Ezek. 4
4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. 2Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp against it! Post soldiers outside it and station battering rams around it. 3Then for your part take an iron frying pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4“Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 5I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days for you—390 days. So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6“When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days—I have assigned one day for each year. 7You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 8Look here: I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege.
9“As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, put them in a single container, and make food from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side—390 days—you will eat it. 10The food you eat will be eight ounces a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed times. 11And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; you must drink it at fixed times. 12And you must eat the food as you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” 13And the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations where I will banish them.”
14And I said, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”
15So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”
16Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply in Jerusalem. They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 17because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity.
(NET Bible)Ps. 66
66:1 For the music director, a song, a psalm.
Shout out praise to God, all the earth!
2Sing praises about the majesty of his reputation.
Give him the honor he deserves!
3Say to God:
“How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear before you.
4All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you.
They sing praises to your name.” (Selah)
5Come and witness God’s exploits!
His acts on behalf of people are awesome.
6He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
Let us rejoice in him there.
7He rules by his power forever;
he watches the nations.
Stubborn rebels should not exalt themselves. (Selah)
8Praise our God, you nations.
Loudly proclaim his praise.
9He preserves our lives
and does not allow our feet to slip.
10For you, O God, tested us;
you purified us like refined silver.
11You led us into a trap;
you caused us to suffer.
12You allowed men to ride over our heads;
we passed through fire and water,
but you brought us out into a wide open place.
13I will enter your temple with burnt sacrifices;
I will fulfill the vows I made to you,
14which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.
15I will offer up to you fattened animals as burnt sacrifices,
along with the smell of sacrificial rams.
I will offer cattle and goats. (Selah)
16Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God.
I will declare what he has done for me.
17I cried out to him for help
and praised him with my tongue.
18If I had harbored sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19However, God heard;
he listened to my prayer.
20God deserves praise,
for he did not reject my prayer
or abandon his love for me.
(NET Bible)1 Tim. 1:1–11
1:1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2to Timothy, my genuine child in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord!
3As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings, 4nor to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith. 5But the aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 6Some have strayed from these and turned away to empty discussion. 7They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently.
8But we know that the law is good if someone uses it legitimately, 9realizing that law is not intended for a righteous person, but for lawless and rebellious people, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10sexually immoral people, practicing homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers—in fact, for any who live contrary to sound teaching. 11This accords with the glorious gospel of the blessed God that was entrusted to me.
(NET Bible)In his exposition of the rst and the second chapters of St. John, which was written during 1537 and 1538, Luther discusses the questions as to how this account of the cleansing of the Temple is related to that given by the Synoptists. He says: “The first question is as to how the two evangelists, Matthew and John, agree with each other; for Matthew states that it happened on Palm Sunday when the Lord entered Jerusalem, while here in John it is placed some- where in the Easter [Passover] season, soon after the baptism of Christ, just as the miracle in which Christ turned water into wine took place about Easter, after which He journeyed to Capernaum. For He was baptized at Epiphany and he may easily have tarried a short time in Capernaum until Easter and began to preach and did what John here narrates about Easter. 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. The evangelists do not observe the same order, and what one places first another on occasion places last, just as Mark places the account of this event on the day following Palm Sunday. It is quite possible that the Lord did this more than once, and that John describes the first time and Matthew the second. Let that be as it may, it was before or after; it happened once or twice, in no case does it detract anything from our faith.” (45–46)
–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.