Daily Devotion and Prayer for November 15th

Jacob Prophesies

+ 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.

Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea;

hear me and answer me.

Evening, morning, and noon,

I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you;

He will never let the righteous fall.

Psalm 53

53 To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

             The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;

there is none who does good.

             God looks down from heaven

on the children of man

               to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

             They have all fallen away;

together they have become corrupt;

               there is none who does good,

not even one.

             Have those who work evil no knowledge,

who eat up my people as they eat bread,

and do not call upon God?

             There they are, in great terror,

where there is no terror!

               For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;

you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

             Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When God restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

Reading 49:1-27

49 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

             “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,

listen to Israel your father.

             “Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,

preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.

             Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,

because you went up to your father’s bed;

then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!

             “Simeon and Levi are brothers;

weapons of violence are their swords.

             Let my soul come not into their council;

O my glory, be not joined to their company.

               For in their anger they killed men,

and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

             Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,

and their wrath, for it is cruel!

               I will divide them in Jacob

and scatter them in Israel.

             “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down before you.

             Judah is a lion’s cub;

from the prey, my son, you have gone up.

               He stooped down; he crouched as a lion

and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

     10       The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

               until tribute comes to him;

and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

     11       Binding his foal to the vine

and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

               he has washed his garments in wine

and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

     12       His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth whiter than milk.

     13       “Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;

he shall become a haven for ships,

and his border shall be at Sidon.

     14       “Issachar is a strong donkey,

crouching between the sheepfolds.

     15       He saw that a resting place was good,

and that the land was pleasant,

               so he bowed his shoulder to bear,

and became a servant at forced labor.

     16       “Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

     17       Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

a viper by the path,

               that bites the horse’s heels

so that his rider falls backward.

     18       I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

     19       “Raiders shall raid Gad,

but he shall raid at their heels.

     20       “Asher’s food shall be rich,

and he shall yield royal delicacies.

     21       “Naphtali is a doe let loose

that bears beautiful fawns.

     22       “Joseph is a fruitful bough,

a fruitful bough by a spring;

his branches run over the wall.

     23       The archers bitterly attacked him,

shot at him, and harassed him severely,

     24       yet his bow remained unmoved;

his arms were made agile

               by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob

(from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

     25       by the God of your father who will help you,

by the Almighty who will bless you

with blessings of heaven above,

               blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,

blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

     26       The blessings of your father

are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,

up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.

               May they be on the head of Joseph,

and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

     27       “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,

in the morning devouring the prey

and at evening dividing the spoil.”

Lord’s Prayer

Daily Prayer

O Lord, in the Sacrament of the Altar You have left us as a remembrance of Your passion. Grant that we may receive the sacred mystery of Your body and blood that by it the fruits of Your redemption may continually be manifest in us; for Your live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, amen.

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.