Daily Lectionary

January 20, 2019

January 19, 2019 January 21, 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 47:1-14, 21-23

Life-Giving Water in the New Creation

47¹Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple building, and I saw that water was flowing out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.

²He brought me out through the north gate that led into the inner courtyard and led me around on the outside of the temple complex to the outer gateway on the east side, and I saw that water was trickling out from its south side. ³As the man went out toward the east, he had a measuring line in his hand. He measured off a thousand cubits,^[] and then he led me through the water. The water was ankle-deep. ⁴Then he measured off another thousand cubits and led me through the water. The water was knee-deep. He measured a thousand more and led me through water that was now waist-deep. ⁵He measured a thousand more, but now it was a river that I was not able to cross, because the water had risen so much that one would have to swim across it. It was a river that could not be forded.

⁶Then he asked me, “Have you noticed anything, son of man?” and he led me back to the bank of the river. ⁷When I returned there, I noticed that on the banks of the river there were a large number of trees, on both sides.

⁸Then he said to me, “These waters are flowing out to the eastern part of the land. They go down to the Arabah and go into the sea,^[] into the sea whose waters are unusable,^[] and then the waters of the sea are made fresh.^[] ⁹Every living creature that swarms can live wherever the stream flows. There will be a large number of fish because these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea have been made fresh, so every living creature can live everywhere the river goes. ¹⁰There will be fishermen standing beside it from En Gedi to En Eglaim, and there will be places for them to spread their nets to dry. There will be all kinds of fish there, like the fish of the Great Sea^[]—so very many. ¹¹But its swamps and marshes will not be made fresh. They will be left to provide salt. ¹²Beside the river, on both its banks, every kind of tree will grow for providing food. Their leaves will never wither, and their fruit will never fail. Every month they will bear fruit because their waters flow out from the sanctuary. Its fruit will provide food, and its leaves will be for healing.”

The Divisions of the Land

¹³This is what the Lord God says.

These are the boundaries you are to use to divide the land as an inheritance for the twelve tribes of Israel.

(Joseph is to have two portions.)

¹⁴You will assign equal portions of the land that I swore with uplifted hand to give to your fathers. This is how the land will be allotted to you as an inheritance.

²¹In this way you are to divide this land for yourselves, for the tribes of Israel. ²²You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have fathered children among you. They are to be treated like someone who is native-born among the sons of Israel. With you they are to receive allotments as an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. ²³In whatever tribe an alien has settled, there you are to give him his inheritance, declares the Lord God.

Romans 9:19-33

¹⁹Then you will say to me, “Why does God still find fault? For who has ever succeeded in resisting his will?” ²⁰But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Shall the thing that is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” No. ²¹Doesn't the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay one pot for special use and another for ordinary use?

²²What if God, although he wanted to demonstrate his wrath and make his power known, endured with great patience the objects of wrath—ripe for destruction?^[] ²³And what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of mercy whom he prepared in advance for glory, ²⁴including us, whom he called—not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.

God Shows Mercy to Gentiles and the Remnant of Israel

²⁵This is also what God says in Hosea:

Those who were not my people, I will call my people,

and she who was not loved, I will call my loved one.^[]

²⁶And, it will be that in the place where they were told,

“You are not my people,”

there they will be called “sons of the living God.”^[]

²⁷And Isaiah cries out about Israel:

Although the number of the sons of Israel is as great as the sand of the sea,

only the remnant will be saved.

²⁸For the Lord, who carries out what he says without delay,^[]

will do what he said completely and decisively on the earth.^[]

²⁹Just as Isaiah said earlier:

If the Lord of Armies^[] had not left us some descendants,

we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah.^[]

The Majority of Jews Rejected Justification by Faith

³⁰What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness, a righteousness that is by faith. ³¹But Israel, while pursuing the law as a way of righteousness, did not reach it. ³²Why? Because they kept pursuing it not by faith, but as if it comes by works.^[] They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³Just as it is written:

Look, I am putting a stone in Zion over which they will stumble

and a rock over which they will fall.

The one who believes^[] in him will not be put to shame.^[]