M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Saul Consults a Medium

28 At that time, the Philistines gathered their armed forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “You surely know that you and your men must march out with me in the army.”

² David said to Achish, “Well then, you know what your servant will do.”

“Well then, I appoint you my bodyguard for life,” Achish said to David.

³ Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, his hometown. Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritists.

⁴ So the Philistines mustered and came and camped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together and they camped at Gilboa. ⁵ Now when Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. ⁶ When Saul inquired of Adonai, Adonai did not answer, neither by dreams nor by Urim or prophets.

⁷ Then Saul said to his courtiers, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go to her and inquire through her.” So his courtiers said to him, “Behold, there is a woman that is a medium at En-dor.” ⁸ So Saul disguised himself, put on other clothes, and went with two other men, and they reached the woman by night. Then he said, “Please conjure up for me a ghost—bring up for me the one I will name to you.”

⁹ “Look, you know what Saul has done,” she said, “how he has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. So why then are you setting a trap for my life to get me killed?”

¹⁰ Saul vowed to her by Adonai saying, “As Adonai lives, no punishment will come on you for this thing.”

¹¹ “Whom will I bring up for you?” the woman asked.

“Bring me up Samuel,” he said.

¹² But when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud shriek. Then the woman spoke to Saul saying, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”

¹³ “Don’t be afraid!” the king said to her. “What do you see?”

The woman said to Saul, “I see a godlike being coming up from the earth.”

¹⁴ “What does he look like?” he asked her.

“An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe,” she said.

Then Saul knew that it was Samuel, so he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. ¹⁵ Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”

“I’m in great distress,” Saul answered. “The Philistines are waging war against me, and God has turned away from me—He doesn’t answer me anymore, whether by prophets or by dreams. So I called you up to tell me what I should do.”

¹⁶ Samuel said, “So why ask me, since Adonai has turned away from you and become your adversary? ¹⁷ Now Adonai has done for Himself just as He foretold through me—Adonai has torn the kingship out of your hand and has given it to another fellow, to David. ¹⁸ Since you did not obey the voice of Adonai and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so Adonai has done this to you today. ¹⁹ Moreover, Adonai will also give the Israelites who are with you into the hand of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me! Yes, Adonai will give the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.”

²⁰ Then Saul immediately fell full length upon the ground, and became so terrified because of the words of Samuel that there was absolutely no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. ²¹ Then the woman came to Saul and saw that he was so agitated, so she told him, “Behold, your maidservant obeyed you; I put my life in my hand by listening to your words, which you spoke to me. ²² Please you too listen to the voice of your maidservant, and let me set a morsel of bread before you, so you can eat and have strength to go on your way.”

²³ But he refused and said, “I won’t eat.” But when his courtiers and the woman urged him, he listened to them. So he got up from the ground and sat on the bed. ²⁴ The woman had a fatted calf in the house, so she hurried and butchered it, and took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread from it. ²⁵ She brought it before Saul and his courtiers, and they ate. Then they arose and went away that night.

Servant Leadership Wins Over All

9 Am I not free? Am I not an emissary? Have I not seen Yeshua our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? ² If to others I am not an emissary, at least I am to you—for you are the seal of my office of emissary in the Lord.

³ My defense to those who examine me is this. ⁴ Don’t we have the right to food and drink? ⁵ Don’t we have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other emissaries and the Lord’s brothers and Kefa? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to not work? ⁷ What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink its milk?

⁸ I don’t say these things merely as a man, do I? Doesn’t Torah also say these things? ⁹ For it is written in the Torah of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.”^[a] Is it the oxen that concern God, ¹⁰ or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because the one plowing ought to plow in hope and the one threshing in hope of a share in the crop. ¹¹ If we sowed spiritual things into you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹² If others have a share in this claim over you, shouldn’t we even more?

Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we put up with all things so that we cause no hindrance to the Good News of Messiah. ¹³ Don’t you know that those who perform the holy services eat from the Temple, and those who wait on the altar receive a share at the altar? ^{[b] 14} So also the Lord ordered those who proclaim the Good News to get their living from the Good News.

¹⁵ But I have used none of these things, and I am not writing these things so it will happen this way in my case—for I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my reason to boast. ¹⁶ For if I proclaim the Good News, I have no reason to boast—for pressure is put on me and woe to me if I don’t proclaim the Good News! ¹⁷ For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have been entrusted with a commission. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? That when I preach, I may present the Good News free of charge, not making use of my right^[c] in the Good News.

¹⁹ For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win over more of them. ²⁰ To the Jewish people I identified^[d] as a Jew, so that I might win over the Jewish people. To those under Torah I became like one under Torah (though not myself being under Torah), so that I might win over those under Torah; ²¹ to those outside Torah, like one outside Torah (though not being outside God’s Torah but in Messiah’s Torah), so that I might win over those outside Torah. ²² To the weak I became weak, so that I might win over the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that by all means possible I might save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the Good News, so that I might be a fellow partaker of it.

²⁴ Don’t you know that in a stadium the runners all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win! ²⁵ Every competitor exercises self-control in all respects. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we do it to receive an imperishable one. ²⁶ So I run in this way—not aimlessly. So I box in this way—not beating the air. ²⁷ Rather, I punish my body and bring it into submission, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

A Singular Evil Comes

7 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “You, son of man, thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the land of Israel:

An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. ³ The end is upon you. I will send My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. ⁴ My eyes will not spare you nor will I have pity, but I will bring your ways upon you, for your abominations in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”

⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim:

An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes. ⁶ An end has come, the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it is coming! ⁷ Doom has come upon you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come, the day is near—panic, not joyful shouting on the hills. ⁸ Now, soon, I am about to pour out My fury on you. I will exhaust My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. ⁹ My eye will not spare you nor will I have pity—I will repay you for your ways—your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that it is I, Adonai, who strikes. ¹⁰ Behold, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out. The rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. ¹¹ Violence grows into a rod of wickedness. Nothing will come from them, nothing from their crowd, nothing from their tumult, nothing distinctive among them. ¹² The time has come—the day draws near. The buyer will not rejoice, the seller will not play the mourner, for wrath is on the entire crowd. ¹³ For a seller will not regain what he sold, as long as they are alive. For the vision against her whole crowd will not be revoked. No one will preserve his life, because of his iniquity.

¹⁴ “They have blown the horn. They have made everyone ready. Yet no one goes to the battle. Surely My wrath is on her whole crowd. ¹⁵ Outside is the sword, inside plague and famine. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. ¹⁶ Those survivors who escape will head for the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. ¹⁷ All hands will be feeble. All knees will turn to water. ¹⁸ They will also gird on sackcloth. Horror will cover them. Shame will be upon all faces. Baldness will be upon all their heads. ¹⁹ They will throw their silver in the streets. Their gold will be as garbage. Their silver and their gold cannot deliver them in the day of Adonai’s wrath. They will not satisfy their appetite or fill their bellies, for their iniquity is a stumbling block. ²⁰ They took pride in their beautiful jewelry and made images of their abominations and their detestable idols. Therefore I made it niddah to them. ²¹ I will give it into the hands of the strangers as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. ²² I will turn My face from them, as they will profane the place I treasure. Robbers will enter it and profane it.

²³ “Forge the chain! For the land is full of bloodshed. The city is full of violence. ²⁴ I will bring the wicked of the nations. They will possess their houses. So I will end the pride of the strong, when their holy places are profaned. ²⁵ Shuddering comes. They will seek peace but there will be none. ²⁶ Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will seek a vision from a prophet, but Torah will perish from the kohen and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn. The prince will be clothed with despair. The hands of the people of the land will tremble. By their conduct I will deal with them. By their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

A Royal Wedding Song

Psalm 45