Ezra 8:1–23
8:1 These are the leaders and those enrolled with them by genealogy who were coming up with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:
2from the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom;
from the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel;
from the descendants of David, Hattush 3the son of Shecaniah;
from the descendants of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him were enrolled by genealogy 150 men;
4from the descendants of Pahath Moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him 200 men;
5from the descendants of Zattu, Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him 300 men;
6from the descendants of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him 50 men;
7from the descendants of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him 70 men;
8from the descendants of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him 80 men;
9from the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men;
10from the descendants of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him 160 men;
11from the descendants of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him 28 men;
12from the descendants of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 men;
13from the descendants of Adonikam there were the latter ones. Their names were Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men;
14from the descendants of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zaccur, and with them 70 men.
15I had them assemble at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there for three days. I observed that the people and the priests were present, but I found no Levites there. 16So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders, and Joiarib and Elnathan, who were teachers. 17I sent them to Iddo, who was the leader in the place called Casiphia. I told them what to say to Iddo and his relatives, who were the temple servants in Casiphia, so they would bring us attendants for the temple of our God.
18Due to the fact that the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us a skilled man, from the descendants of Mahli the son of Levi son of Israel. This man was Sherebiah, who was accompanied by his sons and brothers, 18 men; 19and Hashabiah, along with Jeshaiah from the descendants of Merari, with his brothers and their sons, 20 men; 20and some of the temple servants that David and his officials had established for the work of the Levites—220 of them. They were all designated by name.
21I called for a fast there by the Ahava Canal, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a safe journey for us, our children, and all our property. 22I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had said to the king, “The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger is against everyone who forsakes him.” 23So we fasted and prayed to our God about this, and he answered us.
(NET Bible)Ps. 114
114:1 When Israel left Egypt,
when the family of Jacob left a foreign nation behind,
2Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his kingdom.
3The sea looked and fled;
the Jordan River turned back.
4The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5Why do you flee, O sea?
Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?
6Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
like lambs, O hills?
7Tremble, O earth, before the Lord—
before the God of Jacob,
8who turned a rock into a pool of water,
a hard rock into springs of water.
(NET Bible)1 Peter 1:1–12
1:1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad (in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia) who are chosen 2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with Jesus Christ’s blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure!
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. 7Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold—gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away—and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9because you are attaining the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets who predicted the grace that would come to you searched and investigated carefully. 11They probed into what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent glory. 12They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things angels long to catch a glimpse of.
(NET Bible)That Luther was not ready to admit that there were errors even in the numerical statements of the Bible we see in his exposition of Genesis 11:27, 28: “ is passage is among the most obscure statements of the Old Testament that has caused us many questions, which a diligent reader will encounter here and there in the older and more recent writers.— There is added another fault, that vain spirits hold it very praiseworthy if they can pass unrestricted judgments concerning the difficult and dark statements of Scripture and then can obstinately maintain their opinions. is is a disease of our nature against which an exegete of Holy Scripture should carefully guard himself.” Then he discusses the question as to what, in his opinion, makes these passages so difficult: “The second question is still more difficult, though neither Lyra nor the other teachers have paid attention to it. That in connection with Abraham sixty years are lost for us. For the reckoning the text brings with itself is easy. Terah was seventy years when he begot Abraham, now Abraham, when he was seventy five years old, left Haran, where Terah had died. If you add these together you will have 145 years. But when the account reckons together the years of Terah, it shows clearly that when he died he had lived 205 years. The question is, therefore, as to how we can account for these years. It would be unfitting to follow the example of audacious people who, when they arrive at such difficulties, immediately dare to correct books written by others. For my part I do not know how I should correctly solve the questions though I have carefully reckoned together the years of the world. So with a humble and proper confession of ignorance (for it is the Holy Ghost who alone knows and understands all things) I conclude that God, because of a certain plan of His own, caused seventy years to be lost out of Abraham’s life so that no one would venture from the exact computation of the years of the world to presume to predict something certain concerning the end of the world.” This hypothesis (because Luther does not express his opinion) may appear even absurd to us moderns, but it will not seem so absurd if we recall that at that time it was customary to place the age of the world at six thousand years, but Luther risks this hypothetical reckoning rather than to admit an error in the Biblical figure. He does not even consider the possibility of such an error. (52)
–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.