M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David spares Saul’s life

24 ^[a] Even as Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was informed that David was in the En-gedi wilderness. ² So Saul took three thousand men selected from all Israel and went to look for David and his soldiers near the rocks of the wild goats. ³ He came to the sheep pens beside the road where there was a cave. Saul went into the cave to use the restroom.^[b] Meanwhile, David and his soldiers were sitting in the very back of the cave.

⁴ David’s soldiers said to him, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he promised you, ‘I will hand your enemy over to you, and you can do to him whatever you think best.’” So David snuck up and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵ But immediately David felt horrible that he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.^[c]

⁶ “The Lord forbid,” he told his men, “that I should do something like that to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him, because he’s the Lord’s anointed!” ⁷ So David held his soldiers in check by what he said,^[d] and he wouldn’t allow them to attack Saul. Saul then left the cave and went on his way.

⁸ Then David also went out of the cave and yelled after Saul, “My master the king!” Saul looked back, and David bowed low out of respect, nose to the ground.

⁹ David said to Saul, “Why do you listen when people say, ‘David wants to ruin you’? ¹⁰ Look! Today your own eyes have seen that the Lord handed you over to me in the cave. But I refused^[e] to kill you. I spared you, saying, ‘I won’t lift a hand against my master because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ ¹¹ Look here, my protector! See the corner of your robe in my hand? I cut off the corner of your robe but didn’t kill you. So know now that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I haven’t wronged you, but you are hunting me down, trying to kill me. ¹² May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but I won’t lift a hand against you. ¹³ As the old proverb goes, ‘Evil deeds come from evildoers!’ but I won’t lift a hand against you. ¹⁴ So who is Israel’s king coming after? Who are you chasing? A dead dog? A single flea? ¹⁵ May the Lord be the judge and decide between you and me. May he see what has happened, argue my case, and vindicate me against you!”

¹⁶ As soon as David finished saying all this to Saul, Saul said, “David, my son, is that your voice?” Then he broke down in tears, ¹⁷ telling David, “You are more righteous than I am because you have treated me generously, but I have treated you terribly. ¹⁸ Today you’ve told me the good you have done for me—how the Lord handed me over to you, but how you didn’t kill me. ¹⁹ When someone finds an enemy, do they send the enemy away in peace? May the Lord repay you with good for what you have done for me today. ²⁰ Now even I know that you will definitely become king, and Israel’s kingdom will flourish in your hands. ²¹ Because of that, make a solemn pledge to me by the Lord that you won’t kill off my descendants after I’m gone and that you won’t destroy my name from my family lineage.”

²² David made a solemn pledge to Saul. Then Saul went back home, but David and his soldiers went up to the fortress.

Confronting sexual immorality in the church

5 Everyone has heard that there is sexual immorality among you. This is a type of immorality that isn’t even heard of among the Gentiles—a man is having sex with his father’s wife! ² And you’re proud of yourselves instead of being so upset that the one who did this thing is expelled from your community. ³ Though I’m absent physically, I’m present in the spirit and I’ve already judged the man who did this as if I were present. ⁴ When you meet together in the name of our Lord Jesus, I’ll be present in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus. ⁵ At that time we need to hand this man over to Satan to destroy his human weakness so that his spirit might be saved on the day of the Lord.

⁶ Your bragging isn’t good! Don’t you know that a tiny grain of yeast makes a whole batch of dough rise? ⁷ Clean out the old yeast so you can be a new batch of dough, given that you’re supposed to be unleavened bread. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, ⁸ so let’s celebrate the feast with the unleavened bread of honesty and truth, not with old yeast or with the yeast of evil and wickedness.

⁹ I wrote to you in my earlier letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ But I wasn’t talking about the sexually immoral people in the outside world by any means—or the greedy, or the swindlers, or people who worship false gods—otherwise, you would have to leave the world entirely! ¹¹ But now I’m writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls themselves “brother” or “sister” who is sexually immoral, greedy, someone who worships false gods, an abusive person, a drunk, or a swindler. Don’t even eat with anyone like this. ¹² What do I care about judging outsiders? Isn’t it your job to judge insiders? ¹³ God will judge outsiders. Expel the evil one from among you!^[a]

3 Then he said to me: Human one, eat this thing that you’ve found. Eat this scroll and go, speak to the house of Israel. ² So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. ³ He said to me: Human one, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. So I ate it, and in my mouth it became as sweet as honey.

⁴ Then he said to me: Human one, go! Go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. ⁵ You aren’t being sent to a people whose language and speech are difficult and obscure but to the house of Israel. ⁶ No, not to many peoples who speak difficult and obscure languages, whose words you wouldn’t understand. If I did send you to them, they would listen to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel—they will refuse to listen to you because they refuse to listen to me. The whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hard-hearted too. ⁸ I’ve now hardened your face so that you can meet them head-on. ⁹ I’ve made your forehead like a diamond, harder than stone. Don’t be afraid of them or shrink away from them, because they are a household of rebels.

¹⁰ He said to me: Human one, listen closely, and take to heart every word I say to you. ¹¹ Then go to the exiles, to your people’s children. Whether they listen or not, speak to them and say: The Lord God proclaims!

¹² Then a wind lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great quaking sound from his place. Blessed is the Lord’s glory! ¹³ The sound was the creatures’ wings beating against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them; it was a great rumbling noise. ¹⁴ Then the wind picked me up and took me away. With the Lord’s power pressing down against me I went away, bitter and deeply angry, ¹⁵ and I came to the exiles who lived beside the Chebar River at Tel-abib. I stayed there among them for seven desolate days.

¹⁶ At the end of the seven days, the Lord’s word came to me: ¹⁷ Human one, I’ve made you a lookout for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from me, deliver my warning. ¹⁸ If I declare that the wicked will die but you don’t warn them, if you say nothing to warn them from their wicked ways so that they might live, they will die because of their guilt, but I will hold you accountable for their deaths. ¹⁹ If you do warn the wicked and they don’t turn from their wickedness or their wicked ways, they will die because of their guilt, but you will save your life.

²⁰ Or suppose righteous people turn away from doing the right thing. If they act dishonestly, and I make them stumble because of it, they will die because you didn’t warn them of their sin. Their righteous deeds won’t be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their deaths. ²¹ But if you do warn the righteous not to sin, and they don’t sin, they will be declared righteous. Their lives will be preserved because they heeded the warning, and you will save your life.

²² The Lord’s power overcame me, and he said to me: Get up! Go out to the valley, and I’ll speak to you there. ²³ So I got up and went out to the valley. Suddenly, the Lord’s glory stood there, like the glory that I had seen at the Chebar River, and I fell on my face. ²⁴ When a wind came to me and stood me on my feet, he spoke to me and said: Go, shut yourself up inside your house. ²⁵ Look at you, human one! They’ve now put cords on you and bound you up so that you can’t go out among them. ²⁶ I’ll make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth and take away your ability to speak. You won’t be able to correct them, because they are a household of rebels. ²⁷ But whenever I speak to you, I’ll open your mouth, and you will say to them: The Lord God proclaims. Those who hear will understand, but those who refuse will not. They are just a household of rebels.

Psalm 39

For the music leader. To Jeduthun. A psalm of David.