his temple;

from Zion may he give you support.

3May he take notice of all your offerings;

may he accept your burnt sacrifice. (Selah)

4May he grant your heart’s desire;

may he bring all your plans to pass.

5Then we will shout for joy over your victory;

we will rejoice in the name of our God.

May the Lord grant all your requests.

6Now I am sure that the Lord will deliver his chosen king;

he will intervene for him from his holy, heavenly temple,

and display his mighty ability to deliver.

7Some trust in chariots and others in horses,

but we depend on the Lord our God.

8They will fall down,

but we will stand firm.

9The Lord will deliver the king;

he will answer us when we call to him for help!

(NET Bible)

John 9:1–23

9:1 Now as Jesus was passing by, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man or his parents?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him. 4We must perform the deeds of the one who sent me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6Having said this, he spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man’s eyes 7and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing.

8Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some people said, “This is the man!” while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” The man himself kept insisting, “I am the one!” 10So they asked him, “How then were you made to see?” 11He replied, “The man called Jesus made mud, smeared it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and was able to see.” 12They said to him, “Where is that man?” He replied, “I don’t know.”

13They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 14(Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and caused him to see was a Sabbath.) 15So the Pharisees asked him again how he had gained his sight. He replied, “He put mud on my eyes and I washed, and now I am able to see.”

16Then some of the Pharisees began to say, “This man is not from God because he does not observe the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such miraculous signs?” Thus there was a division among them. 17So again they asked the man who used to be blind, “What do you say about him, since he caused you to see?” “He is a prophet,” the man replied.

18Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see. 19They asked the parents, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20So his parents replied, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. Ask him, he is a mature adult. He will speak for himself.” 22(His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23For this reason his parents said, “He is a mature adult, ask him.”)

(NET Bible)

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

Luther’s Lectures on the Psalms, 1513-1515, contain many declarations concerning the Scriptures. “What pasture is to the beast …, the nest for the birds, the stream for fish, the Scriptures are for believing souls. To the arrogant, of course, they are a stumbling block; he will have nothing to do with them, since they offer him nothing. But to him who approaches the Scriptures with humility they open themselves and themselves produce humility, change man from a desperate sinner into a child of God. They give everything which the soul needs, and it is to tempt God, if anyone will not be satisfied with the Scriptures. They are the fountain from which one must dip. Each word of the same is a source which affords an inexhaustible abundance of water to everyone who thirsts after the saving doctrine. God’s will is completely contained therein, so that we must constantly go back to them. Nothing should be presented which is not confirmed by the authority of both Testaments and agrees with them. It cannot be otherwise, for the Scriptures are divine; in them God speaks and they are His Word.” (13–14)

–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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