The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

October 8, 2023

October 7, 2023 October 9, 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.

Deuteronomy 7:1-19

71When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take as a possession, and when he clears away many nations before you (the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and stronger than you), 2and when the Lord your God has given them over to you and he has struck them down, you are to devote them to destruction. Do not make a treaty with them, and do not show mercy to them. 3Do not form marriage alliances with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons, 4because they will turn your sons away from following me, and they will serve other gods. The anger of the Lord will burn against you, and then he will destroy you quickly. 5Instead, this is the way you must deal with them: Break down their altars. Smash their sacred memorial stones. Cut down their Asherah poles.[] Burn their idols with fire.
6For you are a people that is holy to the Lord your God, because the Lord your God has chosen you to belong to him as a people that is his treasured possession, chosen from all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. 7The Lord became attached to you by love and has chosen you, not because you were more numerous than all the peoples. Actually you were the fewest of all the peoples. 8But because of the Lord's love for you and because he was keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that is why the Lord brought you out by a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9He did this so that you would know that the Lord your God, yes, he is God, the faithful God who maintains both his covenant and his mercy for those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. 10But he also repays the ones who hate him to their face by destroying them. He will not delay repaying anyone who hates him. To his face he will fully repay him. 11So you are to be careful to keep the set of commandments and the statutes and the ordinances that I am commanding you today.
12When you obey these ordinances and are careful to keep them, the Lord your God will keep for your benefit the covenant and the mercy that he promised to your fathers with an oath. 13He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit from your womb and the fruit from your soil, your grain and your new wine and your fresh olive oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock upon the land that he swore to your fathers that he would give you. 14You will be blessed beyond all the peoples. There will not be an infertile male or infertile female among you or among your livestock. 15The Lord will remove from you all sickness, and he will not place on you all of the diseases of Egypt, the calamities that you experienced. Instead he will put them on all those who hate you. 16You will consume all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving to you. Your eye is not to look with compassion on them. You are not to serve their gods, because that would be a snare to you.
17If you say in your heart, “These nations are more numerous than we are. How are we able to take possession of their land?” 18do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians. 19The great test which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out—that is what the Lord your God will do to all the peoples that you fear.

Matthew 10:1-23

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
(Mark 3:7-19; 6:7-13; Luke 6:13-16; 9:1-6)
101Jesus called his twelve disciples to himself and gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
5Jesus sent these twelve out and commanded them, “Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ 8Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. 9Do not take gold, silver, or bronze in your money belts. 10Do not take a bag for the journey, or two coats, sandals, or a staff, because the worker deserves his support. 11Whenever you enter a town or village, find out who is worthy and stay there until you leave. 12As you enter the household, give it your greeting. 13If the household is worthy, let your peace rest on it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone does not receive you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or that town. 15Amen I tell you: It will be more bearable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
16“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17Be on guard against people. They will hand you over to councils, and they will whip you in their synagogues. 18You will be brought into the presence of governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19Whenever they hand you over, do not be worried about how you will respond or what you will say, because what you say will be given to you in that hour. 20In fact you will not be the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you.
21“Brother will hand over his brother to death, and a father will do the same with his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 22You will be hated by all people because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. 23And when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. Amen I tell you: You will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.