Daily Lectionary

October 10, 2023

October 9, 2023 October 11, 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 9:1-22

9¹Listen, Israel, today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and to take possession of nations larger and stronger than you, nations with large cities that have fortified walls reaching up to the skies, ²with people strong and tall, the Anakites, whom you know and about whom you have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the descendants of Anak?”

³So know today that the Lord your God himself is crossing over in front of you. Like a consuming fire he will destroy them, and he will subdue them before you. You will take possession of their land and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord promised you.

⁴When the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the Lord brought me in to take possession of this land,” when actually it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is handing over their land to you.

⁵You are not entering to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, but because of the wickedness of these nations. The Lord your God is handing over their land to you, in order to confirm the promise that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, because a stiff-necked people is what you are. ⁷Remember and do not forget how you made the Lord your God angry in the wilderness. From the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until your arrival at this place, you have been rebels against the Lord. ⁸Even at Horeb you made the Lord angry. Yes, the Lord was angry enough at you to destroy you.

⁹When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water. ¹⁰Then the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you from the middle of the fire on the mountain, on the day of the assembly. ¹¹At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹²Then the Lord said to me, “Get moving and go down quickly from here because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have turned away quickly from the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a thing of molten metal.”

¹³The Lord also said to me, “I have seen these people, and what a stiff-necked people they are! ¹⁴Leave me alone, and I will destroy them. I will blot out their name from under the heavens, and I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵So I turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands, while the mountain was burning with fire.

¹⁶I saw how you were sinning against the Lord your God by making for yourselves a calf from molten metal and by quickly turning aside from the way that the Lord your God had commanded you to go.

¹⁷I grabbed the two tablets and I threw them from my two hands and I shattered them right before your eyes.

¹⁸Then I lay facedown before the Lord forty days and forty nights like the first time. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water, because of all the sin that you committed by doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and making him angry.

¹⁹I was afraid of the heated anger of the Lord, who was angry enough at you to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me again at that time.

²⁰The Lord was even angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. So I prayed also for Aaron at that time.

²¹Then I took that wicked thing that you had made, the calf. I burned it with fire and crushed it by grinding it until it was as fine as dust. Then I threw its dust into the gully that goes down from the mountain.

²²Again and again, at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hatta'avah, you made the Lord angry.

Matthew 11:1-19

11¹After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

John the Baptist and Christ

(Luke 7:18-35)

²While John was in prison, he heard about the things Christ was doing. He sent two of his disciples ³to ask him, “Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else?”

⁴Jesus answered them, “Go, report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor. ⁶Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.”

⁷As these two were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the crowds about John. “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? No, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. ⁹So what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you! And he is much more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’^[] ¹¹Amen I tell you: Among those born of women there has not appeared anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been advancing forcefully^[] and forceful people are seizing it. ¹³In fact, all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. ¹⁴If you are willing to receive it, he is the Elijah who was to come. ¹⁵Whoever has ears to hear,^[] let him hear.

¹⁶“To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call to others, ¹⁷‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not mourn.’ ¹⁸John did not come eating or drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹But the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘See, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her actions.”