Daily Lectionary

October 16, 2023

October 15, 2023 October 17, 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 14:1-2, 22-23, 28-15:15

14¹You are the children of the Lord your God.

Do not cut yourselves or make a bald spot on your forehead for a dead person, ²because you are set apart as holy people for the Lord your God, and the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people that are on the face of the earth, to be his people that are his treasured possession.

Tithes

²²Give a tenth of all the yield from your seed that comes out of the field every year.

²³Eat the tithe in the presence of the Lord your God in the place that he will choose to establish his name—the tenth of your grain, your new wine, and your fresh oil, as well as the firstborn of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.

²⁸At the end of every third year, bring out the entire tithe of your produce from that year and store it in your towns. ²⁹Then the Levites may come, because they do not have an allotted inheritance among you, and also the aliens and the fatherless and the widows within your towns, and they may eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that your hands perform.

The Sabbatical Year and the Remission of Debt

(Leviticus 25:18-54)

15¹At the end of seven years grant a release.^[]

²This is how the release is to be done: Every creditor is to release^[] what he has loaned to his neighbor. He must not exact it from his neighbor or from his brother Israelite, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. ³You may exact it from a foreigner, but your hand is to release whatever your brother Israelite owes you.^[]

⁴However, there should be no poor people among you, because the Lord will greatly bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance for you to possess, ⁵if you obey the voice of the Lord your God by carefully carrying out all of this command that I am giving you today. ⁶For the Lord your God will bless you, just as he has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷However, if there is a poor person among you, any one of your fellow Israelites within the gates of your towns in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your poor brother. ⁸Rather, open up your hand to him and freely lend him enough of whatever he needs for himself. ⁹Be careful that you do not harbor this wicked thought: Year seven, the year of release, is near! So as a result you have a harsh attitude toward your poor brother and do not give him anything. Then he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰Give freely to him, and do not feel resentful about giving to him, because on account of your giving, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and whatever you put your hand to. ¹¹Since there will never cease to be poor people in the land, I command you, open up your hand to your brother in your land, to the afflicted and the poor among you.

The Release of Servants

(Exodus 21:2-6, Leviticus 25:39-55)

¹²If your brother, that is, a Hebrew man or woman, sells himself to you, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year you are to set him free. ¹³When you set him free, do not send him out empty-handed. ¹⁴Provide for him generously from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your winepress. Give to him from the blessings that the Lord your God has given to you. ¹⁵You should remember that you yourself were a slave in the land of Egypt, but the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I am commanding this procedure to you today.

Matthew 13:24-43

The Parable of the Weeds

²⁴He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶When the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. ²⁷The servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘An enemy did this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up the weeds?’ ²⁹‘No,’ he answered, ‘because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Mustard Seed and Yeast

(Mark 4:30-34; Luke 13:18-21)

³¹He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³²It is one of the smallest of seeds. But when it grows, it is larger than the other plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

³³He spoke another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and mixed into a bushel^[] of flour until the whole batch was leavened.”

³⁴Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds. He did not speak to them without telling a parable. ³⁵This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,

I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.^[]

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds

³⁶Then Jesus sent the people away and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷He answered them, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One. ³⁹The enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin^[] and those who continue to break the law. ⁴²The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.