The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

October 21, 2023

October 20, 2023 October 22, 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 20:1-20

Conduct During War
201When you go out for battle against your enemies, and you see the horses and chariots of a people more numerous than you are, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.
2When you are approaching the battle, the priest is to come forward and speak to the people. 3He will say to them, “Listen, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart become weak. Do not be afraid. Do not tremble. Do not dread them, 4because the Lord your God is going with you to do battle for you against your enemies, to save you.”
5The officers also are to speak to the people and say, “Whoever has built a new house but has not dedicated it, let him go and return to his house so that he does not die in the battle and another man dedicates it.
6“Whoever has planted a vineyard but has not yet removed it from sacred status,[] let him go and return to his house so that he does not die in the battle and another man is the first to eat from it.
7“Whoever is pledged in marriage to a woman but has not consummated the marriage, let him go and return to his house so that he does not die in the battle and another man takes her in marriage.”
8Then the officers are to speak again to the people and say, “Whoever is afraid and fainthearted may go and return to his house, so that the hearts of his brother Israelites do not melt in cowardice like his heart.”
9When the officers finish speaking to the people, they are to appoint army commanders at the head of the people.
10When you approach a city to fight against it, call out to it, asking for a peaceful surrender. 11If the city answers you, “Peace,” and it opens up its gates for you, then all the people found in it will become forced labor for you and they will serve you.
12But if it does not make peace with you, and it makes war against you, then lay siege against it. 13The Lord your God will deliver it into your hands, and you will strike down all the males with the edge of the sword.
14But the women and the children, and the cattle and everything that is in the city—all its plunder—take as spoils of war for yourself. You may make use of the plunder of your enemies that the Lord your God gives you.
15Do this to all the cities that are very far away from you, which are not cities of the nations around here.
16However, from the cities of these people that the Lord your God is giving to you as your inheritance, do not keep alive anything that breathes. 17Devote them completely to destruction—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18so that they do not teach you to commit all of the abominations that they commit for their gods, with the result that you sin against the Lord your God.
19When you lay siege against a city for a long time, as you fight against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by swinging axes against them, because you will be able to eat what the trees bear, so do not cut them down. For is a tree in the field something human that you should besiege it? 20Only trees that you know are not food—producing trees may be destroyed. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that makes war against you, until it falls.

Matthew 15:21-39

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman
(Mark 7:24-30)
21Jesus left that place and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22There a Canaanite woman from that territory came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! A demon is severely tormenting my daughter!”
23But he did not answer her a word.
His disciples came and pleaded, “Send her away, because she keeps crying out after us.”
24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25But she came and knelt in front of him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26He answered her, “It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to their little dogs.”
27“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet their little dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”
28Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! It will be done for you, just as you desire.” And her daughter was healed at that very hour.
29Jesus moved on from there and went along the Sea of Galilee. He went up onto the mountain and sat there. 30Large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them down at his feet, and he healed them. 31As a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healed, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
Jesus Feeds More Than Four Thousand
(Mark 8:1-9)
32Jesus summoned his disciples and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with me already three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they might faint on the way.”
33The disciples said to him, “Where can we get so many loaves in the wilderness to satisfy such a large crowd?”
34Jesus asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
35He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36He took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, and broke them. He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 37They all ate and were filled. They picked up seven basketfuls of the broken pieces that were left over. 38Those who ate numbered four thousand men, without counting the women and children. 39After Jesus sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.