Is. 42:1–9
42:1 “Here is my servant whom I support,
my chosen one in whom I take pleasure.
I have placed my Spirit on him;
he will make just decrees for the nations.
2He will not cry out or shout;
he will not publicize himself in the streets.
3A crushed reed he will not break,
a dim wick he will not extinguish;
he will faithfully make just decrees.
4He will not grow dim or be crushed
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait in anticipation for his decrees.”
5This is what the true God, the Lord, says—
the one who created the sky and stretched it out,
the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it,
the one who gives breath to the people on it,
and life to those who live on it:
6“I, the Lord, officially commission you;
I take hold of your hand.
I protect you and make you a covenant mediator for people
and a light to the nations,
7to open blind eyes,
to release prisoners from dungeons,
those who live in darkness from prisons.
8“I am the Lord! That is my name!
I will not share my glory with anyone else
or the praise due me with idols.
9Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass;
now I announce new events.
Before they begin to occur,
I reveal them to you.”
(NET Bible)Ps. 24
24:1 A psalm of David.
The Lord owns the earth and all it contains,
the world and all who live in it.
2For he set its foundation upon the seas,
and established it upon the ocean currents.
3Who is allowed to ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may go up to his holy dwelling place?
4The one whose deeds are blameless
and whose motives are pure,
who does not lie,
or make promises with no intention of keeping them.
5Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord,
and vindicated by the God who delivers them.
6Such purity characterizes the people who seek his favor,
Jacob’s descendants, who pray to him. (Selah)
7Look up, you gates.
Rise up, you eternal doors.
Then the majestic king will enter.
8Who is this majestic king?
The Lord who is strong and mighty.
The Lord who is mighty in battle.
9Look up, you gates.
Rise up, you eternal doors.
Then the majestic king will enter.
10Who is this majestic king?
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
He is the majestic king. (Selah)
(NET Bible)John 11:1–27
11:1 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2(Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” 4When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5(Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.)
6So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days. 7Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?” 9Jesus replied, “Are there not 12 hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. 10But if anyone walks around at night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.”
11After he said this, he added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to awaken him.” 12Then the disciples replied, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13(Now Jesus had been talking about his death, but they thought he had been talking about real sleep.)
14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16So Thomas (called Didymus) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”
17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days already. 18(Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19so many of the Jewish people of the region had come to Martha and Mary to console them over the loss of their brother.) 20So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you.”
23Jesus replied, “Your brother will come back to life again.” 24Martha said, “I know that he will come back to life again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, 26and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world.”
(NET Bible)
In his lectures on the Psalms Luther regards the ex- pressions, “God speaks,” and, “the Scriptures speak,” as convertible [synonymous]. To hear or to read the Scriptures is nothing else than to hear God. They are His sanctuary in which He is present. Therefore we dare not despise one single word of the Scripture for “all its words are weighed, counted, and measured.” The prophets who spoke or wrote the Word were the organs of the Spirit; that is the precious fact that in them God himself is heard. For this reason we read in the Prophets, “The Word of the Lord came to me.” This is the friendliest and most intimate inspiration there is. Every word of the Scriptures must be precious to us because it comes from the mouth of God, is written for us, preserved for us, and will be proclaimed to the end of days. Why in one place we read so and not otherwise can be understood only by him who will permit himself to be guided by God. How unconditionally Luther accepted the authority of the Scriptures is evident from the fact that he is willing to accept things as true and real which in any legend would be rejected as absurd, if they are covered by a word of Scripture. No one should prefer his own opinion to that of the Scripture even if it seems much more plausible. (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.