M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
7 The people of Kiriath-jearim did as they were asked. They collected the chest of the Eternal One and brought it up the hill to the house of Abinadab. They performed sacred rituals to set apart his son Eleazar to be in charge of caring for the chest of the Eternal.
This section about the chest of the covenant shows God’s power in the world when all the nations around Israel believe in their own gods. Hebrew literature often talks about the Lord as the greatest of all gods, and this passage shows Him using the covenant chest to declare His preeminence. He embarrasses another god in his own temple, brings death and destruction on those around Him (as He did with the plagues of Egypt), and inflicts something like the bubonic plague, which would devastate Europe in the Middle Ages, on the Philistines. God is powerful and must be treated with the greatest of reverence. Even the people of God are happy to see the chest of the covenant move on, because it is too powerful for sinful human beings to live close to with comfort.
2 Time passed, 20 years or so, from the time that the covenant chest was taken to Kiriath-jearim, and all the people of Israel began to grieve over their separation from the Eternal One.
Samuel (to the Israelites): 3 If you really want to totally devote yourselves and return to the Eternal One, then get rid of all the foreign gods and goddesses you have gathered. Devote yourselves to the Eternal, serve Him and Him alone, and He will save you from the oppression of the Philistines.
The Canaanites have a long history of worshiping idols or local gods. In this case, the god being worshiped is Astarte (Ashtoreth), a fertility goddess similar to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. In Canaanite mythology, she is the sister and wife of the high god Baal. She and similar goddesses are worshiped throughout the ancient Near East; and the children of Israel are constantly falling away from serving the Lord by worshiping Astarte, Baal, and other pagan gods. God commands His people not to raise up idols or bow down to any gods except Him. Along with the worship of these gods come many strange practices that pollute the people of the Lord.
4 So the people of Israel got rid of their gods and goddesses,[a] and they began to serve only the Eternal One.
Samuel: 5 Assemble all of Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Eternal on your behalf.
6 That day they gathered at Mizpah, drew water, poured it out ritually in front of the Eternal One, and fasted.
People: We have sinned. We have rebelled against the Eternal.
Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah, delivering the people from danger and establishing justice in the land.
7 When the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines gathered an armed force and went to attack them. When the people of Israel heard that the Philistines were coming, they were filled with fear. They turned to God’s prophet.
People of Israel (to Samuel): 8 Don’t stop calling out to the Eternal our God for us. Ask Him to save us from the Philistine army that is coming.
9 Samuel took a young lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Eternal One. He called out to the Eternal on behalf of Israel, and the Eternal responded. Here is what happened: 10 As Samuel was performing the sacrifice, the voice of the Eternal rolled like thunder and confused the advancing Philistine army so that Israel easily struck them down. 11 From Mizpah, the Israelites chased them beyond Beth-car, striking them along the way.
12 That’s why Samuel set up a stone between Mizpah and Shen; and he called that stone Ebenezer, which means “rock of help,” for he said,
Samuel: The Eternal One has helped us so far.
13 So the Philistines were humbled and did not invade the lands of Israel again. The Eternal One held off the Philistines for as long as Samuel judged Israel. 14 The Israelite cities the Philistines had seized between Ekron and Gath were returned, and Israel took its territory back from Philistine rule. There was also peace with the Amorites.
15 Now Samuel was a prophet and judge over Israel for the rest of his life. 16 He traveled a 40-mile circuit just north of Jerusalem every year between Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, solving Israel’s problems in each of these places. 17 But he would always return to his home in Ramah, the base from which he judged Israel and where he built an altar to the Eternal.
8 When Samuel was old, he named his sons judges of Israel to rule over the people and be their deliverers. 2 His first son, Joel, and his second son, Abijah, were judges in Beersheba, 3 but they were not like Samuel. They profited from dishonesty, took bribes, and fostered injustice. 4 So the elders of Israel gathered and came to Ramah to tell Samuel.
Elders: 5 You have grown old, Samuel, and your sons do not administer justice the way that you did. Before things worsen, appoint a king to rule us, as other nations have.
6 This request—“appoint a king to rule us”—bothered Samuel, so he prayed to the Eternal One 7 and received an answer.
Eternal One (to Samuel): Listen to what the people are asking you to do. It is not a rejection of you—it is a rejection of My rule over them. 8 It is what they have always done, from the day I brought them out of Egypt until today, rejecting Me and serving other gods. Now they are just doing it to you. 9 So listen to what they are asking you to do, but make it plain to them what they are asking. Warn them about what will happen if a king is appointed to rule them.
10 So Samuel told the people who were asking for a king what the Eternal One had said.
Samuel: 11 If a king rules over you, things will be different from now on. He will make your sons drive his chariots, be his horsemen, and go into battle ahead of his chariots. 12 Your king will select commanders over 1,000 and commanders over 50. He will make some of you to plow his fields and collect his harvest; some of you will be the blacksmiths forging his shields and swords for battle and outfitting his chariots. 13 He will force your daughters to make perfumes, to cook his meals, and to bake his bread. 14 He will seize the choicest of your fields, vineyards, and olive orchards to give to his courtiers, 15 and a tenth of your grain and your vineyards to give to his court eunuchs and servants. 16 This king you ask for will take your slaves, male and female, as his own and put the choicest of your donkeys and your young men to do his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks. You will essentially become his slaves. 18 One day you will cry for mercy from the Eternal One to save you from this king you have chosen for yourselves, but be assured, He will not hear you on that day.
People of Israel (ignoring Samuel): 19 We have decided that we will have a king who will rule over us 20 so that we will be like all other nations and will have someone to judge us and to lead us into battle.
21 After Samuel had heard their demands, he told the Eternal One what they had said.
Eternal One (to Samuel): 22 Do as they have asked. Give them a king.
So Samuel told the people of Israel to go back to their cities until he would call them together to anoint them a king.
We arrive here, children of a common ancestor, Adam. As such, we have inherited his traits, physically and spiritually. Although our sin may be of a different sort than his, we sin no less than Adam. The proof of that is death. Adam opens the way for sin and death to pursue us and run rampant across the earth. But from the beginning, God has a plan to reverse the curse. At just the right moment in human history, Jesus arrives, a son of Adam and the Son of God. Through His faithful obedience to His Father, He challenges the twin powers of sin and death and defeats them. Sin no longer reigns unchecked. Death no longer has the last word.
6 How should we respond to all of this? Is it good to persist in a life of sin so that grace may multiply even more? 2 Absolutely not! How can we die to a life where sin ruled over us and then invite sin back into our lives? 3 Did someone forget to tell you that when we were initiated into Jesus the Anointed through baptism’s ceremonial washing,[a] we entered into His death? 4 Therefore, we were buried with Him through this baptism into death so that just as God the Father, in all His glory, resurrected the Anointed One, we, too, might walk confidently out of the grave into a new life. 5 To put it another way: if we have been united with Him to share in a death like His, don’t you understand that we will also share in His resurrection? 6 We know this: whatever we used to be with our old sinful ways has been nailed to His cross. So our entire record of sin has been canceled, and we no longer have to bow down to sin’s power. 7 A dead man, you see, cannot be bound by sin. 8 But if we have died with the Anointed One, we believe that we shall also live together with Him. 9 So we stand firm in the conviction that death holds no power over God’s Anointed, because He was resurrected from the dead never to face death again. 10 When He died, He died to whatever power sin had, once and for all, and now He lives completely to God. 11 So here is how to picture yourself now that you have been initiated into Jesus the Anointed: you are dead to sin’s power and influence, but you are alive to God’s rule.
12 Don’t invite that insufferable tyrant of sin back into your mortal body so you won’t become obedient to its destructive desires. 13 Don’t offer your bodily members to sin’s service as tools of wickedness; instead, offer your body to God as those who are alive from the dead, and devote the parts of your body to God as tools for justice and goodness in this world. 14 For sin is no longer a tyrant over you; indeed you are under grace and not the law.
Now sin and death no longer define us, but grace does: God’s favor has been given freely to us through His Son, Jesus, who liberates us from sin’s power.
15 So what do we do now? Throw ourselves into lives of sin because we are cloaked in grace and don’t have to answer to the law? Absolutely not! 16 Doesn’t it make sense that if you sign yourself over as a slave, you will have to obey your master? The question before you is, What will be your master? Will it be sin—which will lead to certain death—or obedience—which will lead to a right and reconciled life? 17 Thank God that your slavery to sin has ended and that in your new freedom you pledged your heartfelt obedience to that teaching which was passed on to you. 18 The beauty of your new situation is this: now that you are free from sin, you are free to serve a different master, God’s redeeming justice.
19 Forgive me for using casual language to compensate for your natural weakness of human understanding. I want to be perfectly clear. In the same way you gave your bodily members away as slaves to corrupt and lawless living and found yourselves deeper in your unruly lives, now devote your members as slaves to right and reconciled lives so you will find yourselves deeper in holy living. 20 In the days when you lived as slaves to sin, you had no obligation to do the right thing. In that regard, you were free. 21 But what do you have to show from your former lives besides shame? The outcome of that life is death, guaranteed. 22 But now that you have been emancipated from the death grip of sin and are God’s slave, you have a different sort of life, a growing holiness. The outcome of that life is eternal life. 23 The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King.
44 This is the message that came to Jeremiah concerning the Judeans living in the northern Egyptian cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the southern region of Pathros.
Some time has now passed since the Judeans who were not deported to Babylon fled to Egypt in a kind of self-imposed exile. Their reason for leaving Judah and settling in Egypt is fear—fear of reprisal from Nebuchadnezzar for the assassination of Gedaliah. Against the protests of Jeremiah, the people settle down in Egypt. Ironically, as they escape the wrath of the dreaded Babylonian king, they foolishly ignore the wrath of God that follows their complete disregard of His prophet. Jeremiah now delivers what will be his last recorded message to these faithless Judeans who have settled in Egypt.
Jeremiah: 2-3 This is what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, has to say: “You saw what happened to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah when the people disobeyed Me. I brought disaster upon them because of their wickedness, and now the cities are in ruins and no one dares to live there. The people infuriated Me when they burned incense and worshiped other so-called gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors ever knew. 4 Time after time I would send My servants, the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, stop doing these disgusting things. You know I hate them!’ 5 Still they refused to listen and ignored what I had to say; they refused to abandon their wicked ways and kept burning incense to other gods. 6 Therefore, My hot anger was poured out; it raged and burned its way through the towns and villages of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. That is why they are a desolate wasteland today.”
7 And now the Eternal God, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, asks: “Why are you doing this to yourselves again? Why are you bringing further disaster upon yourselves and all your people? For there will be no man or woman, no infant or child who will survive this onslaught and return to Judah from this place. 8 Why do you stir up My anger with your handmade idols and the incense you burn to the gods here in the land of Egypt where you are determined to live? You will destroy yourselves and become objects of scorn and cursing to the nations of the earth. 9 Have you forgotten the evil committed by your ancestors, the kings of Judah and their wives? What about the evil that you and your wives committed throughout the land of Judah and on every street in Jerusalem? 10 To this day, I’ve seen no evidence of sorrow or regret for what has been done by My people. They have shown no reverence for Me, nor have they obeyed My law and the decrees I set before them and their ancestors.”
11 Therefore, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, now declares: “Look! I have decided to destroy you and bring disaster on all of Judah. 12 I will wipe out the remnant of Judah who were so determined to make a new start and settle in Egypt despite My command, and I will finish it there. They will all die in Egypt, from the least to the greatest, either from war or famine. I will make them a horror, a disgrace, an object of scorn and cursing. 13 I will punish those living in Egypt with war, famine, and disease, just as I punished unfaithful Jerusalem. 14 None of those who made it out of Judah alive and fled to Egypt will survive. None of them will escape what is coming. None of them—except for a few fugitives—will ever return to the land of Judah for which they long.
15 All the men who were aware that their wives had been burning incense to other gods gathered in a large crowd, along with the women. They had come from the northern cities of Egypt and the region of Pathros to the south to speak with Jeremiah.
People: 16 We will not listen to you or the message you claim comes from the Eternal! 17 We are going to stand by our own word: we will burn incense and pour out our drink offerings to the queen of heaven[a] just as we have always done—just as our ancestors, our kings, and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Back then we had plenty to eat, and no harm came to us. 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out our drink offerings to her, we’ve not had enough of anything. Besides that, we are being finished off by war and famine.
Women (to Jeremiah): 19 Do you think our husbands didn’t know and approve of the fact that we were burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her? How could we have baked bread marked with her image and poured out offerings to her and our husbands know nothing of this?
20 Then Jeremiah addressed all these men and women who responded so rebelliously.
Jeremiah: 21 Do you think while you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the rest of the people were burning incense in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that the Eternal knew nothing of this? Did you think He would forget or that it would somehow slip His mind? 22 Today, your land is an object of cursing, a horror, a lifeless ruin because the Eternal could no longer stand your wickedness and the detestable things you did. 23 Take a good look at the disaster that has come upon you. It happened because you burned incense to other gods and sinned against the Eternal. It happened because you refused to obey His voice or follow His law and His decrees, because you ignored His warnings.
24 (to the entire assembly) Hear the word of the Eternal! You people of Judah who live in Egypt, 25 the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, has a message for you: “You and your wives have shown where your true devotion lies with both your words and your actions! You say, ‘We will keep our vows to the queen of heaven; we will continue to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to her.’ Well I say, ‘Go ahead. Keep your vows! Do exactly what you promised!’” 26 But hear what the Eternal now says to the Judeans now living in Egypt: “I swear by My great name that no man or woman of Judah now living in Egypt will ever again invoke My name or begin an oath with the words ‘As the Eternal Lord lives!’ 27 because I will watch over their lives to bring harm, not good. All the Judeans living in Egypt will suffer from war and famine until all have died. 28 There will be only a few who survive and return to Judah from Egypt. All the remnant of Judah who were so determined to live in Egypt will finally know whose word can be trusted—theirs or Mine. 29 Here is a sign for you so that you will know I am going to punish you in Egypt. This way you can be sure that My threats against you are not idle—they will come true. 30 And this will be your sign: watch as I hand over Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I handed over Zedekiah, king of Judah, to his enemy, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
Psalm 20
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 May the Eternal’s answer find you, come to rescue you,
when you desperately cling to the end of your rope.
May the name of the True God of Jacob be your shelter.
2 May He extend hope and help to you from His holy sanctuary
and support you from His sacred city of Zion.
3 May He remember all that you have offered Him;
may your burnt sacrifices serve as a prelude to His mercy.
[pause][a]
4 May He grant the dreams of your heart
and see your plans through to the end.
5 When you win, we will not be silent! We will shout
and raise high our banners in the great name of our God!
May the Eternal say yes to all your requests.
6 I don’t fear; I’m confident that help will come to the one anointed by the Eternal:
heaven will respond to his plea;
His mighty right hand will win the battle.
7 Many put their hope in chariots, others in horses,
but we place our trust in the name of the Eternal One, our True God.
8 Soon our enemies will collapse and fall, never to return home;
all the while, we will rise and stand firm.
9 Eternal One, grant victory to our king!
Answer our plea for help.
Psalm 21
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 The king is glad because You, O Eternal, are strong.
In light of Your salvation, he is singing Your name.
2 You have given him all he could wish for.
After hearing his prayer, You withheld nothing.
[pause][b]
3 True blessings You lavished upon the king;
a crown of precious gold You placed upon his head.
4 His prayer was to live fully. You responded with even more—
a never-ending life to enjoy.
5 With Your help, his fame and glory have grown;
You raise him high and cover him in majesty.
6 You shower him with blessings that last forever;
he finds joy in knowing Your presence and loving You.
7 For the king puts his trust in the Eternal,
so he will not be shaken
because of the persistent love of the Most High God.
8 King, your hand will reach for all your enemies;
your right hand will seize all who hate you.
9 When you arrive at the battle’s edge,
you will seem to them a furnace.
For the fire of the Eternal’s anger, the heat of His wrath
will burn and consume them.
10 You will cut off their children,
lop off the branches of their family tree.
The earth will never know them,
nor will they ever be numbered among Adam’s kin.
11 When they scheme against you,
when they conspire their mischief, such efforts will be in vain.
12 At the sight of you, they will sound the retreat;
your bows, drawn back, will aim directly at their faces.
13 Put Your strength, Eternal One, on display for all to see;
we will sing and make music of Your mighty power.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.