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
9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,1 my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,2 but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel3 be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness4 did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
[1] 9:3
[2] 9:16
[3] 9:27
[4] 9:31
(ESV)
Teaching kids is always an interesting experience. As part of my training to become a pastor, I had to do a year internship at a congregation of my seminary's choosing. And I had the pleasure of winding up in a church outside of Chicago of which I have very pleasant memories.
One of my duties at this congregation was to teach sixth grade religion at the school which was part of the church. Junior high school students always seem to have the most interesting questions about God: "If God knew that Adam and Eve were going to sin and eat his forbidden fruit, why did God put the fruit there in the first place?" Or how about, "If Adam and Eve were the first two people on earth, and they had kids, where did their grandkids come from?" Then there is the more troublesome, "If God is so good, why is there evil in the world?" And who can forget the perennial, "Can God make a rock so big he can't move it?"
These questions are, of course, to a greater or lesser extent, unanswerable. Yes, we can answer these questions in a limited way, but to give a comprehensive answer to any of these questions surely treads toward heady ignorance at best and unabashed arrogance at worst. The unanswerable nature of these questions, however, has not stopped countless Christians from asking them.
Unanswerable questions about God and the divine realm are nothing new. No less than Roman Catholic luminaries Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas spent time pondering such questions as this popularly paraphrased brain buster: "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" I tremble to think how much time people have spent quarreling over such a question. Interestingly, the word "dunce" is derived from Duns Scotus' name, a tribute the pointlessness of such debates.
In my younger years, I would become very unsettled when I wasn't able to answer someone's questions about God even if they were, for all technical purposes, unanswerable. These days, however, I have grown much more comfortable knowing what I don't know and, yes, even what I can't know. Much of my comfort stems from the fact that I'm in good company.
In our reading for today from Romans 9, Paul picks up on one of the most controversial and convoluted doctrines of Christianity: predestination. Paul makes troubling and brain teasing statements such as these: "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated" (verse 13). "Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (verse 18). These troubling statements, although they've been well expounded by countless theologians over the years, albeit in different and sometimes disparate ways, still leave many with questions and objections.
As it is in our day, so it was in Paul's day. For even Paul himself had trouble sorting out all the different nuances of this difficult doctrine. Even Paul himself knew that some questions concerning this doctrine were, by their very nature, unanswerable. Paul freely admits this when he writes, "What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath - prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for his glory - even us, whom he also called" (verses 22-24). The key phrase of this passage comes in its first two words: "What if... " Paul is basically saying, "I'm not sure exactly why God chooses some for salvation and not others, but what if it's like this? Or what if it's like this?" Even Paul does not have all the answers to that which rests in the mysterious depths of God's will.
At the same time there are things that Paul freely admits he does not and cannot know, he also proudly proclaims what he does know. And Paul knows this: "Even us, whom God also called" (verse 24). In the midst of uncertainty of why God chooses some and not others with his predestinating will, Paul says, "This much I know. I have been chosen by God. I have been called by God. I have been saved by God. And not only I, but us. You too have been chosen by God." And this, I pray, is something that you know and believe with absolute certainty: God has chosen you to be his child.
You see, predestination is a doctrine which was never meant to reside in the theoretical and philosophical realms of why God does what he does. Instead, it is a doctrine which is meant to proclaim the good news that God, by his grace, has chosen you. No unanswerable question about it. And even if I can't know everything about God, I'm thankful that I can know that I have been chosen by God. Because that is the message of my salvation... and yours too.
16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.” 17 And certain of the elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people, saying, 18 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“‘Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and did not the LORD relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.”
20 There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. 21 And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, Elnathan the son of Achbor and others with him, 23 and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.
24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.
27:1 In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah1 the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD. 2 Thus the LORD said to me: “Make yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck. 3 Send word2 to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 Give them this charge for their masters: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: 5 “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.
(ESV)
As Jeremiah's trial progressed, some godly people came to his defense. They recognized that "he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God." Some of the elders recalled the days of good King Hezekiah, noting the prophecy by Micah that Jerusalem would become a heap of ruins. They warned that if Jeremiah were put to death they would bring great disaster on themselves. They also recounted a more recent incident involving a prophet named Uriah who spoke as Jeremiah had. King Jehoiakim ordered his execution, and when he fled to Egypt, had him extradited and killed. Jeremiah could easily have suffered a similar fate, but a man named Ahikam stood by Jeremiah and his life was spared. Jeremiah had already used several visual aids to make God's message clear. Now he employed straps and yoke bars that were used to harness oxen, in order to illustrate the servitude that Israel and the surrounding nations would experience under King Nebuchadnezzar. Although the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon conspired with Israel to throw off the yoke of Babylonian domination, they would not succeed. God said, "It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me." In due time Babylon would be enslaved by other nations, but for now, that great kingdom would be the means God chose to punish His own rebellious people. It is very important to understand that God is always at work on the stage of human history, and although He may raise up a nation at one point in order to fulfill His purpose, in His own time He will bring that same nation down because of their arrogance and rebellion. This can be as true of our own nation as it is of any other.
76:1 In Judah God is known;
his name is great in Israel.
2 His abode has been established in Salem,
his dwelling place in Zion.
3 There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah
4 Glorious are you, more majestic
than the mountains full of prey.
5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;
they sank into sleep;
all the men of war
were unable to use their hands.
6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both rider and horse lay stunned.
7 But you, you are to be feared!
Who can stand before you
when once your anger is roused?
8 From the heavens you uttered judgment;
the earth feared and was still,
9 when God arose to establish judgment,
to save all the humble of the earth. Selah
10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise you;
the remnant1 of wrath you will put on like a belt.
11 Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them;
let all around him bring gifts
to him who is to be feared,
12 who cuts off the spirit of princes,
who is to be feared by the kings of the earth.
[1] 76:10
(ESV)