Daily Devotion for 28 March 2026 (Lent 5, Saturday)

Welcome to the Daily Devotions Podcast from Confident Faith.

I am Corey J. Moller, a contributor here at Confident Faith.

I will be your reader today, this Saturday in the 5th week of Lent, the 28th of March.

In the year of our Lord, 2026, in the time of Easter, there are no feasts, festivals, or

commemorations on the calendar today.

Our readings for today are Psalm 78, Psalm 51, Exodus 7 verses 1 through 25, Mark 16

and Paragraphs 33 through 36 of Article 4 of the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord.

We will close, as always, with the Lord's Prayer.

Today's first reading from the Psalter is the 78th Psalm.

Pay attention to my people to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter problems revolved, things that we heard,

and we knew them, and our fathers told us.

They were not hidden from their children to a next generation, as they kept telling of

the praises of the Lord, and of his dominance and of the wonders that he did.

He established a witness in Jacob, and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers

to make them known to their sons, that an next generation might know them, sons that

will be born, and they shall rise up and tell them to their sons, so that they should set

their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, and seek out his commandments, that

they should not be like their fathers, a generation crooked and imbitering, a generation which

did not set its heart a right, and its spirit was not faithful to God.

Ephraim's sons, though bending and shooting their bows, were turned back on a day of war.

They did not keep the covenant of God, and in his law they did not want to walk, and

they forgot his benefactions, and his marvels that he showed them, in the sight of their

fathers, which marvels he worked, in the land of Egypt, in Tannis's plain.

He broke a sunder a sea and brought them through, and made waters stand like a wine skin,

and he led them with a cloud by day, and all night long with an illumination of fire.

He broke a sunder a rock in a wilderness, and gave them drink as from a voluminous deep,

and he brought out water from a rock, and brought down waters like rivers, and they added

still to sin against him.

They imbitered the most high in a waterless land, and they tested God in their hearts by

demanding food for their souls, and they spoke against God and said, surely God will not

be able to spread a table in a wilderness, even though he struck a rock and waters

gushed out, and what he's deluged.

Surely he cannot also give bread, or spread a table for his people.

Therefore the Lord heard and was put out, and a fire was kindled in Jacob, and anger

mounted against Israel, because they had no faith in God, nor did they hope in his saving

power, and he commanded clouds above, and opened heaven's doors, and he rained down

manna for them to eat, and heaven's bread he gave them, bread of angels man ate, provisions

he sent them in abundance.

He removed a south wind from heaven, and he led on by his dominance a southwest wind,

and he rained upon them flesh like dust, and winged birds like the sand of seas, and

they fell in the midst of their camp, all around their coverts, and they ate and were

well filled, and what they craved he brought them.

They were not deprived of what they craved, while their food was still in their mouth.

God's wrath also rose against them, and he killed among their sleek ones, and the

select of Israel he shackled.

Amidst all these things they still sinned, and they did not believe in his marvels, and

vanity did their days end, and their years with haste.

When he was killing them they would seek him out, they would turn to God and be early,

and they remembered that God was their helper, and God the most high was their redeemer,

and they deceived him with their mouth, with their tongue they lied to him, and their

heart was not upright with him, nor were they true to his covenant, yet he is compassionate,

and will atone their sins and not destroy them, and he will increase to turn away his anger,

and not ignite all his wrath, and he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passes

and does not come again.

How often they embittered him in the wilderness, they provoked him to anger in an arid land,

and they turned about and tested God, and the holy one of Israel they provoked.

They did not keep in mind his hand, the day on which he redeemed them from an oppressor's

hand, how he displayed in Egypt his signs, and his wonders in Tannis's plain, and he turned

their rivers into blood, and their pools that they could not drink.

He sent a dogfly among them, and it devoured them, and a frog, and it destroyed them.

And he gave their crops over to the rust, and their labors to the grasshopper.

He killed their vine with hail, and their mulberry trees with the whore frost, and he gave

over their cattle to hail, and their property to the fire.

He sent among them his anger's wrath, anger and wrath and affliction, a dispatch through

wicked angels.

He made a path for his wrath, he did not spare their souls from death, and their cattle

he consigned to death.

And he struck every firstborn in Egypt, first fruits of their labors in the coverts of

ham, and he removed his people like sheep, and brought them up like a flock in a wilderness,

and he guided them in hope, and they were not in dread, but their enemies a sea covered,

and he brought them to a territory of his holy precinct, this mountain that his right

hand acquired.

And he threw out nations from before them, and he distributed to them shares by measuring

line, and made the tribes of Israel and camp in their coverts.

And they tested and embittered God the most high, and his testimonies they did not observe,

and turned away and were faithless as also their fathers.

They were twisted into a crooked bow, and they provoked him to anger with their hills,

and with their carved images they moved him to jealousy.

God heard and disdained, and he treated Israel with utter contempt, and he rejected his

tent at Shiloh, a covert where he encamped among human beings, and gave their strength over

to captivity, and their comeliness into an enemy's hands, and he consigned his people

to a sword, and his heritage he disdained.

Their young men fired devoured, and their girls were not bewailed.

Their priests fell by sword, and their widows will not be lamented.

And the Lord of Woke is one who sleeps, like a strong man intoxicated with wine, and

he struck his enemies backwards, ever lasting disgrace he put them to, and he rejected

the covert of Joseph, and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose, and he chose the tribe

of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved, and he built his holy precinct like that of unicorns,

in the land he founded it forever, and he chose David his slave, and took him from the sheepfolds,

and behind the lambing use he took him, to shepherd Jacob his people, and Israel his

inheritance, and he shepherded them in the innocence of his heart, and by the cleverness

of his hands he guided them.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be forevermore.

Amen.

Today's second reading from the Psalter is the 51st Psalm.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy, and according to the abundance of

your compassion, blot out my lawless deed.

Wash me thoroughly from my lawlessness, and from my sin cleanse me, because my lawlessness

I know, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you alone did I sin, and what is evil before you I did, so that you may be justified

in your words, and be victorious when you go to law.

For look I was conceived in lawlessness, and in sin did my mother crave for me.

For look you love truth, the unclear and secret aspects of your wisdom you made clear to me.

You will sprinkle me with his up, and I shall be cleansed.

You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

You will make me hear joy and gladness.

Humble bones will rejoice.

Turn away your face from my sins, and all my lawless acts blot out.

A clean heart created me, O God, and an upright spirit renew within me.

Do not cast me away from your face, and your holy spirit do not take from me.

Restore to me the joy of your deliverance, and with a leading spirit support me.

I will teach lawless ones your ways, and impious ones will return to you.

Rescue me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my deliverance.

My tongue will rejoice at your righteousness.

O Lord, my lips you will open, and my mouth will declare your praise,

because if you had wanted sacrifice I would have given it,

with whole burnt offerings you will not be pleased.

Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.

A broken and humbled heart, God will not despise.

Do good desire in your good pleasure, and let the walls of Jerusalem be built.

Then you will delight in a sacrifice of righteousness, in offering and whole burnt offerings.

Then they will offer calves on your altar.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forevermore.

Amen.

Today's Old Testament reading comes from the book of Exodus,

and we will be reading the 7th chapter, verses 1 through 25.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

Look, I have given you as a God to Pharaoh,

and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.

Now you shall speak to him all things that I command you,

and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh so that he sends the sons of Israel away from his land.

But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land Egypt.

And Pharaoh shall not listen to you, and I will lay my hand upon Egypt,

and I will bring out with my host my people the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt with great vengeance,

and all the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt,

and I shall bring the sons of Israel out from their midst.

And Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them, so they did.

Now Moses was 80 years old, but Aaron his brother was 83 years old when he spoke to Pharaoh.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

And if Pharaoh should speak to you, saying, Give us a sign or wonder,

You shall say to Aaron your brother, Take the rod and throw it upon the ground before Pharaoh,

and before his attendance, and it will be a dragon.

Now Moses and Aaron went in before Pharaoh and his attendance, and did so just as the Lord commanded them,

and Aaron threw down the rod before Pharaoh and before his attendance, and it became a dragon.

And Pharaoh summoned the experts of Egypt and the sorcerers, and they also,

the enchanters of the Egyptians, did likewise by their magical potions,

and each one threw down his rod, and they became dragons, and the rod of Aaron swallowed the rods of those people,

and the heart of Pharaoh prevailed, and he did not listen to them just as the Lord spoke to them.

Now the Lord said to Moses, The heart of Pharaoh is weighed down, so is not to send away the people.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning.

Look, he himself is going out to the water, and you shall stand, meeting him on the bank of the river,

and the rod that was turned into a snake you shall take in your hand, and you shall say to him,

The Lord the God of the Hebrews has sent me to you saying, Send away my people,

so that they may serve me in the wilderness.

And look, you did not listen up to this point.

This is what the Lord says, by this you shall know that I am the Lord.

Look, with the rod that is in my hand, I am about to strike upon the water that is in the river,

and it shall turn to blood, and the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink,

and the Egyptians shall be unable to drink water from the river.

Now the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron your brother, Take your rod and stretch out the hand over the waters of Egypt,

and over their waters and over their canals, and over their marshes, and over all their accumulated water,

and they shall be blood.

And blood occurred in all the land of Egypt, both in things made from wood, and things made from stone.

And Moses and Aaron did so just as the Lord commanded them.

And Aaron lifted up, and with his rod struck the water that was in the river before Pharaoh, and before his attendance,

and all the water in the river turned into blood, and the fish in the river died, and the river stink,

and the Egyptians could not drink water from the river, and there was blood in the whole land of Egypt,

but also the Egyptians in chanters did likewise with their magical potions,

and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to him, just as the Lord said,

and Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not put his mind even to this.

Now all the Egyptians dug around the river so that they might drink water, and they could not drink water from the river,

and seven days were completed after the Lord struck the river.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Today's New Testament reading comes from the book of Mark, and we will be reading the 16th chapter, verses 1-20.

When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene married the mother of James and Solomon bought spices,

so that they might go and anoint him, and very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb,

and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb,

and looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, it was very large, and entering the tomb,

they saw young men sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed,

and he said to them, do not be alarmed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.

He has risen, he is not here. See the place where they laid him, but go tell his disciples in Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.

There you will see him, just as he told you.

And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

She went and told those who had been with him as they mourned and wept, but when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After these things, he appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking in the country, and they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining a table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.

And he said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation, whoever believes in his baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will accompany those who believe, in my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them, they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, and they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Today's reading from the book of Concorde comes from the solid declaration of the formula of Concorde, and we will be reading Article 4, Paragraphs 33 through 36.

The apology provides an excellent model that shows how and when exhortations to good works can be made without darkening the doctrine of faith and of the article of justification, in Article 20 on the passage 2 Peter 110, be all the more diligent to make your calling an election sure, it says,

Peter speaks of works, following the forgiveness of sins, and teaches why they should be done, they should be done so that the calling may be sure, that is, should they fall from their calling if they sin again,

do good works in order that you may persevere in your calling, in order that you do not lose the gifts of your calling.

They were given to you before, and not because of works that follow, and which now are kept through faith. Faith does not remain in those who lose the Holy Spirit and reject repentance.

On the other hand, this does not mean that faith lays hold of righteousness and salvation, only in the beginning, and then resigns its office to works, as though they had to sustain faith the righteousness received and salvation.

It means that the promise not only of receiving, but also of retaining righteousness and salvation, is firm and sure to us.

St. Paul, Romans 5-2, ascribes to faith not only the entrance to grace, but says that we stand in grace and boast of the future glory.

In other words, he credits the beginning, middle, and end to faith alone.

They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith, Romans 11-20.

He will present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, Colossians 1-22-23.

By God's power, you are being guarded through faith for a salvation, 1 Peter 1-5, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls, 1 Peter 1-9.

It is clear from God's word that faith is the power and only means through which righteousness and salvation are not only received, but also preserved by God.

Therefore, it is right to reject the Council of Trends decree, and whatever elsewhere is set forth with the same meaning.

For they say our good works preserve salvation, or the righteousness of faith that has been received, or even faith itself.

They say it is either entirely or in part kept and preserved by our works.

Before this controversy, quite a few pure teachers use similar expressions to explain the Holy Scriptures.

However, they in no way intended to confirm the above mentioned errors of the papus.

Still, a controversy arose over such expressions, from which all sorts of offensive distractions followed.

Therefore, according to St. Paul's admonition, 2 Timothy 113, it is safe to hold fast both to the pattern of the sound words and to the pure doctrine itself.

In this way, much unnecessary wrangling may be cut off, and the church preserved from many scandals.

This concludes our reading from the Book of Concord.

I now invite all of you to join me in reciting the Lord's Prayer, one of the most ancient prayers of the church.

I do encourage you to say it aloud if you are somewhere would be reasonable to do so, but praying it silently is, of course, also fine.

The Lord knows what is in your heart.

Lord, remember us in your kingdom, and teach us to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever, amen.

Go in peace and grace to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whatever calling has been given you, or tasks that before you, until tomorrow, God be with you.

Amen.