Is. 42:10–25
42:10 Sing to the Lord a brand new song!
Praise him from the horizon of the earth,
you who go down to the sea and everything that lives in it,
you coastlands and those who live there.
11Let the wilderness and its cities shout out,
the towns where the nomads of Kedar live.
Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully;
let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.
12Let them give the Lord the honor he deserves;
let them praise his deeds in the coastlands.
13The Lord emerges like a hero,
like a warrior he inspires himself for battle;
he shouts, yes, he yells,
he shows his enemies his power.
14“I have been inactive for a long time;
I kept quiet and held back.
Like a woman in labor I groan;
I pant and gasp.
15I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up;
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands
and dry up pools of water.
16I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way;
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled.
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light
and level out the rough ground.
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
17Those who trust in idols
will turn back and be utterly humiliated,
those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’
18“Listen, you deaf ones!
Take notice, you blind ones!
19My servant is truly blind,
my messenger is truly deaf.
My covenant partner, the servant of the Lord, is truly blind.
20You see many things, but don’t comprehend;
their ears are open, but do not hear.”
21The Lord wanted to exhibit his justice
by magnifying his law and displaying it.
22But these people are looted and plundered;
all of them are trapped in pits
and held captive in prisons.
They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them;
they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, “Bring that back!”
23Who among you will pay attention to this?
Who will listen attentively in the future?
24Who handed Jacob over to the robber?
Who handed Israel over to the looters?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?
They refused to follow his commands;
they disobeyed his law.
25So he poured out his fierce anger on them,
along with the devastation of war.
Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it;
it burned against them, but they did not take it to heart.
(NET Bible)Ps. 25
25:1 By David.
O Lord, I come before you in prayer.
2My God, I trust in you.
Please do not let me be humiliated;
do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me.
3Certainly none who rely on you will be humiliated.
Those who deal in treachery will be thwarted and humiliated.
4Make me understand your ways, O Lord.
Teach me your paths.
5Guide me into your truth and teach me.
For you are the God who delivers me;
on you I rely all day long.
6Remember your compassionate and faithful deeds, O Lord,
for you have always acted in this manner.
7Do not hold against me the sins of my youth or my rebellious acts.
Because you are faithful to me, extend to me your favor, O Lord.
8The Lord is both kind and fair;
that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live.
9May he show the humble what is right.
May he teach the humble his way.
10The Lord always proves faithful and reliable
to those who follow the demands of his covenant.
11For the sake of your reputation, O Lord,
forgive my sin, because it is great.
12The Lord shows his faithful followers
the way they should live.
13They experience his favor;
their descendants inherit the land.
14The Lord’s loyal followers receive his guidance,
and he reveals his covenantal demands to them.
15I continually look to the Lord for help,
for he will free my feet from the enemy’s net.
16Turn toward me and have mercy on me,
for I am alone and oppressed.
17Deliver me from my distress;
rescue me from my suffering.
18See my pain and suffering.
Forgive all my sins.
19Watch my enemies, for they outnumber me;
they hate me and want to harm me.
20Protect me and deliver me!
Please do not let me be humiliated,
for I have taken shelter in you.
21May integrity and godliness protect me,
for I rely on you.
22O God, rescue Israel
from all their distress!
(NET Bible)John 11:28–44
11:28 And when she had said this, Martha went and called her sister Mary, saying privately, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” 29So when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30(Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still in the place where Martha had come out to meet him.) 31Then the people who were with Mary in the house consoling her saw her get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep there.
32Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the people who had come with her weeping, he was intensely moved in spirit and greatly distressed. 34He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They replied, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36Thus the people who had come to mourn said, “Look how much he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “This is the man who caused the blind man to see! Couldn’t he have done something to keep Lazarus from dying?”
38Jesus, intensely moved again, came to the tomb. (Now it was a cave, and a stone was placed across it.) 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, replied, “Lord, by this time the body will have a bad smell because he has been buried four days.” 40Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. 42I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”
(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.