The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

September 26, 2023

September 25, 2023 September 27, 2023

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.

Malachi 2:1-3:5

A Warning to the Priests From the Lord
21Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.
2If you do not listen, if you do not set your heart on giving glory to my name, says the Lord of Armies, then I will send the curse[] against you. I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already cursed your offerings because you are not putting your heart into it. 3Yes, I will rebuke your offspring.[] I will smear animal bowels and their contents on your faces, the bowels produced by your festivals, and you will be hauled off with them.[]
4You will know that I sent you this commandment, so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord of Armies. 5My covenant with him was life and peace, which I gave to him. It was a covenant of reverence,[] and he revered me. He respected my name. 6The true law was in his mouth, and no injustice was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He turned many away from guilt. 7The lips of a priest should be guardians of knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth because he is a messenger of the Lord of Armies.
8But you priests have turned from the way. You have made many people stumble in regard to the law.[] You have ruined the covenant with Levi, says the Lord of Armies. 9So I have made you despised and humiliated you in the view of all the people, because you are not keeping my ways but are showing favoritism in carrying out the law.
Instruction From the Prophet: The Covenant Is Broken By Divorce
10Don't we all have one Father? Hasn't one God created us? Why then do we violate our vows to each other, polluting the covenant of our fathers? 11Judah has acted unfaithfully. A detestable thing was done in Israel and in Jerusalem when Judah polluted the holy place[] of the Lord, which the Lord loves. Judah is married to the daughter of a foreign god. 12May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any man who does this, both the one who is awake and the one who answers,[] even if he brings an offering to the Lord of Armies!
13This is the second thing you do: You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and crying, because there is no longer any favorable response to your offering, and God is not pleased with anything from your hand. 14So you ask, “Why is this happening?” This is why—because the Lord is a witness in the case between you and the wife you married when you were young, because you have betrayed her, though she was your partner, the wife with whom you made a covenant! 15No one has done this who has a remnant of the Spirit.[] And why one? He is seeking offspring from God.[] So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not act unfaithfully against the wife you married when you were young. 16He hates divorce! That is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. He hates it when a person wears violence as a garment. That is what the Lord of Armies says. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.
17You have made the Lord weary with your words. You say, “How have we made him weary?” When you say that anyone who does evil is good in the Lord's eyes or that the Lord takes pleasure in evildoers. Or when you say, “Where is the God of justice?”
An Oracle From the Lord About the Messiah
31Look! I am sending my messenger![] He will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord, whom you are seeking, will come to his temple! The Messenger of the Covenant,[] in whom you delight, will surely come, says the Lord of Armies.
2But who can endure the day when he comes? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire, like launderers bleach![] 3He will be seated like a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver. They will belong to the Lord and bring him an offering in righteousness.
4Judah and Jerusalem's offerings will be pleasing to the Lord as they were in the days of old, in years long ago.
5I will approach you to judge you. I will be quick to give testimony against those who practice occult arts, those who commit adultery, those who swear false oaths, those who cheat workers out of their wages, those who wrong a widow and a fatherless child, those who turn away a resident alien—all those who do not fear me, says the Lord of Armies.

Matthew 4:1-11

The Devil Tempts Jesus
(Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13)
41Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. 2After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The Tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.”
4But Jesus answered, “It is written:
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.”[]
5Then the Devil took him into the holy city. He placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6and he said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you.
And they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”[]
7Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written:
You shall not test the Lord your God.”[]
8Again the Devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will bow down and worship me.”
10Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”[]
11Then the Devil left him, and just then angels came and served him.