Daily Lectionary

July 24, 2025

July 23, 2025 July 25, 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.

1 Samuel 8:1-22

Israel's Request for a King

8¹When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. ²The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. They served as judges in Beersheba. ³His sons did not follow in his footsteps. Instead, they turned aside to seek dishonest gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.

⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons are not walking in your ways. Now appoint a king for us so that he can judge^[] us like all the other nations.” ⁶But in Samuel's eyes their request to receive a king to judge them looked evil, so Samuel prayed to the Lord.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people regarding everything they have said to you, because it is not you whom they have rejected. I am the one they have rejected as king over them. ⁸This is just like all the actions they have taken from the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, right up to this present day. They have forsaken me and served other gods, and now they are also acting the same way toward you. ⁹So now listen to them. Nevertheless, warn them strongly and show them what the king who reigns over them will do.”

¹⁰Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people, who had asked him for a king. ¹¹He said, “This is what the king who reigns over you will do. He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and with his teams of horses,^[] and they will have to run ahead of his chariots. ¹²He will make them serve as commanders of a thousand soldiers and as commanders of fifty. He will assign some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest. He will assign some to make his weapons and the trappings^[] for his chariots. ¹³He will take your daughters to serve as perfume makers, cooks, and bakers. ¹⁴He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his officials. ¹⁵He will take a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards, and he will give it to the members of his court and to his officials. ¹⁶He will take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men,^[] and your donkeys, and he will use them to do his work. ¹⁷He will take a tenth from your flocks, and you will become his servants. ¹⁸In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”

¹⁹But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. Instead, they said, “No, we want to have a king over us, ²⁰so that we also can be like all the nations, and our king can judge us and lead us out to fight our battles.”

²¹Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. ²²The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to them, and appoint a king for them.”

So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go home to your own city.”

Acts 21:15-36

In Jerusalem

¹⁵After those days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us and brought us to Mnason, with whom we were to stay. He was from Cyprus and was one of the first disciples.

¹⁷When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers gave us a warm welcome. ¹⁸The next day, Paul went with us to see James, and all the elders were present. ¹⁹After greeting them, he reported in detail each of the things God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. ²⁰When they heard this, they praised God.^[]

Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed, and all of them are zealous observers of the law. ²¹They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, since you are telling them not to circumcise their children or follow our customs. ²²So what is to be done?^[] They will certainly hear that you have come. ²³So do what we are going to tell you.

“We have four men who have taken a vow. ²⁴Take them with you, go through the ceremony of purification with them, and pay their expenses so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to the reports that have been made about you, but that you yourself are carefully following the law. ²⁵As for the Gentiles who believe, we have sent them a letter about the resolution^[] that they should avoid food sacrificed to idols, blood, the meat of strangled animals, and sexual immorality.”

²⁶The next day, Paul took the men and went through the ceremony of purification with them. He entered the temple to announce the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.

Paul Is Arrested

²⁷When the seven days were almost over, Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, ²⁸shouting, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law, and against this place. And now he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” ²⁹(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)

³⁰The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together as a mob. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. ³¹While they were looking for a way to kill him, a report went up to the commander of the cohort^[] that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³Then the commander approached Paul, arrested him, and gave an order that he should be bound with two chains. He asked who Paul was and what he had done. ³⁴Some in the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. Since the commander could not find out the truth because of the uproar, he ordered his men to take Paul away to the barracks. ³⁵When he came to the steps, Paul had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. ³⁶The large number of people that was following kept shouting, “Away with him!”