M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
11 So after a month had passed, Nahash the Ammonite besieged Jabesh-gilead. 2 The men of Jabesh tried to make a treaty with Nahash, telling him they would serve him.
Nahesh: I will make this treaty with you on one condition: I will put out the right eye of every one of you and so humiliate Israel.
Elders: 3 Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel. If no one comes to deliver us, we will surrender to you.
4 When the messengers reached Gibeah, where Saul was ruling, they told the people about Nahash and his cruelty, and it made them weep out loud. 5 Now Saul was just coming in from plowing in the fields when he heard the commotion.
Saul: What has happened? Why is everyone so sad?
So they told the king about the predicament and request from the people of Jabesh. 6 When he heard their story, the Spirit of the True God moved upon Saul, and he was furious. 7 He took a team of oxen, just like the one he had just been plowing the fields with, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces throughout the land of Israel with his first royal decree: “May those who refuse to answer this call from Saul and Samuel have their oxen torn apart like this!” Because they were afraid of making the Eternal One angry, people from every tribe came forward to fight as one.
8 Saul gathered them at Bezek, and the Israelites numbered 300,000 fighting men, with Judah providing 30,000. 9 The messengers who had come from Jabesh were sent back to tell the people in Jabesh-gilead to look for deliverance before the heat of the next day. They were thrilled by the news.
10 So the citizens of Jabesh sent a message to Nahash.
People of Jabesh: Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you may do whatever you wish to us.
11 The next morning Saul divided the people into three regiments; they entered the Ammonite camp that night under the cloak of darkness during the morning watch and slaughtered the soldiers until the next afternoon. The survivors were so few and so scattered you could not find two Ammonites together.
People (to Samuel): 12 Who are those people who jeered, “Is Saul going to be our king?” Where are they now? Hand them over so we can kill them!
Saul: 13 No. Not one man will be executed today because the Eternal One has given a great victory to Israel.
Samuel (to the people): 14 Come with me to Gilgal. There we will renew the kingdom and crown Saul as our king.
15 So representatives from all the tribes went to Gilgal. There Saul was installed as king of Israel before the Eternal One; then they joyfully offered peace offerings to the Eternal, and Saul and all the Israelites celebrated.
In all of Paul’s letters, there is no more triumphant note than in this declaration. He has reached the climax of what it means to live em powered by God’s Spirit. We are champions, one and all. We will taste victory and sweet success made possible by His love and gifts to us. We may fear the harsh judgment of the majority. We may bristle under the scowls of others. We may even be unsettled by thoughts of death, persecution, and dark spiritual powers. But Paul celebrates the absolute assurance that no one and nothing can come between us and the love of God.
9 Now let me speak the truth as plainly as I know it in the Anointed One. I am not lying when I say that my conscience and the Holy Spirit are witnesses 2 to my state of constant grief. 3 It may sound extreme; but I wish that I were lost, cursed, and totally separated from the Anointed—if that would change the eternal destination of my brothers and sisters, my flesh and countrymen. 4 They are, after all, Israelites who have been adopted into God’s family; the glory, the covenants, the gift of the law, the temple service, and God’s promises are their rightful heritage. 5 The patriarchs are theirs, too; and from their bloodline comes the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who reigns supreme over all things, God blessed forever. Amen.
The tone changes abruptly. One minute Paul is celebrating the power of Jesus’ love; the next he is grieving because they are not pressing their way into the Kingdom.
6 Clearly it is not that God’s word has failed. The truth is that not everyone descended from Israel is truly Israel. 7 Just because people can claim Abraham as their father does not make them his true children. But in the Scriptures, it says, “Through Isaac your covenant children will be named.”[a] 8 The proper interpretation is this: Abraham’s children by natural descent are not necessarily God’s covenant people; what matters is that His children receive and live the promise. 9 For this is the word God promised: “In due time, I will come, and Sarah will give birth to a son.”[b] 10 But the story didn’t stop there. Remember when Rebekah conceived her twin boys by our father Isaac? 11-12 The twins were in Rebekah’s womb when God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”[c] This was not based on merit or actions; the twins had not done anything to please or displease God. This was God’s call on each son and His desired purposes. 13 Just as the Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”[d]
14 So how do we talk about that? Are God’s dealings unjust? Absolutely not! 15 Because He said to Moses, “I will show mercy to whomever I choose to show mercy, and I will demonstrate compassion on whomever I choose to have compassion.”[e] 16 The point is that God’s mercy has nothing to do with our will or the things we pursue. It is completely up to God. 17 The Scriptures even speak to the Pharaoh himself: “I have given you a position of power so that I might show My greater power through you and so that My name might be declared throughout every land upon the earth.”[f] 18 So when and where God decides to show mercy is completely up to Him. Likewise, when He chooses to harden one’s heart, how can we argue?
19 I can hear one of you asking, “Then how can He blame us if He is the one in complete control? How can we do anything He has not chosen for us?” 20 Here’s my answer: Who are you, a mere human, to argue with God? If God takes the time to shape us from the dust, is it right to point a finger at Him and ask, “Why have You made me this way?” 21 Doesn’t the potter have the right to shape the clay in any way he chooses? Can’t he make one lump into an elegant vase, and another into a common jug? Absolutely. 22 Even though God desires to demonstrate His anger and to reveal His power, He has shown tremendous restraint toward those vessels of wrath that are doomed to be cracked and shattered. 23 And why is that? To make the wealth of His glory known to vessels of mercy that are prepared for great beauty. 24 These vessels of mercy include all of us. God has invited Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders; it makes no difference. 25 The prophet Hosea says:
I will give a new name to those who are not My people; I’ll call them “My people,”
and to the one who has not been loved, I’ll rename her “beloved.”[g]
26 And it shall turn out that in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,”
they will be called “children of the living God.”[h]
27 And this is what Isaiah cries out when he speaks of Israel, “Even though the number of the children of Israel had once been like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of My people will be rescued and remain. 28 For the Lord will waste no time in carrying out every detail of His sentence upon the earth.”[i] 29 It is as Isaiah predicts:
Except for the fraction of us who hang on by the grace of the Lord, Commander of heavenly armies,
we’d be destroyed and deserted like Sodom
and Gomorrah, utterly done in.[j]
For Paul, the astonishing truth of the gospel has to do with what God is now doing with the non-Jews. Apparently God’s plan all along is to make those who are not His people into His people. All those who never experienced God’s love are now experiencing it as they enter into the life of the Spirit through faith. But what does this mean for Israel? Israel, too, is included in the people of God; but again, this does not mean all of Israel. Pedigree is not what counts; faith is. As it was in the days of the prophets, so it is again. Divine judgment is falling on disobedience, but a remnant of faithful Jews—a fraction of the whole—is being saved.
30 So what does all of this mean? Did the non-Jews stumble into a right standing with God without chasing after it? Yes, they found it through faith. 31 And has Israel, who pursued the law to secure a right standing with God, failed to keep the law? Yes again. 32 And why is that? Because Israel did not follow the path of faith. They thought that whatever they needed to be right with God could be accomplished by doing the works of the law; they tripped over the stumbling stone. 33 As the Scriptures say,
Look what I am going to do in Zion.
I’ll put in place a stone that makes them stumble, a rock that trips them up,
and those who trust in it will not be disgraced.[k]
48 This is what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, has to say about Moab.
Next is Moab, a familiar enemy of Israel. Despite Jeremiah’s warning they will answer for their trust in themselves, their material wealth, and their god Chemosh.
Eternal One: Woe to the city of Nebo, for she is in ruins.
So, too, will Kiriathaim be put to shame when she is captured.
The proud fortress of Moab will be humbled and shattered into pieces.
2 No one will praise you, Moab—that time has gone.
Instead, in places like Heshbon, men are planning your destruction.
“Come,” they will say, “and let us finish off that nation.”
Indeed, the town of Madmen will be silenced,
for war will surely find you.
3 Do you hear the voice from Horonaim—
the cries rising up from the ruins and desolation?
4 Moab is broken,
and her little ones cry in desperation.
5 The defeated make their way up Luhith, crying bitterly as they go;
as they descend to Horonaim, they hear the anguished cries of destruction.
6 Run for your lives! Save yourselves!
Live in the desert like a juniper bush, alone and forsaken.
7 You depended on your own works and your own wealth,
and now you will be humbled and taken captive.
Your so-called god, Chemosh, will go with you into exile
along with his priests and officials.
8 The destroyer is coming to each of your towns; none of them will escape.
The valley will be ruined;
The plateau will be destroyed
because I, the Eternal One, have spoken.
9 Give Moab wings so she can fly away.
Her cities will be a wasteland with no one living in them.
10 A curse on any who do not finish the work I, the Eternal One, have given you! A curse on anyone who holds back his sword and refuses to shed blood.
11 Moab has been at rest since his early days—
like wine that is carefully left to age,
Not poured from jar to jar,
not going from nation to nation in exile.
And so his flavor has remained; his aroma has not faded.
12 But all of that will change. Look, in the coming days, I, the Eternal One, declare that I will send those who will upend him, stirring him up and pouring him out until his jars have nothing left. They will empty his jars and smash the empty jugs.
13 Then Moab will be ashamed of his powerless god, Chemosh, just as the people of Israel were ashamed of Bethel when they trusted in their false gods.
14 Eternal One: How can you still boast,
“We are mighty warriors, brave in battle?”
15 Because Moab is destroyed;
invaders have laid waste his towns.
His best young men have gone down to slaughter.
So say I, the King whose name is the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.
16 The fall of Moab is at hand;
his disaster is coming quickly.
17 Grieve for him, you neighbors of Moab,
all who know his name.
Say, “Look how his mighty scepter is broken,
how the splendor of his staff is gone!”
18 You people of Dibon, come down from your glory on the hills
and sit on the dry, dusty ground and wait,
For the same one who destroyed Moab
is coming against you and will tear down your strongholds as well.
19 Stand by the road and watch closely,
you people of Aroer.
Call out to the refugees running from Moab.
Ask them what happened!
20 And they will answer: “Moab has been humiliated and crushed.
Weep for him, and cry out.
Go down to the Arnon River and
proclaim that Moab has been destroyed.”
21 Judgment has come to the cities of the plain: to Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath; 22 to Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim; 23 to Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon; 24 to Kerioth and Bozrah. To all the cities of Moab, far and near, judgment has come.
Eternal One: 25 The symbols of his strength are gone; the horn of Moab has been cut off, and his arm broken.
26 Make Moab drink deeply from this cup until he is drunk, for he has exalted himself above the Eternal. Make him drink until he wallows in his own vomit; then he will be ridiculed by all who see him. 27 Did you not ridicule Israel? Was he guilty of a crime? Was he caught among thieves? Is that why you, Moab, shake your head in contempt every time you speak of him?
28 Eternal One: Run from your towns and live in the wilderness,
you citizens of Moab;
Hide among the rocks
like doves who nest among the cliffs.
29 We have all heard about the pride of Moab—
so vain and so smug.
We have all heard about her pride and arrogance
and her overconfident heart.
30 I, too, know of the arrogant outbursts, but they are pointless;
empty boasts accomplish nothing.
31 This is why I will mourn for Moab; for all her people, I will cry aloud;
for the men of Kir-heres, I will moan.
32 You who tend the prolific vineyards in Sibmah,
I will cry for you more than I did for Jazer.
Your vines once spread as far as the sea, as far as the sea of Jazer.
But now the destroyer has spoiled your summer harvest and sweet grapes.
33 The joy of the harvest is gone from Moab’s orchards and vineyards.
For I have stopped the flow of wine; no one treads the grapes.
The land is full of shouting, but they are not shouts of joy.
34 The anguish of their cries rises from Heshbon to Elealeh and Jahaz, from Zoar all the way to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will dry up.
Eternal One: 35 I will put an end to idol worship in Moab, to those who make offerings on shrines in high places and burn incense to so-called gods.
36 Like the somber sound of a flute, my heart mourns for Moab. My heart mourns for the men of Kir-heres, for everything they had is gone.
37 For every head is shaved, and every beard is cut short;
every hand is cut, and every waist is wrapped in sackcloth.
38 Eternal One: On every rooftop in Moab and on every street corner,
there is nothing but mourning
Because I have smashed Moab like a jar that no one wants.
39 How broken he is! How the people wail!
How the once-proud Moab turns away in shame!
See how Moab has become a laughingstock
and a horror to all his neighbors.
40 Eternal One: Look in the distance: an eagle will swoop down
and spread his wings over Moab, his prey.
41 The cities will be captured and the strongholds seized.
On that day the heart of Moab’s warriors
Will be like the heart of a woman in labor—helpless and vulnerable.
42 The nation of Moab will be no more
because he dares to defy the Eternal.
43 Terror and traps and snares lie ahead, O citizens of Moab.
44 Eternal One: If you run from the terror, you will fall into a pit.
If you climb out of the pit, you will be caught in a trap.
There is no escape, for I will bring these disasters against Moab;
the year of their judgment has come at last.
45 Run if you will, but in Heshbon’s shadow the refugees are helpless.
Look! A fire rages from Heshbon; destroying flames leap from Sihon;
They consume the northern regions of Moab
and destroy his clamoring rebels.
46 Woe to you, O Moab! Worshipers of Chemosh are destroyed;
your sons are sent away, your daughters taken captive.
47 But even so, in latter times the day will come
when I will restore the fortunes of Moab.
This is the end of Jeremiah’s oracle of judgment against Moab.
Psalm 25
A song of David.
1 ALWAYS I will lift up my soul to You, Eternal One,
2 BECAUSE You are my God and I put my trust in You.
Do not let me be humiliated.
Do not let my enemies celebrate at my expense.
3 CERTAINLY none of the people who rely on You will be shamed,
but those who are unfaithful, who intentionally deceive,
they are the ones who will be disgraced.
4 DEMONSTRATE Your ways, O Eternal One.
Teach me to understand so I can follow.
5 EASE me down the path of Your truth.
FEED me Your word
because You are the True God who has saved me.
I wait all day long, hoping, trusting in You.
6 GRACIOUS Eternal One, remember Your compassion; rekindle Your concern and love,
which have always been part of Your actions toward those who are Yours.
7 Do not HOLD against me the sins I committed when I was young;
instead, deal with me according to Your mercy and love.
Then Your goodness may be demonstrated in all the world, Eternal One.
8 IMMENSELY good and honorable is the Eternal;
that’s why He teaches sinners the way.
9 With JUSTICE, He directs the humble in all that is right,
and He shows them His way.
10 KIND and true are all the ways of the Eternal
to the people who keep His covenant and His words.
11 O LORD, the Eternal, bring glory to Your name,
and forgive my sins because they are beyond number.
12 MAY anyone who fears the Eternal
be shown the path he should choose.
13 His soul will NOT only live in goodness,
but his children will inherit the land.
14 ONLY those who stand in awe of the Eternal will have intimacy with Him,
and He will reveal His covenant to them.
15 PERPETUALLY my focus takes me to the Eternal
because He will set me free from the traps laid for me.
16 QUIETLY turn Your eyes to me and be compassionate toward me
because I am lonely and persecuted.
17 RAPIDLY my heart beats as troubles build on the horizon.
Come relieve me from these threats.
18 SEE my troubles and my misery,
and forgive all my sins.
19 TAKE notice of my enemies.
See how there are so many of them
who hate me and would seek my violent destruction.
20 Watch over my soul,
and let me face shame and defeat
UNASHAMED because You are my refuge.
21 May honor and strong character keep me safe.
VIGILANTLY I wait for You, hoping, trusting.
22 Save Israel from all its troubles,
O True God.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.