Daily Lectionary

August 7, 2025

August 6, 2025 August 8, 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 20:24-42

²⁴So David hid in the countryside. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal. ²⁵The king sat at his usual seat next to the wall. Jonathan was across from him,^[] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty. ²⁶Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, since he thought, “Something has happened to him to make him ceremonially unclean. That's what it is—he must be unclean.”

²⁷On the day after the new moon, the second day of the month, David's place was still empty. So Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”

²⁸Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged me for permission to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹He said, ‘Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city. My brother has ordered me to be there. Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please excuse me so I can go and see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king's table.”

³⁰Then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverted, unfaithful woman! Don't I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?^[] ³¹For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingship. So send for him and bring him to me, because he must surely die!”

³²Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

³³Saul threw his spear at him to hit him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. ³⁴Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger, and he ate no food on the second day of the month, for he grieved for David, because his father had treated David so shamefully.

³⁵In the morning Jonathan went out into the field at the time he had set with David. He took a young servant boy with him. ³⁶He said to his boy, “Run out and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷When the boy reached the area where Jonathan's arrow had landed, Jonathan yelled to the boy, “Isn't the arrow farther out from you?” ³⁸Jonathan shouted to the boy, “Go faster! Hurry up! Don't be slow!” Jonathan's boy picked up the arrows and came back to his master. ³⁹The boy did not know anything about what was going on. Only Jonathan and David knew. ⁴⁰Jonathan gave his equipment to his boy and told him, “Go on ahead. Carry these things into the city.”

⁴¹As soon as the boy was gone, David got up from the south side of the mound.^[] He fell down with his face to the ground and bowed three times. They kissed one another and wept together, but David wept more. ⁴²Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the Lord's name. May the Lord stand between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.” David got up and left, and Jonathan went back into the city.

1 Corinthians 1:1-25

Greeting and Reminder of Blessings in Christ

1¹Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

²To the church of God in Corinth—those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, who are called as saints—along with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

⁴I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. ⁵You were enriched in him in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge, ⁶because the testimony about Christ was established in you. ⁷As a result you do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸He will also keep you strong until the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, who called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Christ Is the Answer to the Problem of Divisions

¹⁰Brothers,^[] I am making an appeal to you using the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I ask that you all express the same view and not have any divisions among you, but that you be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹For the news I heard about you, my brothers, from members of Chloe's household, is that there are rivalries among you. ¹²What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,”^[] or “I belong to Christ.” ¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one can say that I baptized you into my own name. ¹⁶(I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides them, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel—not with the wisdom used in speeches, so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its power.

God's Way of Saving People Seems Foolish to Some

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. ¹⁹In fact, it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing.^[]

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Jewish law? Where is the probing thinker of the present age? Has God not shown that the wisdom of this world^[] is foolish? ²¹Indeed, since the world through its wisdom did not know God, God in his wisdom decided to save those who believe, through the foolishness of the preached message. ²²Yes, Jews ask for signs, Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵We preach Christ crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.