Is. 29:1–10
29:1 Ariel is as good as dead—
Ariel, the town David besieged!
Keep observing your annual rituals;
celebrate your festivals on schedule.
2I will threaten Ariel,
and she will mourn intensely
and become like an altar hearth before me.
3I will lay siege to you on all sides;
I will besiege you with troops;
I will raise siege works against you.
4You will fall;
while lying on the ground you will speak;
from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard.
Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld;
from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation.
5But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,
the horde of tyrants like chaff that is blown away.
It will happen suddenly, in a flash.
6Judgment will come from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
accompanied by thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,
by a strong gale, a windstorm, and a consuming flame of fire.
7It will be like a dream, a night vision.
There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,
those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.
8It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,
only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty.
It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,
only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched.
So it will be for the horde from all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
9You will be shocked and amazed!
You are totally blind!
They are drunk, but not because of wine;
they stagger, but not because of beer.
10For the Lord has poured out on you
a strong urge to sleep deeply.
He has shut your eyes (you prophets),
and covered your heads (you seers).
(NET Bible)Ps. 5
5:1 For the music director, to be accompanied by wind instruments; a psalm of David.
Listen to what I say, Lord!
Carefully consider my complaint!
2Pay attention to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for I am praying to you!
3Lord, in the morning you will hear me;
in the morning I will present my case to you and then wait expectantly for an answer.
4Certainly you are not a God who approves of evil;
evil people cannot dwell with you.
5Arrogant people cannot stand in your presence;
you hate all who behave wickedly.
6You destroy liars;
the Lord despises violent and deceitful people.
7But as for me, because of your great faithfulness I will enter your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple as I worship you.
8Lord, lead me in your righteousness
because of those who wait to ambush me,
remove the obstacles in the way in which you are guiding me.
9For they do not speak the truth;
their stomachs are like the place of destruction,
their throats like an open grave,
their tongues like a steep slope leading into it.
10Condemn them, O God!
May their own schemes be their downfall.
Drive them away because of their many acts of insurrection,
for they have rebelled against you.
11But may all who take shelter in you be happy.
May they continually shout for joy.
Shelter them so that those who are loyal to you may rejoice.
12Certainly you reward the godly, Lord.
Like a shield you protect them in your good favor.
(NET Bible)John 3:16–36
3:16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 21But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.
22After this, Jesus and his disciples came into Judean territory, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing. 23John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was plentiful there, and people were coming to him and being baptized. 24(For John had not yet been thrown into prison.)
25Now a dispute came about between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew concerning ceremonial washing. 26So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, about whom you testified—see, he is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him!”
27John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but rather, ‘I have been sent before him.’ 29The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete. 30He must become more important while I become less important.”
31The one who comes from above is superior to all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is superior to all. 32He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33The one who has accepted his testimony has confirmed clearly that God is truthful. 34For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly. 35The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority. 36The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him.
(NET Bible)
We know that in 1513, when [Luther] began his lectures on the Psalms, he still operated with the fourfold sense of Scripture, the sensus literalis, allegoricus, tropologicus, and anagogicus, but that already in the course of his lectures he combined three of them into one and occasionally designated the sensus literalis as the sensus primarius scripturae behind which the sensus tropologicus must retreat. In his lectures on Romans, 1515-1516, and on Galatians, 1516-1517, this view becomes increasingly evident, and after 1519 his exposition is entirely controlled by the principle: Scripture has but one meaning, even though in his practical explanations of the Scriptures he still oftentimes pays tribute to the allegorical sense. He now declares in his writing against Emser, “Scripture shall not have a double meaning but shall retain the one that accords with the meaning by the words,” and again, “The Holy Ghost is the most simple author and speaker in heaven and earth, therefore His words cannot have more than one, the most simple meaning.” In his Christmas Postil of 1522 he even writes, “If we concede that Scripture has more than one sense, it loses its fighting force.” (10)
–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.