Daily Devotion and Prayer for January 18th

+ DAILY PRAYER +

This Daily Devotion covers the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy also called the Books of Moses or the Pentateuch, in a period of one year in a Monday through Friday format, the Psalms and order of devotion follow those presented in The Treasury of Daily Prayer from Concordia Publishing House.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

     Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!

     In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! 

     Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,

     and he hears my voice. 

     Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;

     He will never permit the righteous to be moved. 

Psalm 44:1-3, 9-10, 20-23, 26

1  To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

O God, we have heard with our ears,

our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days,

in the days of old: 

2  you with your own hand drove out the nations,

but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples,

but them you set free; 

3  for not by their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm save them,

but your right hand and your arm,

and the light of your face, for you delighted in them. 

4  You are my King, O God;

ordain salvation for Jacob! 

9  But you have rejected us and disgraced us

and have not gone out with our armies. 

10  You have made us turn back from the foe,

and those who hate us have gotten spoil. 

20  If we had forgotten the name of our God

or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 

21  would not God discover this?

For he knows the secrets of the heart. 

22  Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 

23  Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?

Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! 

26  Rise up; come to our help!

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! 

Covenant Stipulations

10 And he said, “Look, I am about to make a covenant. In front of all your people I will do wonders that have not been created on all the earth and among all the nations, and all the people among whom you are will see Yahweh’s work, because what I am about to do with you will be awesome.

Reading Ex 34:10-35

11 “Keep for yourself what I myself have commanded you today. Look, I am about to drive from before you the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 12 Be careful for yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest it be a snare among you. 13 Rather, you will tear down their altars, and you will break their stone pillars, and you will cut off their Asherah poles. 14 For you will not bow in worship to another god, for ‘Yahweh Is Jealous’ is his name, he is a jealous God, 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves after their gods, and they sacrifice to their gods, and they invite you, and you eat their sacrifice, 16 and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves after their gods, and they cause your sons to prostitute themselves after their gods. 17 You will not make gods of cast metal for yourself.

18 “You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 Every first offspring of a womb is for me—all of your male livestock, the first offspring of cattle and small livestock. 20 But the first offspring of a donkey you will redeem with small livestock, and if you will not redeem it, you will break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you will redeem, and you will not appear before me empty-handed. 21 Six days you will work, and on the seventh day you will rest; in the time of plowing and in the time of harvest you will rest. 22 And ?you yourself? will observe the Feast of Weeks—the firstfruits of the wheat harvest—and the Feast of Harvest Gathering at the turn of the year. 23 Three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, 24 because I will evict nations before you, and I will enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh your God three times in the year.

25 “You will not slaughter the blood of my sacrifice on food with yeast, and the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover will not stay overnight to the morning. 26 The beginning of the firstfruits of your land you will bring to the house of Yahweh your God. You will not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Write for yourself these words, because ?according to? these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

The Shining Face of Moses

28 And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights. He ate no food and drank no water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words. 29 ?And? when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony were in the hand of Moses at his coming down from the mountain; and Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him. 30 And Aaron and all the ?Israelites? saw Moses, and, ?to their amazement?, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid of coming near to him. 31 And Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 And afterward all the ?Israelites? came near, and he commanded them all that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil on his face. 34 And when Moses came before Yahweh to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he went out, and he would go out and would speak to the ?Israelites? what he had been commanded. 35 And the ?Israelites? would see the face of Moses, that the skin of the face of Moses shone, and Moses would put back the veil on his face until his coming to speak with him.

Lord’s Prayer

Daily Prayer

    
   Heavenly Father, You revealed to the apostle Peter the blessed truth that Your Son Jesus is the Christ.  Strengthen us by the proclamation of this truth that we too may joyfully confess that there is salvation in no one else; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Concluding Prayer

Heavenly Father, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts to direct and rule us according to Your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.