Home > Reading > Daily Reading – October 11, 2020

Ezek. 39

39:1 “As for you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! 2I will turn you around and drag you along; I will lead you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. 3I will knock your bow out of your left hand and make your arrows fall from your right hand. 4You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the people who are with you. I give you as food to every kind of bird and every wild beast. 5You will fall dead in the open field; for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. 6I will send fire on Magog and those who live securely in the coastlands; then they will know that I am the Lord.

7“‘I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 8Realize that it is coming and it will be done, declares the Sovereign Lord. It is the day I have spoken about.

9“‘Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and use the weapons for kindling—the shields, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears—they will burn them for seven years. 10They will not need to take wood from the field or cut down trees from the forests because they will make fires with the weapons. They will take the loot from those who looted them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them, declares the Sovereign Lord.

11“‘On that day I will assign Gog a grave in Israel. It will be the valley of those who travel east of the sea; it will block the way of the travelers. There they will bury Gog and all his horde; they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. 12For seven months Israel will bury them, in order to cleanse the land. 13All the people of the land will bury them, and it will be a memorial for them on the day I magnify myself, declares the Sovereign Lord. 14They will designate men to scout continually through the land, burying those who remain on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. They will search for seven full months. 15When the scouts survey the land and see a human bone, they will place a sign by it, until those assigned to burial duty have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog. 16(A city by the name of Hamonah will also be there.) They will cleanse the land.’

17“As for you, son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Tell every kind of bird and every wild beast: ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my slaughter that I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood. 18You will eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan. 19You will eat fat until you are full and drink blood until you are drunk at my slaughter that I have made for you. 20You will fill up at my table with horses and charioteers, with warriors and all the soldiers,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.

21“I will display my majesty among the nations. All the nations will witness the judgment I have executed and the power I have exhibited among them. 22Then the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. 23The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity, for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword. 24According to their uncleanness and rebellion I have dealt with them, and I hid my face from them.

25“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name. 26They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid. 27When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. 28Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I sent them into exile among the nations and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile any longer. 29I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

(NET Bible)

Ps. 100

100:1 A thanksgiving psalm.

Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!

2Worship the Lord with joy.

Enter his presence with joyful singing.

3Acknowledge that the Lord is God.

He made us and we belong to him,

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise.

Give him thanks.

Praise his name.

5For the Lord is good.

His loyal love endures,

and he is faithful through all generations.

(NET Bible)

Heb. 10:1–10

10:1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. 2For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin? 3But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5So when he came into the world, he said,

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

6Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in.

7Then I said, ‘Here I am: I have come—it is written of me in the scroll of the book—to do your will, O God.’”

8When he says above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you did not desire nor did you take delight in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first to establish the second. 10By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (NET Bible)

Even in the introduction [to his lectures on Galatians delivered between 1535 and 1545] Luther discussed how the six days of creation are to be understood. He recalls that Hilary and Augustine, these two great lights of the church, were of the opinion that the world was created suddenly and not gradually in the course of six days. Then he opposes this view and writes: “Because we are not sufficiently able to understand how these days occurred nor why God wished to observe such distinctions of times, we shall rather admit our ignorance than attempt to twist the words unnecessarily into an unnatural meaning. As far, therefore, as St. Augustine’s opinion is concerned, we hold that Moses spoke literally not allegorically or figuratively, that is, the world and all its creatures was created within the six days as the words declare. Because we are not able to comprehend we shall remain disciples and leave the instructorship to the Holy Ghost.” (51)

–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.

Learn More