Daily Lectionary

May 3, 2024

May 2, 2024 May 4, 2024

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.

Leviticus 26:1-20

Promises and Warnings

(Exodus 23:20-33, Deuteronomy 27—28)

26¹You shall not make gods that are really not gods for yourselves, and you shall not set up an image or a sacred memorial stone for yourselves, and you shall not set up a carved stone relief in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ²You shall observe my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³If you walk according to my regulations and keep my commandments and carry them out, ⁴I will give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees in the farmland will yield their fruit. ⁵Threshing will last until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will last until the time for sowing. You will eat your food until you are full, and you will live securely in your land.

⁶I will give peace in the land so that you may lie down without anyone frightening you. I will eliminate ferocious animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. ⁷You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. ⁸Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

⁹I will look on you with favor, and I will make you fruitful and will multiply you, and I will keep my covenant with you. ¹⁰You will eat grain from previous harvests, grain long stored, until you remove the old grain to make room for the new. ¹¹I will place my Dwelling in your midst, and I will not at all detest you. ¹²I will walk about in your midst, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³I am the Lord your God, who freed you from the land of Egypt so that you would not be slaves to them. I broke the bars of your yoke so that I could make you walk upright.

¹⁴But if you will not listen to me and do not obey all these commandments, ¹⁵if you reject my regulations and you detest my ordinances so much that you do not obey all my commandments, so that you break my covenant, ¹⁶I in turn will do this to you: I will inflict upon you panic, wasting disease, and fever, which will cause your eyes to fail and your vitality to slip away. You will sow your seed but get no return, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷I will set my face against you. You will be beaten by your enemies, and those who hate you will rule over you. You will flee, even though nobody is pursuing you.

¹⁸If, despite these things, you will not listen to me, I will go on to discipline you seven times for your sins. ¹⁹I will break your proud strength and make your sky like iron and your land as hard as bronze, ²⁰so that your strength will be exhausted without accomplishing anything. Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees on the land will not yield their fruit.

Luke 13:18-35

Mustard Seed and Yeast

(Matthew 13:31-33; Mark 4:30-34)

¹⁸Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what will I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”

²⁰Again he said, “To what will I compare the kingdom of God? ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and mixed into a bushel^[] of flour until it was all leavened.”

The Narrow Door

²²He went on his way from one town and village to another, teaching, and making his way to Jerusalem. ²³Someone said to him, “Lord, are only a few going to be saved?”

He said to them, ²⁴“Strive to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. ²⁵Once the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open for us!’ He will tell you in reply, ‘I don't know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷And he will say, ‘I don't know where you come from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’ ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown outside. ²⁹People will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. ³⁰And note this: Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Jesus Warns Jerusalem

³¹In that very hour, some Pharisees came to him and said, “Leave, and go away from here, because Herod wants to kill you.”

³²He said to them, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I am going to drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal. ³³Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, because it cannot be that a prophet would be killed outside Jerusalem!’

³⁴“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁵Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you will say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”^[]