This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
You can download a foldable bookmark here: 2026
12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
20 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers1 stood outside, asking to speak to him.2 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
[1] 12:46
[2] 12:46
(ESV)
Last week, a collective sigh of relief went up from Concordia's campus. The source of the sigh was none other than the fact that finally, summer vacation has arrived! Faculty and staff alike have been working hard all year long and now, we take moments here and there throughout the summer to rest, relax, and recharge. Indeed, one of my favorite Bible verses comes at the tail end of the creation account in Genesis 2:2: "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work." I figure if God can take a break every once in a while, so can I. In fact, I am actually commanded to: "The seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work" (Exodus 20:10). The Hebrew word for "Sabbath" is shabbat, meaning, "Stop!" The implication of the Sabbath, then, is clear: we have six days for working, but we are also to have a seventh day - a shabbat day - where we stop working and take a break.
The ancient rabbis took the Sabbath day very seriously. They even had a whole tractate of the Mishnah, a compendium of ancient rabbinical teaching, known as the Shabbat. And in the Shabbat, they outlined some 39 things prohibited on the Sabbath: "The principal acts of labor prohibited on the Sabbath are... Sowing, plowing, reaping, binding into sheaves, threshing, winnowing, fruit-cleaning, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, wool-shearing, bleaching, combing, dyeing, spinning, warping, making two spindle-trees, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying a knot, untying a knot, sewing on with two stitches, tearing in order to sew together with two stitches, hunting deer, slaughtering the same, skinning them, salting them, preparing the hide, scraping the hair off, cutting it, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, demolishing in order to rebuild, kindling, extinguishing fire, hammering, transferring from one place into another. These are the principal acts of labor" (Mishnah Shabbat 7.2). For those of you who are hunters, I would like to call special attention to item 25: "deer hunting." In other words, no missing church for deer season!
Good natured ribbing aside, the rabbis were ruthless in their implementation of these laws. In ancient Judaism, the punishment for breaking a Sabbath was death. So you can imagine the incredulity of the religious rulers when, in our reading for today from Matthew 12, Jesus boldly, brazenly, and publicly, heals a man who has been struck with a paralyzed hand. "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" they ask angrily (verse 10). For to them, healing qualifies as work. And it is unlawful to work on the Sabbath. Jesus counters, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" (verses 11-12). Jesus responds to these overly legalistic religious leaders: "People may need to take a vacation, but good never does. For it's always okay to do good. It's always okay to help someone, love someone, assist someone, and give to someone... even on the Sabbath." In other words, the Sabbath day, like any other day, is a day for goodness. Indeed, it is a day that is itself good: "And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:3).
Finally, then, the Sabbath is not just a day to do no work, it is also a day to do good. It is a day to love your family. It is a day to assist your neighbor. It is a day to treat your spouse. With that in mind, did you take the opportunity to "do good" this past Sabbath? If not, you can plan a special act of goodness for this coming week's Sabbath. So think of an act of goodness that will bless someone's life and touch someone's heart and then, if it can wait, save it for the Sabbath. For, in that act of goodness, you may just find more rest than you ever imagined.
41:1 In the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. As they ate bread together there at Mizpah, 2 Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land. 3 Ishmael also struck down all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.
4 On the day after the murder of Gedaliah, before anyone knew of it, 5 eighty men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria, with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, bringing grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of the LORD. 6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, “Come in to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” 7 When they came into the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and cast them into a cistern. 8 But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not put us to death, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the fields.” So he refrained and did not put them to death with their companions.
9 Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men whom he had struck down along with1 Gedaliah was the large cistern that King Asa had made for defense against Baasha king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain. 10 Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who were left at Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, 12 they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael the son of Nethaniah. They came upon him at the great pool that is in Gibeon. 13 And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces with him, they rejoiced. 14 So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites. 16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces with him took from Mizpah all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam—soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs, whom Johanan brought back from Gibeon. 17 And they went and stayed at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt 18 because of the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
[1] 41:9
(ESV)
Gedaliah's faith in Ishmael was misplaced, and as a result his reign as governor lasted only three months. Ishmael came to Gedaliah and as they fellowshipped together over a meal, Ishmael and the ten men with him suddenly got up from the table and struck out at Gedaliah killing him, along with the other Judeans who were with him, as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were present. The massacre continued the next day when eighty men arrived from the outlying area to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem, and to present grain offerings and burn incense at the ruins of the temple. Their shorn beards, torn clothes and self-inflicted wounds were all signs of their grief and horror at what had happened to the city of Jerusalem. They, however, had not heard of Gedaliah's assassination, and when Ishmael invited them to "come in to Gedaliah" they fell into his trap. He and his men slaughtered all but ten of them, who were spared because they had hidden provisions in the fields, which could be useful to Ishmael. Their bodies were thrown into a large cistern, and the rest of the people in Mizpah were taken captive. They were being taken to the Ammonites when Ishmael was confronted by Johanan. The people from Mizpah were set free, but Ishmael escaped to the Ammonites. Johanan and the other military leaders with him gathered the people who had been at Mizpah and took them to a place near Bethlehem, in preparation for their flight to Egypt. The fears were that Nebuchadnezzar would learn of Gedaliah's death and assume that everyone in Mizpah was party to the revolt that led to his death, and that he would come and destroy them to reassert his power over Judah and the remnant there.
89:1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah
5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD?
Who among the heavenly beings2 is like the LORD,
7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
8 O LORD God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O LORD,
with your faithfulness all around you?
[1] 89:1
[2] 89:6
(ESV)