Daily Lectionary

October 12, 2023

October 11, 2023 October 13, 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 11:1-25

11¹Love the Lord your God and always carry out his requirements, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments.

²Know this today! I am not addressing your children, who have not known and seen all these things:

the discipline of the Lord your God;

his greatness, his strong hand, and his outstretched arm;

³his signs and his deeds that he performed in Egypt

against Pharaoh king of Egypt and against all his land;

⁴what he did to the army of Egypt and its horses and chariots;

how he caused the water of the Red Sea to flow over their heads

when they pursued you;

how the Lord has destroyed them to this day;

⁵what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

⁶what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben;

how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them

with their households, their tents,

and every living thing that was at their feet,

in the middle of all Israel.

⁷Know today it is your own eyes that have seen every deed that the Lord your God performed.

⁸Therefore, keep the whole set of commands that I am giving you today so that you may have the strength to enter and take possession of the land that you are about to cross into and possess, ⁹and so that you may live for a long time on the land that the Lord your God swore to give to your fathers and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰The land that you are about to enter and possess is not like that land of Egypt that you left, where you were accustomed to sow your seed and water it by hand^[] like a vegetable garden. ¹¹But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys. It drinks water provided by rain from the heavens. ¹²It is a land that the Lord your God takes care of. The eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it, from the start to the end of the year.

¹³If you faithfully listen to my commandments that I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴then I will provide rain for your land in season, early fall rain and late spring rain, and you will gather your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil. ¹⁵I will provide grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Be careful, or your heart will be deceived and you will turn away and serve other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will close up the heavens. There will be no rain, the ground will not produce crops, and you will perish quickly from the good land that the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸Put these words of mine in your hearts and in your soul, and tie them on your wrists as signs and as symbols on your forehead. ¹⁹Teach them to your children by talking about them when you sit in your house and when you travel on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹so that your days and the days of your children may be many on the land that the Lord promised to your fathers with an oath, as many as the days that the heavens remain over the earth.

²²If you carefully keep the whole set of commandments that I am giving you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him, ²³then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will take possession of nations larger and stronger than you.

²⁴Every place where the sole of your foot walks will be yours. From the Wilderness to Lebanon, from the River—the River Euphrates—to the Mediterranean Sea,^[] all of it will be your territory.

²⁵No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.

Matthew 12:1-21

Lord of the Sabbath

(Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5)

12¹At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick heads of grain and eat them. ²But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, what your disciples are doing is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

³But he said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴He entered God's house and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was lawful only for the priests to eat, not for him or his companions. ⁵Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath days, the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? ⁶But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. ⁷Yet if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’^[] you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus Heals a Man With a Withered Hand

(Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11)

⁹Going on from there, he went into their synagogue. ¹⁰A man was there who had a withered hand. Looking for a way to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on Sabbath days?”

¹¹He said to them, “Who among you, if you have one sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹²How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as healthy as the other one. ¹⁴But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him, considering how they might put him to death.

“Here Is My Servant”

¹⁵Since Jesus was aware of this, he withdrew from that place. Large crowds followed him and he healed them all. ¹⁶He ordered them not to tell others about him. ¹⁷This happened to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

¹⁸Here is my servant whom I have chosen,

the one I love, in whom I am^[] well pleased.

I will put my Spirit on him,

and he will proclaim justice to the nations.^[]

¹⁹He will not quarrel or cry out,

and no one will hear his voice in the streets.

²⁰A bruised reed he will not break.

A smoldering wick he will not put out,

until he leads justice to victory.

²¹And in his name the nations^[] will hope.^[]