M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

7 The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took the Ark of the Lord to Abinadab’s house on a hill. There they made Abinadab’s son Eleazar holy for the Lord so he could guard the Ark of the Lord.

The Lord Saves the Israelites

² The Ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all. And the people of Israel began to follow the Lord again. ³ Samuel spoke to the whole group of Israel, saying, “If you’re turning back to the Lord with all your hearts, you must remove your foreign gods and your idols of Ashtoreth. You must give yourselves fully to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will save you from the Philistines.”

⁴ So the Israelites put away their idols of Baal and Ashtoreth, and they served only the Lord.

⁵ Samuel said, “All Israel must meet at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” ⁶ So the Israelites met together at Mizpah. They drew water from the ground and poured it out before the Lord and fasted that day. They confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel served as judge of Israel at Mizpah.

⁷ The Philistines heard the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah, so the Philistine kings came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard they were coming, they were afraid. ⁸ They said to Samuel, “Don’t stop praying to the Lord our God for us! Ask him to save us from the Philistines!” ⁹ Then Samuel took a baby lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering. He called to the Lord for Israel’s sake, and the Lord answered him.

¹⁰ While Samuel was burning the offering, the Philistines came near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered against them with loud thunder. They were so frightened they became confused. So the Israelites defeated the Philistines in battle. ¹¹ The men of Israel ran out of Mizpah and chased the Philistines almost to Beth Car, killing the Philistines along the way.

Peace Comes to Israel

¹² After this happened Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named the stone Ebenezer,^[a] saying, “The Lord has helped us to this point.” ¹³ So the Philistines were defeated and did not enter the Israelites’ land again.

The Lord was against the Philistines all Samuel’s life. ¹⁴ Earlier the Philistines had taken towns from the Israelites, but the Israelites won them back, from Ekron to Gath. They also took back from the Philistines the lands near these towns. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵ Samuel continued as judge of Israel all his life. ¹⁶ Every year he went from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah and judged the Israelites in all these towns. ¹⁷ But Samuel always went back to Ramah, where his home was. There he judged Israel and built an altar to the Lord.

Israel Asks for a King

8 When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges for Israel. ² His first son was named Joel, and his second son was named Abijah. Joel and Abijah were judges in Beersheba. ³ But Samuel’s sons did not live as he did. They tried to get money dishonestly, and they accepted money secretly to make wrong judgments.

⁴ So all the elders came together and met Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “You’re old, and your sons don’t live as you do. Give us a king to rule over us like all the other nations.”

⁶ When the elders said that, Samuel was not pleased. He prayed to the Lord, ⁷ and the Lord told Samuel, “Listen to whatever the people say to you. They have not rejected you. They have rejected me from being their king. ⁸ They are doing as they have always done. When I took them out of Egypt, they left me and served other gods. They are doing the same to you. ⁹ Now listen to the people, but warn them what the king who rules over them will do.”

¹⁰ So Samuel told those who had asked him for a king what the Lord had said. ¹¹ Samuel said, “If you have a king ruling over you, this is what he will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and his horses, and they will run in front of the king’s chariot. ¹² The king will make some of your sons commanders over thousands or over fifties. He will make some of your other sons plow his ground and reap his harvest. He will take others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to make perfume and cook and bake for him. ¹⁴ He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves and give them to his servants. ¹⁵ He will take one-tenth of your grain and grapes and give it to his officers and servants. ¹⁶ He will take your male and female servants, your best cattle, and your donkeys and use them all for his own work. ¹⁷ He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When that time comes, you will cry out because of the king you chose. But the Lord will not answer you then.”

¹⁹ But the people would not listen to Samuel. They said, “No! We want a king to rule over us. ²⁰ Then we will be the same as all the other nations. Our king will judge for us and go with us and fight our battles.”

²¹ After Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated their words to the Lord. ²² The Lord answered, “You must listen to them. Give them a king.”

Then Samuel told the people of Israel, “Go back to your towns.”

Dead to Sin but Alive in Christ

6 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace? ² No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin? ³ Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ when we were baptized? We shared his death in our baptism. ⁴ When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life.

⁵ Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from the dead as he did. ⁶ We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin. ⁷ Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control.

⁸ If we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ Christ was raised from the dead, and we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now. ¹⁰ Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God. ¹¹ In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive with God through Christ Jesus.

¹² So, do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your sinful self wants to do. ¹³ Do not offer the parts of your body to serve sin, as things to be used in doing evil. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used in doing good. ¹⁴ Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law but under God’s grace.

Be Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵ So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under law? No! ¹⁶ Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is your master. You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey God, which makes you right with him. ¹⁷ In the past you were slaves to sin—sin controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed the things that you were taught. ¹⁸ You were made free from sin, and now you are slaves to goodness. ¹⁹ I use this example because this is hard for you to understand. In the past you offered the parts of your body to be slaves to sin and evil; you lived only for evil. In the same way now you must give yourselves to be slaves of goodness. Then you will live only for God.

²⁰ In the past you were slaves to sin, and goodness did not control you. ²¹ You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of them. Those things only bring death. ²² But now you are free from sin and have become slaves of God. This brings you a life that is only for God, and this gives you life forever. ²³ The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Disaster in Egypt

44 Jeremiah received a message from the Lord for all the Jews living in Egypt—in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in southern Egypt. This was the message: ² “The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: You saw all the terrible things I brought on Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, which are ruins today with no one living in them. ³ It is because the people who lived there did evil. They made me angry by burning incense and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew. ⁴ I sent all my servants, the prophets, to you again and again. By them I said to you, ‘Don’t do this terrible thing that I hate.’ ⁵ But they did not listen or pay attention. They did not stop doing evil things and burning incense to other gods. ⁶ So I showed my great anger against them. I poured out my anger in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem so they are only ruins and piles of stones today.

⁷ “Now the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves? You are cutting off the men and women, children and babies from the family of Judah, leaving yourselves without anyone from the family of Judah. ⁸ Why do you want to make me angry by making idols? Why do you burn incense to the gods of Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves. Other nations will speak evil of you and make fun of you. ⁹ Have you forgotten about the evil things your ancestors did? And have you forgotten the evil the kings and queens of Judah did? Have you forgotten about the evil you and your wives did? These things were done in the country of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ Even to this day the people of Judah are still too proud. They have not learned to respect me or to follow my teachings. They have not obeyed the laws I gave you and your ancestors.

¹¹ “So this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disasters on you. I will destroy the whole family of Judah. ¹² The few who were left alive from Judah were determined to go to Egypt and settle there, but they will all die in Egypt. They will be killed in war or die from hunger. From the least important to the greatest, they will be killed in war or die from hunger. Other nations will speak evil about them. People will be shocked by what has happened to them. They will become a curse word, and people will insult them. ¹³ I will punish those people who have gone to live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem, using swords, hunger, and terrible diseases. ¹⁴ Of the people of Judah who were left alive and have gone to live in Egypt, none will escape my punishment. They want to return to Judah and live there, but none of them will live to return to Judah, except a few people who will escape.”

¹⁵ A large group of the people of Judah who lived in southern Egypt were meeting together. Among them were many women of Judah who were burning incense to other gods, and their husbands knew it. All these people said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to the message from the Lord that you spoke to us. ¹⁷ We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen Goddess, and we will certainly do everything we promised. We will burn incense and pour out drink offerings to worship her, just as we, our ancestors, kings, and officers did in the past. All of us did these things in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were successful, and nothing bad happened to us. ¹⁸ But since we stopped making sacrifices to the Queen Goddess and stopped pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had great problems. Our people have also been killed in war and by hunger.”

¹⁹ The women said, “Our husbands knew what we were doing. We had their permission to burn incense to the Queen Goddess and to pour out drink offerings to her. Our husbands knew we were making cakes that looked like her and were pouring out drink offerings to her.”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—men and women—who answered him. ²¹ He said to them, “The Lord remembered that you and your ancestors, kings and officers, and the people of the land burned incense in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. He remembered and thought about it. ²² Then he could not be patient with you any longer. He hated the terrible things you did. So he made your country an empty desert, where no one lives. Other people curse that country. And so it is today. ²³ All this happened because you burned incense to other gods. You sinned against the Lord. You did not obey him or follow his teachings or the laws he gave you. You did not keep your part of the agreement with him. So this disaster has happened to you. It is there for you to see.”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to all those men and women, “People of Judah who are now in Egypt, hear the word of the Lord: ²⁵ The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives did what you said you would do. You said, ‘We will certainly keep the promises we made. We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen Goddess and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ So, go ahead. Do the things you promised, and keep your promises. ²⁶ But hear the word of the Lord. Listen, all you Jews living in Egypt. The Lord says, ‘I have sworn by my great name: The people of Judah now living in Egypt will never again use my name to make promises. They will never again say in Egypt, “As surely as the Lord God lives . . . ” ²⁷ I am watching over them, not to take care of them, but to hurt them. The Jews who live in Egypt will die from swords or hunger until they are all destroyed. ²⁸ A few will escape being killed by the sword and will come back to Judah from Egypt. Then, of the people of Judah who came to live in Egypt, those who are left alive will know if my word or their word came true. ²⁹ I will give you a sign that I will punish you here in Egypt,’ says the Lord. ‘When you see it happen, you will know that my promises to hurt you will really happen.’ ³⁰ This is what the Lord says: ‘Hophra king of Egypt has enemies who want to kill him. Soon I will hand him over to his enemies just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who wanted to kill him.’”

A Prayer for the King

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

Thanksgiving for the King

For the director of music. A psalm of David.