Daily Lectionary

August 10, 2025

August 9, 2025 August 11, 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 25:23-44

²³When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got off her donkey. She bowed and fell facedown on the ground in David's presence. ²⁴She fell at his feet and said, “To me, my lord—charge the guilt to me! Please let your servant speak to you. Listen to the words of your servant. ²⁵Please, my lord, do not pay attention to this worthless good-for-nothing Nabal,^[] for he is exactly what his name suggests. Nabal is his name, and foolishness is never far from him. But I, your servant, did not see my lord's young men, whom you sent. ²⁶Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from the guilt of bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil against my lord be like Nabal. ²⁷Please distribute this gift that I, your servant,^[] have brought to my lord for the young men who follow my lord. ²⁸Please forgive your servant's offense, for the Lord will certainly make an enduring house^[] for my lord, because my lord is fighting the Lord's battles. May no evil be found in you all your days. ²⁹Though men may rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, may the life of my lord be safely wrapped up in the bundle of the living, with the Lord your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away like a stone from the pocket of a sling. ³⁰Then, when the Lord has done for my lord all the good things that he has spoken concerning you, and he has appointed you leader over Israel, ³¹you will not be burdened by grief or a guilty conscience because you, my lord, have shed blood without cause or have avenged yourself. Then, when the Lord has dealt well with you, my lord, remember your servant.”

³²David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! ³³Your good judgment is blessed, and you are blessed, because today you have kept me from the guilt of shedding blood and from avenging myself with my own hand. ³⁴For truly, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, certainly by the morning light there would not have been left for Nabal so much as one person who urinates against a wall.”^[]

³⁵So David received from her hand what she had brought for him. Then he said to her, “Go up to your house in peace. You see, I have listened to your voice and have shown you favor.”

³⁶Abigail came to Nabal and saw that he was holding a feast^[] in his house, a feast fit for a king. Nabal was in good spirits, because he had drunk a lot. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.

³⁷In the morning, when the wine had worn off for Nabal, his wife told him about these things, and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.^[] ³⁸About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

³⁹When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has passed judgment on Nabal's insults against me and has kept his servant from doing evil. The Lord has returned the evil done by Nabal back on his own head.”

Then David sent messengers to make arrangements with Abigail for him to take her as his wife. ⁴⁰When David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her and said, “David has sent us to you to bring you to him as his wife.”

⁴¹She got up and bowed down with her face to the ground. She said, “Behold, I, your humblest servant,^[] am here ready to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” ⁴²Abigail hurried and set out, riding on a donkey, with five young women who were her attendants following her. She went with the messengers of David and became his wife.

⁴³David also married Ahinoam of Jezre'el, so they both became his wives. ⁴⁴But Saul gave his daughter Michal, who was David's wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

4¹This is the way a person should think of us: as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. ²In this connection, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. ³But it is a trivial matter to me if I am evaluated by you or by a day in a human court. Why, I do not even evaluate myself. ⁴I do not in fact know of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this; rather, the one who evaluates me is the Lord. ⁵Therefore judge nothing ahead of time, until the Lord comes. He will bring to light whatever is hidden in darkness and also reveal the intentions of hearts. Then there will be praise for each person from God.

Lessons From Apostolic Life and Teaching

⁶Brothers, I turned these things into a lesson using myself and Apollos as examples. I did this for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not be arrogant, favoring one person over the other. ⁷For who makes you so special? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? ⁸Oh, you are already filled! You have already become rich! You have begun to reign without us! If only that were really true, so that we could reign with you!

⁹For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, in the lowliest position, like men sentenced to death, because we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak—but you are so strong! You are honored! But we are despised. ¹¹At the present we still hunger and thirst and lack proper clothing. We are treated roughly, and we have no settled place to live in. ¹²We toil, working with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. ¹³When slandered, we speak kind words. We have been treated like the world's garbage, like everyone's trash, right up to the present time.

¹⁴I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my dear children. ¹⁵Indeed, even if you would have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you would not have many fathers. I say this, because in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶I urge you, therefore, be imitators of me. ¹⁷That is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways in Christ,^[] just as I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out about the power, not the talk, of those who are arrogant. ²⁰For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. ²¹What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?