+ 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 127
1 A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Reading Num 19
Ashes of the Red Heifer
19 And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the ?Israelites? and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke ?has not been placed?. 3 And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be brought out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered in his presence. 4 Then Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. 5 The heifer will be burned in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. 6 The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson thread, and he will throw them in the midst of ?the burning heifer?. 7 The priest will wash his garments and his body in the water, and afterward he will come to the camp; the priest will be unclean until the evening. 8 The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. 9 A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put them in a clean ?place outside the camp?; it will be for the community of the ?Israelites? as a requirement for waters of impurity; it is a purification offering. 10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his garments; he will be unclean until evening. It will be an eternal decree for the ?Israelites? and for one who dwells as an alien in their midst.
11 “ ‘The one who touches a corpse of ?any person? will be unclean for seven days. 12 He will purify himself on the third day, and on the seventh day he will be clean. If he does not purify himself on the third day, he will not be clean on the seventh day. 13 Anyone who touches a corpse, the person of a human being who died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh, and that person will be cut off from Israel because the waters of impurity were not sprinkled on him. He will still be unclean, and uncleanness is on him.
14 “ ‘This is the law of a person who dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be unclean seven days. 15 Every container that is opened that does not have a lid cord on it is unclean. 16 Anyone ?in the open field? who touches ?one who has been slain?, or a corpse, or a bone of a person, or a burial site, he will be unclean for seven days. 17 For the unclean person they will take from the powder of the ?burnt purification offering?, and they will put running water into a container. 18 A clean person will take hyssop and dip it into the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the objects and persons who were there, and on one who touched the bone, or the one slain, or the dead, or the burial site. 19 The clean person will spatter the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he will purify him, and he will wash his garments; he will bathe in the waters, and in the evening he will be clean. 20 But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from the midst of the assembly because he defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh; the water of impurity was not sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
21 “ ‘It will be an eternal decree for them. The one who spatters the waters of impurity will wash his garments, and the one who touches the waters of impurity will be unclean until the evening. 22 Anything that the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches it will be unclean until the evening.’ ”
Lord’s Prayer
Daily Prayer
O Lord, grant us wisdom to recognize the treasures You have stored up for us in heaven, that we may never despair but always rejoice and be thankful for the riches of Your grace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, 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.
