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Job 7 (ESV)

Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope

“Has not man a hard service on earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
and come to their end without hope.

“Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
As the cloud fades and vanishes,
so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
10  he returns no more to his house,
nor does his place know him anymore.

11  “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12  Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
that you set a guard over me?
13  When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint,’
14  then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15  so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than my bones.
16  I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
17  What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
18  visit him every morning
and test him every moment?
19  How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
20  If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
21  Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

Psalm 92 (ESV)

How Great Are Your Works

92 A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

How great are your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep!

The stupid man cannot know;
the fool cannot understand this:

that though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever;

but you, O Lord, are on high forever.

For behold, your enemies, O Lord,
for behold, your enemies shall perish;
all evildoers shall be scattered.

10  But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
you have poured over me fresh oil.

11  My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

12  The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13  They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.

14  They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,

15  to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Luke 9:1–9 (ESV)

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Herod Is Perplexed by Jesus

Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen. Herod said, “John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he sought to see him.

In the passage cited above, that is taken from the Exposition of the First and Second Chapter of John, 1537 and 1538, there is the statement: “But these are questions that remain questions which I will not solve and that do not give me much concern, only there are people so sly and keen that they raise all kinds of questions for which they want to have answers. If one, however, has a correct understanding of Scripture and possesses the true statement of our faith that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has suffered and died for us, it will not be a serious defect if we are not able to answer them.” And following this: “When discrepancies occur in Holy Scripture (namely concerning such chronological questions as these: how many years Jesus taught openly, how the account of the Temple cleansing in John agrees with Matthew, and similar questions) and
we cannot harmonize them, let it pass, it does not endanger the article of the Christian faith.” In these statements Luther does not say that it is a matter of indi erence to him whether they contain errors or not but only that his faith would not be endangered, if, in spite of his best efforts, he would be unable to solve the apparent contradictions or to prove the inconsequence of all skeptical questions. He dismisses the matter if he cannot prove it conclusively, but his inability to do so neither commits him to the opinion that these passages really contain error, nor is his faith in salvation thereby imperiled. (49–50)

–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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