The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

December 18, 2021

December 17, 2021 December 19, 2021

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.

Isaiah 34:1-2, 8-35:10

Judgment Against the Nations
341Come near, you nations, and hear!
Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it hear,
the world and everything that it produces.
2The Lord is angry with all the nations,
and he is furious with all their armies.
He has condemned them to destruction.
He has handed them over for slaughter.
8It will be a day of vengeance for the Lord,
a year of retribution for Zion's sake.[]
9Edom's streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch,
10which will not be extinguished night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
Generation after generation, it will lie in ruins.
No one will ever pass through it. Never again!
11But the desert owl and the porcupine will live there.[]
The screech owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch a measuring line for chaos over Edom,
and a plumb line for uninhabited ruins.[]
12There will be nothing left for its nobles to call a kingdom.
All its officials will be gone.
13Thorns will cover its citadels.
Thistles and briers will overgrow its fortresses.
It will be a den of jackals,
a haunt for ostriches.
14Desert animals and hyenas will gather,
and wild goats[] will bleat to each other.
A creature of the night[] will settle there
and find a resting place.
15An owl[] will nest there.
She will lay eggs, hatch them,
and gather her young under her shade.
Falcons will gather there too,
each with its mate.
16Search through the book of the Lord, and read.
Not one of them will be missing.
Not one will lack her mate.
For his mouth has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
17He has allotted this land for these creatures.
His hand has divided it up for them with a surveying line.
They will possess it forever.
They will live there generation after generation.
The Joyful Return
351The wilderness and the desert will be glad.
The wasteland of the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like a crocus.
2It will bloom lavishly,
and there will be great joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it.
It will be excellent like Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
3Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the shaky knees steady.
4Tell those who have a fearful heart:
Be strong.
Do not be afraid.
Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
With God's own retribution, he will come and save you.
5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
6The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
7The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.
There will be grass, reeds, and rushes where the haunts of jackals once lay.
8A highway will be there,
a road that will be called the holy way.
The impure will not walk there.
It will be reserved for those who walk in that holy way.
Wicked fools will not wander onto it.
9No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious animal go up on it.
They will not be found there,
but only the redeemed will walk there.
10Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Revelation 6:1-17

The Vision of the Seven Seals: The First Four Seals
61And I watched when the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. And I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come.”[]
2And I looked, and there was a white horse, and its rider held a bow. A crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come.”[] 4And another horse, a fiery red one, went out. Its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth so that people would slaughter one another. And a great sword was given to him.
5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come.”[] And I looked, and there was a black horse. Its rider had a scale in his hand. 6And I heard something like a voice from among the four living creatures say, “A quart of wheat for a denarius,[] and three quarts of barley for a denarius. And do not dilute[] the oil and the wine.”
7When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come.”[] 8And I looked, and there was a pale green horse. And its rider was named Death, and the Grave[] followed closely behind him. They were given power over a quarter of the earth, to kill people with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth.
The Fifth Seal: The Souls Under the Altar
9When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, under the incense altar I saw the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had maintained. 10And they called out with a loud voice, saying, “O Lord, holy and true, how long until you judge and exact justice for our blood from those who live on the earth?” 11A white robe was given to each one of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until their number would be complete, when their fellow servants and their brothers[] would be put to death as they were.
The Sixth Seal: The Last Judgment
12And I watched when the Lamb opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair. The entire moon became like blood. 13The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when it is shaken by a strong wind. 14The sky was removed like a scroll being rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved from its place.
15The kings of the earth, the nobles, the military leaders, the rich, the powerful, and everyone—slave or free—hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16And they kept saying to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17for the great day of their[] wrath has come. Who is able to stand?”