Daily Lectionary

October 13, 2023

October 12, 2023 October 14, 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 11:26-12:12

²⁶You see, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, ²⁸or the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God and you turn away from the path that I am commanding you today by walking after other gods whom you did not know.

²⁹When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and possess, you are to pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰As you know, they are on the other side of the Jordan, beyond the west road,^[] toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites that live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the oaks of Moreh.

³¹You are about to cross over the Jordan to go in and take the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You will take it and live in it. ³²But be careful to carry out all the statutes and the ordinances that I am giving you today.

12¹These are the statutes and the ordinances that you are to be conscientious about keeping in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given to you to possess all the days that you live in the land:

One Place for Sacrifice

²Completely destroy all the places where the nations that you are driving out serve their gods, whether on the high mountains or on the hills or under every beautiful green tree. ³Tear down their altars! Smash their sacred memorial stones! Burn their Asherah poles^[] with fire, and cut down the carved images of their gods! In this way you will destroy their names from those places.

⁴Do not serve the Lord your God in the way that they worship, ⁵but seek out and go to the site that the Lord your God will choose from within all your tribes to place his name and his dwelling place. ⁶There you are to bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the elevated offerings from your hands, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock. ⁷Eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, and rejoice in everything you do, you and your household, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸Do not in any way do what we are doing here today, that is, each person doing whatever is right in his own eyes, ⁹because you have not yet come to your place of rest, the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving to you.

¹⁰But you will cross over the Jordan and settle in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies all around you, so that you will live in safety. ¹¹Then go to the place that the Lord your God chooses as the place to establish his name. There you are to bring everything that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offerings from your hands, and all the best voluntary offerings that you vow to the Lord.

¹²You will rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your male servants and your female servants, and the Levites who live within the gates of your cities, because they do not have an allotted inheritance among you.

Matthew 12:22-37

Jesus Has Power to Drive Out Demons

(Mark 3:20-30; Luke 11:14-23)

²²Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to him. Jesus healed him so that he was able to speak and to see. ²³All the people were amazed and said, “Can this be the Son of David?”^[] ²⁴But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

²⁵Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed, and every town or household divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? ²⁷Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁸But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and take his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man? Only then can he plunder his house.

³⁰“Whoever is not with me is against me. And whoever does not gather with me scatters. ³¹Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³²Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven—either in this age or in the one to come.

³³“Either make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad. Indeed, a tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴You offspring of vipers! How can you say anything good, since you are evil? For what the mouth speaks flows from the heart. ³⁵The good man brings good out of his good treasure, and the evil man brings evil out of his evil treasure. ³⁶I tell you that on the day of judgment people will give account of every careless word they have spoken. ³⁷In fact by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”