M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
3 The boy Samuel continued to serve the Eternal One under the guidance of Eli. In those days, messages from the Eternal were rare, and sacred dreams or visions were given to very few.
2 Eli, who was very old, had become almost blind. He was lying in his room; 3 it was late at night but before dawn as the lamp of God still burned. Samuel was resting in the house of the Eternal One, where the covenant chest of the True God was located, and he heard a voice.
Eternal One: 4 Samuel! Samuel!
Samuel: Here I am! 5 (running to Eli) I heard you calling; here I am!
Eli: I did not call you, my son. Go back, and lie down.
So Samuel went back to bed. 6 But the Eternal called him again.
Eternal One: Samuel!
Samuel (running to Eli): I heard you calling; here I am!
Eli: No, I did not call you, my son. Go back, and lie down. I need my rest.
7 Samuel did not recognize the voice of the Eternal One, for the word of the Eternal had not been revealed to Samuel yet. So Samuel went back again to his bed. 8 And the Eternal One called him a third time.
Samuel (running to Eli): I know you called me; I am here!
Eli (realizing the Lord was calling Samuel): 9 Go back and lie down, my son. If the voice calls you again, I want you to say, “Speak, Eternal One. Your servant is listening.”
So Samuel went to his bed in his place and listened. 10 Then the Eternal One came into his presence as before.
Eternal One: Samuel! Samuel!
Samuel: Speak, Eternal One. Your servant is listening.
Eternal One: 11 Pay attention! I am about to do something so amazing in Israel that it will sting the ears of everyone who hears it. 12 The day is coming when I will carry out the vow I made to Eli about his family, every word of it. 13 I have told him that I will punish his house forever for the sins of his sons, bringing a curse on themselves that he knew about but did nothing to stop. 14 So I vow that the sins of the house of Eli may never be atoned for by sacrifice or by offering.
15 After hearing this message, Samuel lay there until morning and then opened the doors of the Eternal One’s house, but he was afraid to tell Eli what God had said to him.
Eli: 16 Samuel, my son.
Samuel: Here I am.
Eli: 17 What was it that He told you? Tell me everything. May the True God carry out His vengeance on you and worse, if you hold anything back from me that He said to you.
18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing.
Eli: This message is truly from the Eternal One. Let Him do what seems good to Him.
When Eli hears God’s message to Samuel, a message that surely breaks his heart, Eli knows his sons have dishonored God and deserve punishment. His willingness to honor God’s message is truly a measure of his faith. This is one of many places in the books of Samuel where we can recognize the justice of God’s plan and still share some sorrow with those who will suffer because of it.
19 As Samuel grew, the Eternal One guided him and none of His words were lost on Samuel. 20 And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, learned that Samuel was a prophet of the Eternal One and that his words could be trusted.
21 From time to time, the Eternal continued to appear at Shiloh, where He had spoken to Samuel.
When God’s people—or people who claim to be God’s people—are hypocrites, then God is the one who gets the bad name. How often do we say one thing and do another? How often have we set a standard for others only to break it ourselves? The saying is true: we practice every day what we believe; all the rest is religious talk. There is a lot of religious talk out there, a lot of smugness and self-satisfaction. But every day people readily violate their consciences and the Lord’s reasonable teachings. For faith to matter, it has to get under your skin.
3 So then, do the Jews have an advantage over the other nations? Does circumcision do anything for you? 2 The answer is yes, in every way. To begin with, God spoke to and through the Jewish people. 3 But what if some Jews have been unfaithful? Does the fact that they abandoned their faith zero out God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! If every person on the planet were a liar and thief, God would still be true. It stands written:
Whenever You speak, You are in the right.
When You come to judge, You will prevail.[a]
5 If our perpetual injustice and corruption merely accentuate the purity of God’s justice, what can we say? Is God unjust for unleashing His fury against us? (I am speaking from our limited human perspective.) 6 Again, absolutely not! If this were so, how could God stand as Judge over the world? 7 But if my lie serves only to point out God’s truth and bring Him glory, then why am I being judged for my sin? 8 There are slanderous charges out there that we are saying things like, “Let’s be as wicked as possible so that something good will come from it.” Those malicious gossips will get what they deserve.
9 So what then? Are we Jews better off? Not at all. We have made it clear that people everywhere, Jews and non-Jews, are living under the power of sin. 10 Here’s what Scripture says:
No one is righteous—not even one.
11 There is no one who understands the truth;
no one is seeking after the one True God.
12 All have turned away; together they’ve become worthless.
No one does good, not even one.[b]
13 What comes out of their mouths is as foul as a rotting corpse;
their words stink of flattery.[c]
Viper venom hides beneath their lips;[d]
14 their mouths are full of curses, lies, and oppression.[e]
15 Their feet race to violence and bloodshed;
16 destruction and trouble line the roads of their lives,
17 And they’ve never taken the road to peace.[f]
18 You will never see the fear of God in their eyes.[g]
Sin is more than just wrong choices, bad decisions, and willful acts of disobedience that violate God’s Word and are contrary to His will. It is that and much more. Paul knows sin is missing the mark or deliberately stepping over the line, but he also knows that sin is a power at work in him and every child of Adam. As strange as it may sound, sin seems to have a will of its own. Like an addiction, sin takes hold of us and causes us to act in ways we never wanted. For Paul the cross of Jesus deals finally and definitively with the dual reality of sin. Not only are we forgiven of our sins—our willful acts of disobedience—but we are also liberated from the power of sin.
19 We want to be clear that whatever the law says, it says to everyone who is under its authority. Its purpose is to muzzle every mouth, to silence idle talk, and to bring the whole world under the standard of God’s justice. 20 Therefore, doing what the law prescribes will not make anyone right in the eyes of God—that’s not its purpose—but the law is capable of exposing the true nature of sin.
21 But now for the good news: God’s restorative justice has entered the world, independent of the law. Both the law and the prophets told us this day would come. 22 This redeeming justice comes through the faithfulness of Jesus,[h] the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who makes salvation a reality for all who believe—without the slightest partiality. 23 You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. 24 Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed. 25 When God set Him up to be the sacrifice—the seat of mercy where sins are atoned through faith—His blood became the demonstration of God’s own restorative justice. All of this confirms His faithfulness to the promise, for over the course of human history God patiently held back as He dealt with the sins being committed. 26 This expression of God’s restorative justice displays in the present that He is just and righteous and that He makes right those who trust and commit themselves to Jesus.
In the incarnation and sacrificial death of Jesus, God is at work to extend salvation to those who fall under sin’s addiction. They are liberated from its power, cleansed of its stain. By “God’s restorative justice,” Paul means first the justice that belongs to God and reflects His character. God is just, fair, or in a word, righteous. But character is dynamic, not static. This means that God’s justice must express itself in some way. So it is in the nature of God’s justice that He acts to restore and repair a world that is not the way it should be. Above all, it is God’s saving actions through Jesus that constitute the gift of God’s restorative justice.
27 So is there any place left for boasting? No. It’s been shut out completely. And how? By what sort of law? The law of works perhaps? No! By the law of faith. 28 We hold that people are justified, that is, made right with God through faith, which has nothing to do with the deeds the law prescribes.
29 Is God the God of the Jews only? If He created all things, then doesn’t that make Him the God of all people? Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders alike? Yes, He is also the God of all the outsiders. 30 So since God is one, there is one way for Jews and outsiders, circumcised and uncircumcised, to be right with Him. That is the way of faith. 31 So are we trying to use faith to abolish the law? Absolutely not! In fact, we now are free to uphold the law as God intended.
41 But in the seventh month of the year, this same Ishmael (son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama)—a member of Judah’s royal family and a former captain of the king—came with 10 of his men to Mizpah to visit Gedaliah (son of Ahikam). As they were eating together, 2 Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) and his 10 men betrayed their host and suddenly got up and with their swords attacked and killed Gedaliah (son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan), the man the king of Babylon had appointed governor of the land. 3 Ishmael and his men then killed all the rest of the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Chaldean soldiers who had been left there.
4 The next day, before anyone had learned of Gedaliah’s assassination, 5 a group of 80 men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They were on their way to Jerusalem, bringing grain offerings and incense to what was left of the temple of the Eternal. It was obvious they were in mourning, having shaved their beards, torn their clothing, and cut their bodies. 6 Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) met them just outside Mizpah, weeping as if something terrible had happened. When he got to their company, he said:
Ishmael: Please, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah (son of Ahikam).
7-8 But once they were in the city, Ishmael and his men started to slaughter the innocent worshipers and throw their murdered corpses into a large cistern. Now there were 10 of these men who pled with Ishmael.
Men: Please do not kill us. We have a large quantity of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the field.
Ishmael agreed to let them live in exchange for these supplies. But he did kill 70 of their company.
9 Now the cistern into which Ishmael threw the corpses of Gedaliah, his men, and these worshipers on their way to Jerusalem had been dug by King Asa years ago when he was preparing for an attack from King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) filled it with dead bodies.[a] 10 After this massacre, Ishmael took the rest of the people in Mizpah captive, including the royal princesses and the others left under the care of Gedaliah (son of Ahikam) by Nebuzaradan (captain of the imperial guard). Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) forced everyone to leave the city with him as he escaped to the land of the Ammonites.
11-12 Now when Johanan (son of Kareah) and the other army leaders who were with him heard about this massacre carried out by Ishmael, they rallied all their men and pursued Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) to fight him. They caught up with him not far from the great pool in Gibeon. 13 When the people Ishmael had captured saw Johanan (son of Kareah) and the other army leaders closing in, they rejoiced. 14 All those who had been taken prisoner by Ishmael at Mizpah escaped and joined Johanan (son of Kareah) in the fight against Ishmael. 15 But somehow Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) and eight of his men were able to escape from Johanan and cross over into the land of the Ammonites.
What little hope there is for a relatively peaceful future in Judah quickly vanishes with the massacre at Mizpah. The Babylonians show leniency in allowing Gedaliah—one of their own—to rule over this region, but that will change. There will be a response from Nebuchadnezzar. It will be swift and brutal. The question on the minds of those still living in the land is this: how can we escape the vengeance of Babylon? Johanan, by default, has become the new leader of these people. Although he quickly decides the next move, both he and this remnant of Judah hope it is not a mistake.
16 Then Johanan (son of Kareah) and the other army leaders led the people they had just rescued away from Gibeon. This group (who had been taken from Mizpah after Ishmael assassinated Gedaliah) included soldiers, women, children, and court officials. 17 They made their way south and stopped at Geruth Chimham near the village of Bethlehem. The entire company was on its way to Egypt 18 to escape the Chaldeans; for the Judeans were afraid of what would happen when the Chaldeans discovered that Ishmael (son of Nethaniah) had killed Gedaliah (son of Ahikam), the man appointed governor of the land by the king of Babylon.
Psalm 17
A prayer of David.
1 Listen, O Eternal One, to my cry for justice.
These words of mine are true—turn Your ear toward me.
2 Announce that I am free of all the charges against me—only You can see into my heart to know that to be true.
Treat me with fairness; look at me with justice.
3 You have searched me—my heart and soul—awakened me from dreaming and tested me.
You’ve found nothing against me.
I have resolved not to sin in what I say.
4 The path violent men have followed,
I will not travel. Violence is not my way.
Your ways and Your voice now guide my journey.
5 I will press on—moving steadfastly forward along Your path.
I will not look back. I will not stumble.
6 I am crying aloud to You, O True God, for I long to know Your answer.
Hear me, O God. Hear my plea. Hear my prayer for help.
7 Put Your marvelous love on display for all to see.
Liberator of those who long for shelter beside You,
set them safely away from their enemies, ever welcomed by grace.
8 Keep close watch over me as the apple of Your eye;
shelter me in the shadow of Your wings.
9 Protect me from the wicked who are poised to attack,
from the enemies swarming around me and closing in quickly.
10 Like clay baking in the sun, their hearts have hardened;
arrogance spills from their mouths.
11 They’ve tracked me down like quarry.
They’re surrounding me
and are poised to throw me down into the dirt.
12 Like a lion—crouching in the brush—they are ready to tear me apart.
Like young lions in their hiding places, they are poised to strike.
13 Rise up and confront them, O Eternal One! Make them pay.
By Your sword, set me free from my wicked enemies!
14 May Your rescue find me here.
By Your hand, save me from my enemies, Eternal One.
Save me from men whose hopes are rooted in this world.
But as for those You cherish,
may they feast on all You have set aside for them;
may their children never be in need;
may they have enough so their children will inherit their wealth.
15 But as for me, my hope is to see Your face.
When I am vindicated, I will look upon the holy face of God,
and when I awake, the longing of my soul will be satisfied in the glow of Your presence.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.