Bible Reading Plan

Word for Today

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!

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Readings for


New Testament Reading


1 Corinthians 3

Divisions in the Church

3:1 But I, brothers,1 could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled2 master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you3 are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Footnotes

[1] 3:1 Or brothers and sisters
[2] 3:10 Or wise
[3] 3:16 The Greek for you is plural in verses 16 and 17

(ESV)


Old Testament Reading


Isaiah 17–18

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17:1 An oracle concerning Damascus.

  Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
    and will become a heap of ruins.
  The cities of Aroer are deserted;
    they will be for flocks,
    which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
  The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
    and the kingdom from Damascus;
  and the remnant of Syria will be
    like the glory of the children of Israel,
      declares the LORD of hosts.
  And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
    and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
  And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain
    and his arm harvests the ears,
  and as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.
  Gleanings will be left in it,
    as when an olive tree is beaten—
  two or three berries
    in the top of the highest bough,
  four or five
    on the branches of a fruit tree,
      declares the LORD God of Israel.

In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10   For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
  therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
    and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
11   though you make them grow1 on the day that you plant them,
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
  yet the harvest will flee away2
    in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12   Ah, the thunder of many peoples;
    they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
  Ah, the roar of nations;
    they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
13   The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
    but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
  chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and whirling dust before the storm.
14   At evening time, behold, terror!
    Before morning, they are no more!
  This is the portion of those who loot us,
    and the lot of those who plunder us.

An Oracle Concerning Cush

18:1   Ah, land of whirring wings
    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,3
  which sends ambassadors by the sea,
    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
  Go, you swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and smooth,
  to a people feared near and far,
    a nation mighty and conquering,
    whose land the rivers divide.
  All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, hear!
  For thus the LORD said to me:
  “I will quietly look from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
  For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
  They shall all of them be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the beasts of the earth.
  And the birds of prey will summer on them,
    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts

  from a people tall and smooth,
    from a people feared near and far,
  a nation mighty and conquering,
    whose land the rivers divide,

to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.

Footnotes

[1] 17:11 Or though you carefully fence them
[2] 17:11 Or will be a heap
[3] 18:1 Probably Nubia

(ESV)

Pastoral Commentary for Isaiah 17-18

Commentary from Pastor Bob Nordlie

Isaiah now directs an oracle against Damascus, the capital city of Aramea or Syria. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had looked to Syria as an ally to provide protection against the surging Assyrians. But Damascus proved to be a poor fortress and the city of Damascus was actually captured by the Assyrians in 732, many years before Samaria, the capital of Israel fell. Because of its proximity to the Northern Kingdom and the alliance between the two nations, it was sometimes referred to as Ephraim. Isaiah, then, warns about the destruction of both nations, using the picture of harvest to describe God's judgment. Nevertheless, Isaiah promises that a small remnant will remain, like the gleanings from a field that has been harvested. God's judgment will lead the remnant to repentance, as they turn away from idols to the Holy One of Israel. The chapter closes by putting God's judgment on Syria and Israel in the larger context of Judgment Day for all the nations. Isaiah then turns his attention to Cush, or Ethiopia, located at the headwaters of the Nile River, to the south of Egypt. Just as it was foolish for Israel to look for rescue to Syria in the north, it would be just as foolish to trust in an ally from the south. The ambassadors from Ethiopia are told to return to the "land of whirring wings," perhaps a reference to locusts or gnats like those that plagued Egypt in the days of Moses, or metaphorically, to the armies of Ethiopia, seen as a potential rescuer of Israel. None would be able to stand when the Lord raises a signal and blows the trumpet announcing His judgment. After the harvest of judgment takes place, the nations like Ethiopia will pay tribute to the Lord of Hosts, acknowledging the God of Israel as King over all.


Psalms/Proverbs Reading


Psalm 24

The King of Glory

A Psalm of David.

24:1   The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,1
    the world and those who dwell therein,
  for he has founded it upon the seas
    and established it upon the rivers.
  Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
    And who shall stand in his holy place?
  He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not lift up his soul to what is false
    and does not swear deceitfully.
  He will receive blessing from the LORD
    and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
  Such is the generation of those who seek him,
    who seek the face of the God of Jacob.2 Selah
  Lift up your heads, O gates!
    And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
  Who is this King of glory?
    The LORD, strong and mighty,
    the LORD, mighty in battle!
  Lift up your heads, O gates!
    And lift them up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
10   Who is this King of glory?
    The LORD of hosts,
    he is the King of glory! Selah

Footnotes

[1] 24:1 Or and all that fills it
[2] 24:6 Septuagint, Syriac, and two Hebrew manuscripts; Masoretic Text who seek your face, Jacob

(ESV)