Hab. 1:12–2:1
1:12 Lord, you have been active from ancient times;
my sovereign God, you are immortal.
Lord, you have made them your instrument of judgment.
Protector, you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment.
13You are too just to tolerate evil;
you are unable to condone wrongdoing.
So why do you put up with such treacherous people?
Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour those more righteous than they are?
14You made people like fish in the sea,
like animals in the sea that have no ruler.
15The Babylonian tyrant pulls them all up with a fishhook;
he hauls them in with his throw net.
When he catches them in his dragnet,
he is very happy.
16Because of his success he offers sacrifices to his throw net
and burns incense to his dragnet;
for because of them he has plenty of food
and more than enough to eat.
17Will he then continue to fill and empty his throw net?
Will he always destroy nations and spare none?
2:1 I will stand at my watch post;
I will remain stationed on the city wall.
I will keep watching so I can see what he says to me
and can know how I should answer
when he counters my argument.
(NET Bible)Ps. 117
117:1 Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Applaud him, all you foreigners.
2For his loyal love towers over us,
and the Lord’s faithfulness endures.
Praise the Lord.
(NET Bible)Luke 20:27–40
20:27 Now some Sadducees (who contend that there is no resurrection) came to him. 28They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, that man must marry the widow and father children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died without children. 30The second 31and then the third married her, and in this same way all seven died, leaving no children. 32Finally the woman died too. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For all seven had married her.”
34So Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are regarded as worthy to share in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36In fact, they can no longer die because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection. 37But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live before him.” 39Then some of the experts in the law answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well!” 40For they did not dare any longer to ask him anything.
(NET Bible)On April 28, thus ten days later [a er Worms], [Luther] wrote his well-known letter to Emperor Charles. … “But I, who was always humble and zealously ready to do and to suffer all that in me lay, could not obtain this one concession, this most Christian prayer, that the Word of God should remain free and unbound, and that I should submit my books to your Sacred Majesty and the Estates of the Empire on that condition, nor that in yielding to the decree of a Council I should not submit to anything contrary to the gospel of God, nor should they make any such decree. is was the crux of the whole controversy.” Luther then continues: “For God, the searcher of hearts, is my witness that I am most ready to submit to and obey your Majesty either in life or in death, to glory or to shame, for gain or for loss. As I have o ered myself, thus I do now, excepting nothing save the Word of God, in which not only (as Christ teaches in Matthew 4) does man live, but which also the angels of Christ desire to see (I Peter 1). As it is above all things it ought to be held free and unbound in all, as Paul teaches (II Timothy 2:9). It ought not to depend on human judgment nor to yield to the opinion of men, no matter how great, how numerous, how learned, and how holy they are. Thus does St. Paul in Galatians. I dare to exclaim with emphasis, ‘If we or an angel from heaven teach you another gospel, let him be anathema,’ and David says, ‘Put not your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom is no safety,’ Ps. 146:3. Nor is anyone able to trust in himself, as Solomon says, ‘He is a fool who trusts in his heart’; Prov. 28:26, and Jeremiah 17, ‘Cursed is he who trusteth in man’ … For to trust in man in matters of salvation is to give to the creature the glory due to the creator alone.” (20–21)
–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.