The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

May 4, 2025

May 3, 2025 May 5, 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 32:15-35

15Moses turned and went down the mountain, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand—tablets that were written on both sides, written on one side and on the other. 16The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”
18Moses said, “It is not the sound of people who shout for victory; neither is it the sound of people who cry because of defeat. But I do hear the sound of people who are celebrating.”
19As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger burned. So he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.
21Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on them?”
22Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know these people. They are set on evil, 23so they said to me, ‘Make a god for us, who will go ahead of us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, pull it off.’ So they gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.”
25When Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had let them get so out of control that they were disgraced among their enemies), 26Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me!”
All the descendants of Levi gathered themselves together to Moses. 27He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man is to strap his sword on his thigh and go back and forth throughout the camp, from one gate of the camp to the other, and every man is to kill his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” 28The Levites did what Moses said, and that day about three thousand men from among the people fell. 29Moses said, “Begin your service of the Lord today.[] Yes, because every man among you took a stand against his son and against his brother, the Lord is bestowing a blessing on you today.”
30On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very serious sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can gain atonement for your sin.”
31Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Yes, this people has committed a very serious sin: They have made a god of gold for themselves. 32Yet now, if you will, please forgive their sin—and if not, please erase me from your book, which you have written.”
33The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me is the one I will erase from my book. 34Now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Look, my Angel shall go ahead of you. Nevertheless, when the right day comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35The Lord struck the people with a plague, because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron made.

Luke 6:39-49

39He also told them a parable: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Won't they both fall into a pit? 40A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? 42Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck in your eye,’ when you do not see the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck in your brother's eye.
Listen and Do
(Matthew 7:15-27)
43“Certainly a good tree does not produce bad fruit, and a bad tree does not produce good fruit. 44In fact, each tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorn bushes, and they do not gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45The good person brings what is good out of the good stored in his heart, and the evil person brings what is evil out of the evil within.[] To be sure, what his mouth speaks flows from the heart.
46“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and does them—I will show you what he is like: 48He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid a foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the river beat against that house but could not shake it, because it was founded on bedrock.[] 49But the one who listened to my words and did not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river broke against it, it fell immediately, and that house was completely destroyed.”