M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Saul Rejected as King
15 Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to appoint you king over Israel. Now listen to his message. 2 This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: ‘When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites tried to stop them from going to Canaan. So I will punish them. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and destroy everything they own as an offering to the Lord. Don’t let anything live. Put to death men and women, children and small babies, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
4 So Saul called the army together at Telaim. There were two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. 5 Then Saul went to the city of Amalek and set up an ambush in the ravine. 6 He said to the Kenites, “Go away. Leave the Amalekites so that I won’t destroy you with them, because you showed kindness to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
7 Then Saul defeated the Amalekites. He fought them all the way from Havilah to Shur, at the border of Egypt. 8 He took King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but he killed all of Agag’s army with the sword. 9 Saul and the army let Agag live, along with the best sheep, fat cattle, and lambs. They let every good animal live, because they did not want to destroy them. But when they found an animal that was weak or useless, they killed it.
10 Then the Lord spoke his word to Samuel: 11 “I am sorry I made Saul king, because he has stopped following me and has not obeyed my commands.” Samuel was upset, and he cried out to the Lord all night long.
12 Early the next morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul. But the people told Samuel, “Saul has gone to Carmel, where he has put up a monument in his own honor. Now he has gone down to Gilgal.”
13 When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said, “May the Lord bless you! I have obeyed the Lord’s commands.”
14 But Samuel said, “Then why do I hear cattle mooing and sheep bleating?”
15 Saul answered, “The soldiers took them from the Amalekites. They saved the best sheep and cattle to offer as sacrifices to the Lord your God, but we destroyed all the other animals.”
16 Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
Saul answered, “Tell me.”
17 Samuel said, “Once you didn’t think much of yourself, but now you have become the leader of the tribes of Israel. The Lord appointed you to be king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission. He said, ‘Go and destroy those evil people, the Amalekites. Make war on them until all of them are dead.’ 19 Why didn’t you obey the Lord? Why did you take the best things? Why did you do what the Lord said was wrong?”
20 Saul said, “But I did obey the Lord. I did what the Lord told me to do. I destroyed all the Amalekites, and I brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
22 But Samuel answered,
“What pleases the Lord more:
burnt offerings and sacrifices
or obedience to his voice?
It is better to obey than to sacrifice.
It is better to listen to God than to offer the fat of sheep.
23 Disobedience is as bad as the sin of sorcery.
Pride is as bad as the sin of worshiping idols.
You have rejected the Lord’s command.
Now he rejects you as king.”
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I didn’t obey the Lord’s commands and your words. I was afraid of the people, and I did what they said. 25 Now, I beg you, forgive my sin. Come back with me so I may worship the Lord.”
26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I won’t go back with you. You rejected the Lord’s command, and now he rejects you as king of Israel.”
27 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors who is better than you. 29 The Lord is the Eternal One of Israel. He does not lie or change his mind. He is not a human being, so he does not change his mind.”
30 Saul answered, “I have sinned. But please honor me in front of the elders of my people and in front of the Israelites. Come back with me so that I can worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.”
Agag came to Samuel in chains, but Agag thought, “Surely the threat of death has passed.”
33 Samuel said to him, “Your sword made other mothers lose their children. Now your mother will have no children.” And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel left and went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah. 35 And Samuel never saw Saul again the rest of his life, but he was sad for Saul. And the Lord was very sorry he had made Saul king of Israel.
Christians Should Obey the Law
13 All of you must yield to the government rulers. No one rules unless God has given him the power to rule, and no one rules now without that power from God. 2 So those who are against the government are really against what God has commanded. And they will bring punishment on themselves. 3 Those who do right do not have to fear the rulers; only those who do wrong fear them. Do you want to be unafraid of the rulers? Then do what is right, and they will praise you. 4 The ruler is God’s servant to help you. But if you do wrong, then be afraid. He has the power to punish; he is God’s servant to punish those who do wrong. 5 So you must yield to the government, not only because you might be punished, but because you know it is right.
6 This is also why you pay taxes. Rulers are working for God and give their time to their work. 7 Pay everyone, then, what you owe. If you owe any kind of tax, pay it. Show respect and honor to them all.
Loving Others
8 Do not owe people anything, except always owe love to each other, because the person who loves others has obeyed all the law. 9 The law says, “You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not murder anyone. You must not steal. You must not want to take your neighbor’s things.”[a] All these commands and all others are really only one rule: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”[b] 10 Love never hurts a neighbor, so loving is obeying all the law.
11 Do this because we live in an important time. It is now time for you to wake up from your sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The “night”[c] is almost finished, and the “day”[d] is almost here. So we should stop doing things that belong to darkness and take up the weapons used for fighting in the light. 13 Let us live in a right way, like people who belong to the day. We should not have wild parties or get drunk. There should be no sexual sins of any kind, no fighting or jealousy. 14 But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and forget about satisfying your sinful self.
The Fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah,[a] and she was from Libnah. 2 Zedekiah did what the Lord said was wrong, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he threw them out of his presence.
Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon. 4 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They made a camp around the city and built devices all around the city walls to attack it. This happened on Zedekiah’s ninth year, tenth month, and tenth day as king. 5 And the city was under attack until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king.
6 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger was terrible in the city; there was no food for the people to eat. 7 Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army of Judah ran away at night. They left the city through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden. Even though the Babylonians were surrounding the city, Zedekiah and his men headed toward the Jordan Valley.
8 But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army was scattered from him. 9 So the Babylonians captured Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon at the town of Riblah in the land of Hamath. There he passed sentence on Zedekiah. 10 At Riblah the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons as he watched. The king also killed all the officers of Judah. 11 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and put bronze chains on him, and took him to Babylon. And the king kept Zedekiah in prison there until the day he died.
12 Nebuzaradan, commander of the king’s special guards and servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem on the tenth day of the fifth month. This was in Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon. 13 Nebuzaradan set fire to the Temple of the Lord, the palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every important building was burned. 14 The whole Babylonian army, led by the commander of the king’s special guards, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Nebuzaradan, the commander of the king’s special guards, took captive some of the poorest people, those who were left in Jerusalem, those who had surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the skilled craftsmen who were left in Jerusalem. 16 But Nebuzaradan left behind some of the poorest people of the land to take care of the vineyards and fields.
17 The Babylonians broke into pieces the bronze pillars, the bronze stands, and the large bronze bowl, called the Sea, which were in the Temple of the Lord. Then they carried all the bronze pieces to Babylon. 18 They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, bowls, dishes, and all the bronze objects used to serve in the Temple. 19 The commander of the king’s special guards took away bowls, pans for carrying hot coals, large bowls, pots, lampstands, pans, and bowls used for drink offerings. He took everything that was made of pure gold or silver.
20 There was so much bronze that it could not be weighed: two pillars, the large bronze bowl called the Sea with the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the Temple of the Lord.
21 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet high, eighteen feet around, and hollow inside. The wall of each pillar was three inches thick. 22 The bronze capital on top of the one pillar was about seven and one-half feet high. It was decorated with a net design and bronze pomegranates all around it. The other pillar also had pomegranates and was like the first pillar. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides of the pillars. There was a total of a hundred pomegranates above the net design.
24 The commander of the king’s special guards took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25 He also took from the city the officer in charge of the soldiers, seven people who advised the king, the royal secretary who selected people for the army, and sixty other men from Judah who were in the city when it fell. 26 Nebuzaradan, the commander, took these people and brought them to the king of Babylon at the town of Riblah. 27 There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them killed.
So the people of Judah were led away from their country as captives. 28 This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar took away as captives: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; 29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, commander of the king’s special guards, took 745 Jews as captives.
In all 4,600 people were taken captive.
Jehoiachin Is Set Free
31 Jehoiachin king of Judah was in prison in Babylon for thirty-seven years. The year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon he let Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison. He set Jehoiachin free on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. 32 Evil-Merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin put away his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life, he ate at the king’s table. 34 Every day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin an allowance. This lasted as long as he lived, until the day Jehoiachin died.
A Prayer of Faith in Troubled Times
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
31 Lord, I trust in you;
let me never be disgraced.
Save me because you do what is right.
2 Listen to me
and save me quickly.
Be my rock of protection,
a strong city to save me.
3 You are my rock and my protection.
For the good of your name, lead me and guide me.
4 Set me free from the trap they set for me,
because you are my protection.
5 I give you my life.
Save me, Lord, God of truth.
6 I hate those who worship false gods.
I trust only in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
because you saw my suffering;
you knew my troubles.
8 You have not handed me over to my enemies
but have set me in a safe place.
9 Lord, have mercy, because I am in misery.
My eyes are weak from so much crying,
and my whole being is tired from grief.
10 My life is ending in sadness,
and my years are spent in crying.
My troubles are using up my strength,
and my bones are getting weaker.
11 Because of all my troubles, my enemies hate me,
and even my neighbors look down on me.
When my friends see me,
they are afraid and run.
12 I am like a piece of a broken pot.
I am forgotten as if I were dead.
13 I have heard many insults.
Terror is all around me.
They make plans against me
and want to kill me.
14 Lord, I trust you.
I have said, “You are my God.”
15 My life is in your hands.
Save me from my enemies
and from those who are chasing me.
16 Show your kindness to me, your servant.
Save me because of your love.
17 Lord, I called to you,
so do not let me be disgraced.
Let the wicked be disgraced
and lie silent in the grave.
18 With pride and hatred
they speak against those who do right.
So silence their lying lips.
19 How great is your goodness
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you have given to those who trust you.
You do this for all to see.
20 You protect them by your presence
from what people plan against them.
You shelter them from evil words.
21 Praise the Lord.
His love to me was wonderful
when my city was attacked.
22 In my distress, I said,
“God cannot see me!”
But you heard my prayer
when I cried out to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all you who belong to him.
The Lord protects those who truly believe,
but he punishes the proud as much as they have sinned.
24 All you who put your hope in the Lord
be strong and brave.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.