The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

July 13, 2025

July 12, 2025 July 14, 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.

Judges 13:1-25

The Twelfth Judge: Samson Versus the Philistines
Samson's Birth
131The people of Israel again committed evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2Now there was a certain man from Zorah, from the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren. She had not given birth. 3The Angel of the Lord[] appeared to the woman and said to her, “Listen, you are barren and have not given birth, but you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4Now, please be careful. Do not drink wine or beer,[] and do not eat anything unclean. 5Listen, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. No razor is to touch his head, for the boy will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from his mother's womb. He will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
6The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and he looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. 7But he did say to me, ‘Listen! You will be pregnant and give birth to a son. So now, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from his mother's womb until the day of his death.’”
8Then Manoah pleaded with the Lord, “Please, Lord, the man of God whom you sent—please let him come to us again, to teach us what we are to do for the young man who is to be born.”
9God heard the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God returned to the woman while she was sitting in the field. Once again her husband Manoah was not with her. 10The woman ran quickly and told her husband. She said to him, “Come, see! The man who appeared to me came to me again today.”
11Manoah then got up and followed his wife. He came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He answered, “I am.”
12Manoah said, “Now, when your words come true, what will be the rule for the young man and his actions?”
13The Angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “The woman must be careful concerning everything that I said to her. 14She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine. She must not drink wine or beer, and she must not eat any unclean thing. Everything that I commanded her she must observe.”
15Manoah then said to the Angel of the Lord, “May we persuade you to stay, so that we may prepare a young goat for you?”
16But the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Even if you keep me here, I will not eat any of your food, but if you make a burnt offering, offer it up to the Lord.” (Manoah did not yet know that he was the Angel of the Lord.)
17Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true?”
18The Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask about my name? It is wonderful.”[]
19Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering, and he offered them on the rock to the Lord, who did something wonderful as Manoah and his wife were watching. 20As the flame rose from the altar toward the sky, the Angel of the Lord ascended upward from the altar in the flame. Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell facedown to the ground. 21The Angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah and his wife again, but now Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the Lord.
22Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen God.”
23But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, and he would not have shown us all these things, nor would he have let us hear this message at this time.”
24The woman gave birth to a son, and she named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Galatians 2:1-21

Paul's Fellowship With Those in Jerusalem
21Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, also taking Titus with me. 2I went up in keeping with a revelation, and I laid before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately before those who were considered important, in order to make sure that I was not running—or had not run—in vain. 3But Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, even though he is Greek. 4This was an issue because of the false brothers, who slipped in under false pretenses to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. Their goal was to make us slaves. 5We refused to give in to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would continue with you.
6But as for those who were considered to be important (what sort of people they once were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality), indeed, those who were considered to be important added nothing to my gospel. 7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised. 8For God, who worked effectively in Peter to serve as an apostle to the circumcised, also worked effectively in me to serve as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9And because James, Cephas, and John, who were considered to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we were to go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10The only thing they asked was that we remember the poor, the very thing that I was also eager to do.
Paul Opposed Cephas (Peter)
11But when Cephas[] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly wrong. 12For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when those people came, he drew back and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision group. 13And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14But when I saw that they were not acting according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, “If you, a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?”
Justified Through Faith!
15“We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. 16We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no one[] will be justified by the works of the law. 17But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were also found to be sinners, then is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
18“In fact, if I build up again those things that I destroyed, I bring on myself the judgment of being a lawbreaker. 19Indeed, through the law I died to the law that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not regard the grace of God as nothing. As a matter of fact, if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”