The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

April 15, 2025

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.

Exodus 9:29-10:20

29Moses said to him, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will stop, and there will no longer be any hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 30But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear the Lord God.”
31(The flax and the barley were destroyed, because the barley was ripe, and the flax was in bloom. 32But the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)
33Moses went out from Pharaoh and from the city. He spread out his hands to the Lord. The thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the ground. 34But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he sinned again. He and his officials made their hearts unyielding.[] 35Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.
The Eighth Plague: Locusts
101Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart unyielding, and his officials' hearts too, so that I may perform these signs of mine in their midst, 2and so that you may tell your children and your grandchildren how harshly I dealt with Egypt and about my signs which I did among them. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
3Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go so that they may serve me. 4But if you refuse to let my people go, watch out, because tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. 5They will cover the surface of the ground so that no one will be able to see the ground. The locusts will eat what little you have left after the hail. They will also eat every tree that you have growing in the field. 6Your houses, your officials' houses, and every Egyptian's house will be filled with them, something neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen, from the day that they settled in this land up to this day.” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
7Pharaoh's officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go so that they may serve the Lord, their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”
8So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But who exactly would be going?”
9Moses said, “We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters. We will go with our flocks and herds, for we are celebrating a festival to the Lord.”
10But he said to them, “May the Lord be with you if I would ever let you and your families go! I see you are determined to do evil. 11No! The men may go and serve the Lord, for that is what you have been asking for!” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
12So the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt so that locusts come up over the land and eat every plant in the land, everything left by the hail.”
13Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow over the land all that day and all through the night. When morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14The locusts came up over the entire land of Egypt and settled down in the entire territory of Egypt. There had never been such a large number of locusts before, and there would never be again. 15They covered the surface of the ground so completely that the land was dark. They ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees—everything left after the hail. Nothing green was left on the trees or on the plants in the field throughout the entire land of Egypt.
16Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 17Now please forgive my sin once more, and plead to the Lord your God so that he may also remove this death from me.”
18So Moses went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord. 19The Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind. That wind lifted up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not one locust remained in the entire territory of Egypt. 20But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the Israelites go.

Hebrews 3:1-19

Christ Is Superior to Moses
31Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, focus your attention on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2He was faithful to the one who appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in God's whole house. 3In fact, Jesus is worthy of greater glory than Moses, in the same way that the builder of a house has more honor than the house. 4For every house is built by someone, and God is the one who built everything.
5Moses was faithful as a servant within God's whole house by testifying to the things that would be spoken. 6But Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house. We are his house, if we hold on firmly[] to our confidence and the hope about which we boast until the end.[]
Do Not Harden Your Hearts
7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear his voice,
8do not harden your hearts
as in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness.
9Your fathers tested and tried me,
even though they saw my works 10for forty years.
That is why I was angry with that generation
and said, “In their heart they are always going astray,
and they did not learn my ways.”
11So I swore an oath in my wrath,
“They will never enter my rest.”[]
12Watch out, brothers, so that there is not an evil, unbelieving heart in any of you that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have become people who share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firmly until the end. 15As it is said:
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.[]
16Who was it who heard and rebelled? Wasn't it all those who left Egypt, led by Moses? 17And with whom was God angry for forty years? Surely it was with the ones who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness, wasn't it? 18And about whom did he swear an oath that they would not enter his rest, if it wasn't concerning those who were disobedient? 19So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.