Home > Reading > Daily Reading – November 9, 2018

Job 41 (ESV)

41  “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
or press down his tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak to you soft words?
Will he make a covenant with you
to take him for your servant forever?
Will you play with him as with a bird,
or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
Will traders bargain over him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
Can you fill his skin with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
Lay your hands on him;
remember the battle—you will not do it again!
Behold, the hope of a man is false;
he is laid low even at the sight of him.
10  No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand before me?
11  Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12  “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
13  Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who would come near him with a bridle?
14  Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
15  His back is made of rows of shields,
shut up closely as with a seal.
16  One is so near to another
that no air can come between them.
17  They are joined one to another;
they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18  His sneezings flash forth light,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
19  Out of his mouth go flaming torches;
sparks of fire leap forth.
20  Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,
as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21  His breath kindles coals,
and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
22  In his neck abides strength,
and terror dances before him.
23  The folds of his flesh stick together,
firmly cast on him and immovable.
24  His heart is hard as a stone,
hard as the lower millstone.
25  When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid;
at the crashing they are beside themselves.
26  Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,
nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27  He counts iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
28  The arrow cannot make him flee;
for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.
29  Clubs are counted as stubble;
he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
30  His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31  He makes the deep boil like a pot;
he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32  Behind him he leaves a shining wake;
one would think the deep to be white-haired.
33  On earth there is not his like,
a creature without fear.
34  He sees everything that is high;
he is king over all the sons of pride.”

Psalm 119:25–32 (ESV)

DALETH

25  My soul clings to the dust;
give me life according to your word!

26  When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!

27  Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

28  My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!

29  Put false ways far from me
and graciously teach me your law!

30  I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your rules before me.

31  I cling to your testimonies, O Lord;
let me not be put to shame!

32  I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!

Luke 21:10–24 (ESV)

Jesus Foretells Wars and Persecution

10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Jesus Foretells Destruction of Jerusalem

20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

No matter how emphatically Luther emphasized the inerrancy and the consistency of the original text of Holy Scripture as the work of the Holy Ghost, he is also, on the other hand, convinced of the personal cooperation of the original authors. They are not, in his opinion, mechanical instruments and dead machines, mere amanuenses who set down on paper only what was dictated to them by the Spirit of God. He regarded them rather as independent instruments of the Spirit who spoke their faith, their heart, their thoughts; who put their entire will and feeling into the words to such an extent that from what Luther reads in each case he draws conclusions concerning the character and the temperament of the authors. So [according to Luther] the Prophet Joel reveals himself in his writing as a “gracious and gentle man, who does not scold and censure like the other prophets but implores and bewails.” Amos, on the other hand, is “violent, scolding almost all the way through his book, so that he is well called, Amos, that is a burden or what is burdensome and vexatious”; and he explains this as being due to his calling and from the fact that he was sent as a “stranger” from the Kingdom of Judah to the Kingdom of Israel, for, he continues, “because he is a shepherd and not one of the order of the prophets, as he says in the seventh chapter, moreover, he goes from the branch of Judah, from Tekoa, into the Kingdom of Israel and preaches there as a stranger.” Of Jeremiah, however, Luther says that he is always afraid that he censures too much, for which reason he compares him with Philip Melanchthon. In Paul he observes the deepest emotion because of his writings and can say of his words, “these words are violent above mea- sure, from which it is easy to see that he was much more violently moved than he was able to express in words.” Yes, he adds, “So it has come about that St. Paul under the influence of his intense thought could not control his own word so well, and his speech has become somewhat disordered and peculiar.” (60)

–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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