Home > Reading > Daily Reading – January 8, 2020

Is. 30:1–7

30:1 “The rebellious children are as good as dead,” says the Lord,

“those who make plans without consulting me,

who form alliances without consulting my Spirit,

and thereby compound their sin.

2They travel down to Egypt

without seeking my will,

seeking Pharaoh’s protection,

and looking for safety in Egypt’s protective shade.

3But Pharaoh’s protection will bring you nothing but shame

and the safety of Egypt’s protective shade nothing but humiliation.

4Though his officials are in Zoan

and his messengers arrive at Hanes,

5all will be put to shame

because of a nation that cannot help them,

who cannot give them aid or help,

but only shame and disgrace.”

6This is an oracle about the animals in the Negev:

Through a land of distress and danger,

inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions,

by snakes and darting adders,

they transport their wealth on the backs of donkeys,

their riches on the humps of camels,

to a nation that cannot help them.

7Egypt is totally incapable of helping.

For this reason I call her

“Proud one who is silenced.”

(NET Bible)

Ps. 7

7:1 A musical composition by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning a Benjaminite named Cush.

O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter.

Deliver me from all who chase me. Rescue me!

2Otherwise they will rip me to shreds like a lion;

they will tear me to bits and no one will be able to rescue me.

3O Lord my God, if I have done what they say,

or am guilty of unjust actions,

4or have wronged my ally,

or helped his lawless enemy,

5may an enemy relentlessly chase me and catch me;

may he trample me to death

and leave me lying dishonored in the dust. (Selah)

6Stand up angrily, Lord.

Rise up with raging fury against my enemies.

Wake up for my sake, and execute the judgment you have decreed for them.

7The countries are assembled all around you;

take once more your rightful place over them.

8The Lord judges the nations.

Vindicate me, Lord, because I am innocent,

because I am blameless, O Exalted One.

9May the evil deeds of the wicked come to an end.

But make the innocent secure,

O righteous God,

you who examine inner thoughts and motives.

10The Exalted God is my shield,

the one who delivers the morally upright.

11God is a just judge;

he is angry throughout the day.

12If a person does not repent, God will wield his sword.

He has prepared to shoot his bow.

13He has prepared deadly weapons to use against him;

he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows.

14See the one who is pregnant with wickedness,

who conceives destructive plans,

and gives birth to harmful lies—

15he digs a pit

and then falls into the hole he has made.

16He becomes the victim of his own destructive plans—

and the violence he intended for others falls on his own head.

17I will thank the Lord for his justice;

I will sing praises to the Lord Most High!

(NET Bible)

John 4:16–45

4:16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” 17The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. 23But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. 24God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

27Now at that very moment his disciples came back. They were shocked because he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you speaking with her?” 28Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah, can he?” 30So they left the town and began coming to him.

31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. 35Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest! 36The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

39Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking him to stay with them. He stayed there two days, 41and because of his word many more believed. 42They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world.”

43After the two days he departed from there to Galilee. 44(For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the feast (for they themselves had gone to the feast).

(NET Bible)

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

We know that in 1513, when [Luther] began his lectures on the Psalms, he still operated with the fourfold sense of Scripture, the sensus literalisallegoricustropologicus, 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.

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