The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

January 16, 2019

January 15, 2019 January 17, 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 38:1-23

In the Latter Days, Gog Will Attack Israel
But Will Be Defeated by the Lord
381The word of the Lord came to me.
2Son of man, set your face against Gog from the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh,[] Meshek, and Tubal,[] and prophesy against him 3and say this.
This is what the Lord God says. I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshek, and Tubal. 4I will turn you around. I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will bring you out with your entire army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently arrayed, a vast horde[] armed with body shields and hand shields, all of them wielding swords. 5Persia, Cush, and Libya[] are with them, all of them with hand shields and helmets, 6also Gomer and all its troops, Beth Togarmah from the remotest regions of the north and all its troops—many peoples will be with you. 7Ready yourself. Prepare yourself, you and your whole horde that is gathered around you, and keep watch over them. 8After many days you will be summoned to come together. In the latter years you will invade a land that was restored from the ravages of the sword, whose population had been gathered from among many peoples, back to the mountains of Israel, which had been lying in ruins for a long time. Its population had been brought out from among the peoples, and all of them were now living securely. 9You will come up like a devastating storm. You will come up like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.
10This is what the Lord God says. On that day plans will come into your mind, and you will plot an evil scheme. 11You will say, “I will go up against a land of unwalled villages. I will attack the peaceful people who live in security, all of them living without walls, with neither bars nor gates. 12I will attack in order to seize spoils and carry off plunder, to assault resettled ruins and to attack people returned from the nations, people who are acquiring livestock and other property, people who live at the center[] of the earth.”
13Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all its leaders[] will say to you, “Have you come to seize spoils? Have you gathered your horde to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and other property, to seize a large amount of spoils?”
14Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say this to Gog. This is what the Lord God says. On that day, when my people Israel are dwelling securely, you will be aware of that, won't you? 15So you will come from your place, from the remotest regions of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. 16You will come up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days this will happen. I will bring you against my land so that the nations will know me when I use you to reveal myself as holy in front of their eyes, O Gog.
17This is what the Lord God says. Are you the one I spoke about in earlier days through my servants, the prophets of Israel? In those days didn't they prophesy for many years that I would bring you against Israel? 18On that day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, my wrath will be evident on my face. 19In my zeal and the fire of my fury, I have spoken. I swear that there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel on that day. 20All of these will quake in my presence: the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the animals in the open country, every creeping thing that creeps on the ground, and every human being on the face of the earth. The mountains will be overthrown. The hillside terraces will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. 21I will summon against Gog a sword upon all my mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22I will judge him with plague and with bloodshed. I will rain down torrential rain, hailstones, and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many peoples who are with him. 23In this way I will show myself to be great, and I will show myself to be holy, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Romans 7:1-20

71Or don't you know, brothers[] (since I am speaking to those who know the law), that a law has jurisdiction over a person only as long as he lives? 2For example, a married woman is bound to her husband by law as long as he is alive, but if he dies, she is released from this law regarding her husband. 3So then, she will be labeled an adulteress if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from this law, and she is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death in regard to the law by the body of Christ, so that you may be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we might produce fruit for God. 5For when we were in the flesh, strong sinful desires stirred up by the law were at work in our members, with the result that we produced fruit that results in death. 6But now we have been released from the law by dying to what held us in its grip, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the letter of the law.
The Law Stirs Up My Sinful Nature
7What will we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have recognized sin except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[] 8But sin, seizing the opportunity provided by this commandment, produced every kind of sinful desire in me.
For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9Once I was alive without the law. But when this commandment came, sin came to life, 10and I died. This commandment that was intended to result in life actually resulted in death for me. 11You see, sin, seizing the opportunity provided by this commandment, deceived me and put me to death through it.
12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 13Then did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it might be recognized as sin, brings about my death by this good thing, so that through this commandment sin might prove itself to be totally sinful.
My Constant Struggle With My Sinful Nature
14Certainly we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. 19So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me.