Daily Lectionary

January 9, 2019

January 8, 2019 January 10, 2019

These daily readings from the EHV follow the one-year daily lectionary provided in Christian Worship: Hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book, and the Treasury of Daily Prayer. In this lectionary, two readings of 15-25 verses each are provided for each day. Under this plan, nearly all of the New Testament and approximately one-third of the Old Testament are read each year. These readings fit well within the daily offices of Matins, Vespers, or Compline as daily family devotions.

Ezekiel 3:12-27

¹²Then the Spirit^[] lifted me up, and I heard a loud rushing sound behind me—Blessed be the Glory of the Lord in its dwelling place!— ¹³It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures beating against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. ¹⁴The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and so I went, bitter and heated in my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was upon me with power. ¹⁵I came to the exiles at Tel Aviv, who were living by the Kebar Canal—there where they were living.^[] I sat among them for seven days—stunned.

¹⁶At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me and said:

¹⁷Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me. ¹⁸When I announce to a wicked man, “You shall surely die,” if you do not warn him, and you do not speak up to warn the wicked man against his wicked way so that he can live, then that wicked man will die because of his guilt, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹But you, if you warn the wicked man, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die because of his guilt, but you will have saved your own life. ²⁰Or when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and becomes unrighteous, and I place a stumbling block in front of him, he shall die. If you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he had done will not be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹But you, if you do warn that righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall certainly live because he heeded the warning, and you will have saved your own life.

²²Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the center of the river valley, and there I will speak with you.” ²³So I got up and went out to the center of the valley, and suddenly there it was! The Glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the Glory that I had seen by the Kebar Canal, and I fell on my face. ²⁴But the Spirit entered into me and brought me to my feet.

Then he spoke to me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up inside your house. ²⁵And this is what will happen to you, son of man. They will certainly place ropes upon you and tie you up with them, so that you will not be able to go out among them. ²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so that you will be speechless, and you will not be able to rebuke^[] them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷But whenever I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ Whoever listens, let him listen. Whoever refuses to listen, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.”

Romans 2:1-16

God Will Judge What Each Person Does

2¹Therefore, you are without excuse, every one of you who judges someone else, because by judging the other person you also condemn yourself, since you, who are judging, are doing the very same things. ²And we know that God's judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.

³Are you thinking that you will escape God's judgment, you who judge those who do such things and then do the same things yourself? ⁴Or do you have so little regard for his rich kindness, his restraint, and his patience, that you ignore the fact that the purpose of God's kindness is to lead you to repentance? ⁵As a result of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God will reveal his righteous judgment.

⁶God will repay each person according to what he has done^[]— ⁷eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality by persisting in doing what is good, ⁸but furious anger to those who out of selfish ambition are disobeying what is true and obeying what is wrong. ⁹There will be trouble and distress for the soul of every person who does what is evil—for the Jew first and for the Greek— ¹⁰but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good—for the Jew first and for the Greek. ¹¹For God does not show favoritism.

¹²Indeed, all people who have sinned without law will also perish without law, and all the people who have sinned in connection with law will be judged by law. ¹³For it is not those who hear the law who will be righteous in God's sight, but those who do the law who will be declared righteous.

¹⁴In fact, whenever Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires—even though they do not have the law—they are a law for themselves. ¹⁵They demonstrate the work of the law that is written in their hearts, since their conscience also bears witness as their thoughts go back and forth, at times accusing or at times even defending them.

¹⁶This will happen on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people's secrets through Jesus Christ.