M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David sent home from fighting Saul

29 The Philistines assembled all their forces at Aphek, and the Israelites camped by the spring in Jezreel. ² As the Philistine rulers went out marching in units of hundreds and thousands, David and his soldiers were in the rear with Achish.

³ “Who are these Hebrews?” the Philistine commanders asked.

“That’s David,” Achish told them, “the servant of Israel’s King Saul. He’s been with me a year or so now. I haven’t found anything wrong with him from the day he defected until now.”

⁴ But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish. “Send the man home!” they told Achish. “He can go back to the place you gave him, but he won’t go with us into battle. Couldn’t he turn against us in the middle of the fight? How better to please his former master than by taking the heads of our soldiers? ⁵ After all, this is the same David people sing about in their dances,

⁶ So Achish summoned David and told him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you are an upstanding individual. I would very much like you to serve with me in the army because I haven’t found anything wrong with you from the day you came to me until now. But the rulers don’t approve of you. ⁷ So go back home now, and go in peace. Don’t do anything to upset the Philistine rulers.”

⁸ “But what have I done?” David asked Achish. “What wrong have you found in me, your servant, from the day I came to you until now? Why shouldn’t I go and fight the enemies of my master the king?”

⁹ “I agree,” Achish answered David. “I think you’re as good as one of God’s own messengers. Despite that, the Philistine commanders have ordered, ‘He can’t go into battle with us.’ ¹⁰ So get up early in the morning, both you and your master’s servants who came with you, and return to the place I gave you. Don’t worry about this negative report, because you’ve done well before me.^[a] Now get up early in the morning and leave as soon as it is light.”

¹¹ So David and his soldiers got up early in the morning to go back to Philistine territory, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

The Amalekite raid on Ziklag

30 Three days later, David and his soldiers reached Ziklag. The Amalekites had raided the arid southern plain and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it down, ² taking the women and everyone in the city prisoner, whether young or old.^[b] They hadn’t killed anyone but carried them off and went on their way. ³ When David and his soldiers got to the town and found it burned down, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters taken prisoner, ⁴ David and the troops with him broke into tears and cried until they could cry no more. ⁵ David’s two wives had been captured as well: Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel.

⁶ David was in deep trouble because the troops were talking about stoning him. Each of the soldiers was deeply distressed about their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. ⁷ David said to the priest Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, “Bring the priestly vest^[c] to me.” So Abiathar brought it to David.

⁸ Then David asked the Lord, “Should I go after this raiding party? Will I catch them?”

“Yes, go after them!” God answered. “You will definitely catch them and will succeed in the rescue!”

⁹ So David set off with six hundred men. They came to the Besor ravine, where some stayed behind. ¹⁰ David and four hundred men continued the pursuit, while two hundred men stayed there, too exhausted to cross the Besor ravine.

¹¹ They found an Egyptian in the countryside and brought him to David. They gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink. ¹² They also gave him a piece of fig cake and two raisin cakes. He ate and regained his strength because he hadn’t eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and nights.

¹³ Then David asked him, “Whose slave are you? Where do you come from?”

“I’m an Egyptian servant boy,” he said, “and the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I got sick three days ago. ¹⁴ We had raided the arid southern plain belonging to the Cherethites, the territory belonging to Judah, and the southern plain of Caleb. We also burned Ziklag down.”

¹⁵ “Can you guide me to this raiding party?” David asked him.

“Make a pledge to me by God that you won’t kill me or hand me over to my master,” the boy said, “and I will guide you to the raiding party.”

¹⁶ So the boy led David to them, and he found them scattered all over the countryside, eating, drinking, and celebrating over the large amount of plunder they had taken from Philistine and Judean territory.

¹⁷ David attacked them from twilight until evening of the next day. He killed them all.^[d] No one escaped except four hundred young men who got on camels and fled. ¹⁸ David rescued everything that the Amalekites had taken, including his own two wives. ¹⁹ Nothing was missing from the plunder or anything that they had taken, neither old nor young, son nor daughter. David brought everything back. ²⁰ David also captured all the sheep and cattle, which were driven in front of the other livestock. The troops said, “This is David’s plunder!”

²¹ David reached the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow him and had stayed behind at the Besor ravine. They came out to greet him and the troops who were with him. When David approached them, he asked how they were doing. ²² But then all the evil and despicable individuals who had accompanied David said, “We won’t share any of the plunder we rescued with them because they didn’t go with us. Each of them can take his wife and children and go—but that’s it.”

²³ “Brothers!” David said. “Don’t act that way with the things the Lord has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the raiding party that had attacked us. ²⁴ How could anyone agree with you on this plan? The share of those who went into battle and the share of those who stayed with the supplies will be divided equally.” ²⁵ So from that day forward, David made that a regulation and a law in Israel, which remains in place even now.

²⁶ When David returned to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah and to his friends. “Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord’s enemies,” he said. ²⁷ It went to those in Bethel, Ramoth of the arid southern plain, Jattir, ²⁸ Aroer,^[e] Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, ²⁹ Racal, the towns of the Jerahmeelites, the towns of the Kenites, ³⁰ Hormah, Bor-ashan, Athach, ³¹ Hebron, and all the places where David and his soldiers had spent time.

Warning from the wilderness generation

10 Brothers and sisters, I want you to be sure of the fact that our ancestors were all under the cloud and they all went through the sea. ² All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ All ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. ⁵ However, God was unhappy with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. ⁶ These things were examples for us, so we won’t crave evil things like they did. ⁷ Don’t worship false gods like some of them did, as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink and they got up to play.^{[a] 8} Let’s not practice sexual immorality, like some of them did, and twenty-three thousand died in one day. ⁹ Let’s not test Christ, like some of them did, and were killed by the snakes. ¹⁰ Let’s not grumble, like some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. ¹¹ These things happened to them as an example and were written as a warning for us to whom the end of time has come. ¹² So those who think they are standing need to watch out or else they may fall. ¹³ No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people. But God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities. Instead, with the temptation, God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it.

Avoid false gods to glorify God

¹⁴ So then, my dear friends, run away from the worship of false gods! ¹⁵ I’m talking to you like you are sensible people. Think about what I’m saying. ¹⁶ Isn’t the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Isn’t the loaf of bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Since there is one loaf of bread, we who are many are one body, because we all share the one loaf of bread. ¹⁸ Look at the people of Israel. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices share from the altar? ¹⁹ What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to a false god is anything, or that a false god is anything? ²⁰ No, but this kind of sacrifice is sacrificed to demons and not to God. I don’t want you to be sharing in demons. ²¹ You can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you can’t participate in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²² Or should we make the Lord jealous? We aren’t stronger than he is, are we?

²³ Everything is permitted, but everything isn’t beneficial. Everything is permitted, but everything doesn’t build others up. ²⁴ No one should look out for their own advantage, but they should look out for each other. ²⁵ Eat everything that is sold in the marketplace, without asking questions about it because of your conscience. ²⁶ The earth and all that is in it belong to the Lord.^{[b] 27} If an unbeliever invites you to eat with them and you want to go, eat whatever is served, without asking questions because of your conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This meat was sacrificed in a temple,” then don’t eat it for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. ²⁹ Now when I say “conscience” I don’t mean yours but the other person’s. Why should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience? ³⁰ If I participate with gratitude, why should I be blamed for food I thank God for? ³¹ So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you should do it all for God’s glory. ³² Don’t offend either Jews or Greeks, or God’s church. ³³ This is the same thing that I do. I please everyone in everything I do. I don’t look out for my own advantage, but I look out for many people so that they can be saved.

Temple vision

8 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and Judah’s elders were sitting with me, when the Lord God’s power overcame me. ² I looked, and there was a form that looked like fire. Below what looked like his waist was fire, but above his waist it looked like gold, like gleaming amber. ³ He stretched out the form of a hand and picked me up by the hair of my head. A wind lifted me up between earth and heaven, and in a divine vision it brought me to Jerusalem, to the north-facing entrance of the gate to the inner court. That was where the pedestal was for the outrageous image that incites outrage. ⁴ There I saw the glory of Israel’s God, exactly like what I had seen in the valley. ⁵ He said to me: Human one, look toward the north. So I looked north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this outrageous image in the entrance. ⁶ He said to me: Human one, do you see what they are doing, the terribly detestable practices that the house of Israel is doing here that drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see even more detestable practices than these.

⁷ Then he brought me to the court entrance. When I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me: Human one, dig through the wall. So I dug through the wall, and I discovered a doorway. ⁹ And he said to me: Go in and see what wicked and detestable things they are doing in there. ¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and I saw every form of loathsome beasts and creeping things and all the idols of the house of Israel engraved on the walls all around. ¹¹ The seventy elders of the house of Israel were standing in front of them, and all of them were holding censers in their hands. Jaazaniah, Shaphan’s son, was standing right there with them, and the scent of the incense cloud rose up. ¹² He said to me: Human one, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every one of them in their rooms full of sculptured images? They say, “The Lord doesn’t see us; the Lord has abandoned the land.” ¹³ He said to me: You will see them performing even more detestable practices. ¹⁴ He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the temple, where women were sitting and performing the Tammuz lament.

¹⁵ He said to me: Human one, do you see? Yet you will see even more detestable practices than these. ¹⁶ He brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s temple. There, at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were twenty-five men facing toward the east with their backs to the Lord’s temple. They were bowing to the sun in the east. ¹⁷ He said to me: Do you see, human one? Isn’t it enough that the house of Judah has observed here all these detestable things? They have filled the land with violence, and they continue to provoke my fury. Look at them! They even put the branch to their noses! ¹⁸ I will certainly respond with wrath. I won’t spare or pity anyone. Even though they call out loudly to me in my hearing, I won’t listen to them.

Psalm 46

For the music leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth.^[a] A song.

Psalm 47

For the music leader. A psalm of the Korahites.