The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

April 20, 2025

April 19, 2025 April 21, 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 14:10-31

10As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12Wasn't this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
13Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and see the salvation from the Lord, which he will perform for you today. For the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. 14The Lord will fight for you. You must wait quietly.”
15The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to set out. 16As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide the sea so that the Israelites can go through the middle of the sea on dry ground. 17I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go into the sea after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and his entire army, through his chariots and his charioteers. 18The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his charioteers.”
19Then the Angel of God, who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them. 20It went between the Egyptian forces and the Israelite forces. The cloud was dark on one side, but it lit up the night on the other. Neither group approached the other all night long.
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all night long the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned the sea into dry land. The waters were divided. 22The Israelites went into the middle of the sea on dry ground. The waters were like a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued them, and all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his charioteers went after them into the middle of the sea. 24During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian forces from the pillar of fire and cloud. Then he confused the Egyptian forces. 25He jammed[] their chariot wheels, and they had difficulty driving them. The Egyptians said, “We must flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”
26Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the waters will come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their charioteers.” 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal place. While the Egyptians were fleeing from it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the middle of the sea. 28The waters came back and covered the chariots and the charioteers, the entire army of Pharaoh that went into the sea after the Israelites. Not even one of them survived.
29But the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry land, and the waters were like a wall for them on their right and on their left. 30On that day the Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31Israel saw the mighty hand which the Lord put into action against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in Moses, his servant.

Hebrews 7:23-8:13

23There were many who became priests because death prevented any of them from continuing to remain in office. 24But because this one endures forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25So for this reason he is able to save forever those who come to God through him, because he always lives to plead on their behalf.
Jesus Is the High Priest We Need
26This is certainly the kind of high priest we needed: one who is holy, innocent, pure, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices on a daily basis, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. In fact, he sacrificed for sins once and for all when he offered himself. 28For the law appoints as high priests men who have weaknesses. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been brought to his goal forever.
A Better Promise
81The main point of what we are saying is this: We have the kind of high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. 2He is the minister in the Holy Place, which is the true sanctuary, which the Lord set up, not man. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and for that reason this priest also needed to have something that he offered.
4If this priest were on earth, he would not even be a priest, because there are priests[] who are designated by the law to offer gifts. 5They serve at a place that is a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, a place exactly like that about which Moses was told when he was about to complete the tent.[] For God said, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”[]
6But now, Jesus has obtained a ministry that is as much superior as the covenant that he mediates is better, because it has been established on the basis of better promises. 7Indeed, if that first covenant were without fault, there would have been no reason to look for a second. 8But because God found fault with the people, he said:[]
Look, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
9It will not be like the covenant
that I made with their forefathers
at the time when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt.
Because they did not remember my covenant,
I ignored them, says the Lord.
10This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.
I will put my laws into their mind,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11Never again will a man teach his fellow citizen[]
or his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful in regard to their unrighteousness,
and I will not remember their sins any longer.[]
13When God said “new,” he made the first covenant obsolete, and something that is obsolete and growing old is going to disappear.