M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Mephibosheth, the last surviving son of Jonathan, could escape notice in a warlike culture where physical prowess is valued. But David elevates Mephibosheth to the king’s table and honors him. David’s fulfillment of a promise to a long-dead friend is one of the most attractive stories about the king in the books of Samuel. While David proves too hard and even ruthless at times, his gentleness to those who are helpless is an endearing trait. It is this softness and desire to follow God against all odds that gives him special honor among the kings of Israel.
10 After a while, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, died; and his son Hanun became the new king. Remember, Nahash and Saul were enemies, but Nahash had helped David.
David: 2 I will deal fairly with Hanun, son of Nahash, because his father dealt fairly with me.
So David sent messengers to Ammon with a message of sympathy about Nahash’s death. When David’s emissaries arrived, 3 the princes of the Ammonites spoke to Hanun their lord.
Ammonite Leaders: Do you think this means David honors your father the king just because he sends these men with empty condolences? Hasn’t David ordered them to search the city, keep their eyes open, and plot how to conquer us?
4 So Hanun had David’s messengers seized. He mocked the men, shaving off half their beards, cutting off their garments at their hips, and then ordering them home.
5 When David heard what had happened, he sent messengers to intercept them because they had been publicly humiliated.
David: Stay at Jericho until your beards grow back and your shame is gone. Then return home.
6 When the Ammonites realized they had earned David’s ridicule, they sent for and hired Arameans: 20,000 foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zobah, 1,000 fighting men from the king of Maacah, and 12,000 soldiers from Tob.
7 When David heard the Ammonites were preparing for war, he sent Joab and all his fighting men. 8 The Ammonites arrayed themselves in front of the gates, but their mercenaries (the Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah) took up positions out in the open country.
9 When Joab saw that the battle lines had been drawn both in front of and behind him, he chose some of Israel’s best fighting men and set them against the Arameans, 10 and he put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest and set them against the Ammonites.
Joab (to Abishai): 11 If the Arameans are too strong for me, come and help me; and if I see that the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come and help you. 12 Be strong, and let us fight bravely for the sake of our people and the cities of our True God, and may the Eternal do what seems good in His sight.
13 So Joab and his soldiers moved against the Arameans, and the mercenaries fled from him. 14 When the Ammonites saw that their hired soldiers, the Arameans, were running away, they also fled from Abishai and his forces and entered into the safety of their city. Then Joab and the armies of Israel stopped fighting the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.
15 But when the Arameans saw they had been routed by Israel, they came back together to pool all their resources. 16 Hadadezer sent for the Arameans who lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they gathered at Helam under Shobach, the general of all Hadadezer’s army. 17 When David got this news, he gathered his army, crossed over the Jordan River, and went to Helam. The Arameans came out and arranged themselves to fight David 18 and ran from Israel in defeat: David killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 horsemen,[a] and he mortally wounded Shobach the commander of their army, who died there.
19 When all the rulers who were subject to Hadadezer learned of Israel’s victories, they gave up and made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Arameans were afraid and would no longer help the Ammonites against David.
3 Are we back to page one? Do we need to gather some recommendations to prove our validity to you? Or do we need to take your letter of commendation to others to gain credibility? 2 You are our letter, every word burned onto our[a] hearts to be read by everyone. 3 You are the living letter of the Anointed One, the Liberating King, nurtured by us and inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God—a letter too passionate to be chiseled onto stone tablets, but emblazoned upon the human heart.
4 This is the kind of confidence we have in and through the Anointed toward our God. 5 Don’t be mistaken; in and of ourselves we know we have little to offer, but any competence or value we have comes from God. 6 Now God has equipped us to be capable servants of the new covenant, not by authority of the written law which only brings death, but by the Spirit who brings life.
Apparently Paul is responding to repeated questions from the church in Corinth requiring him to justify his actions and explain his words. But instead of addressing each separately, Paul suggests a new course of action: let my record be based on the fruit in your lives. The Corinthians had experienced the promised effects of the new covenant—transformed hearts through the Spirit—as prophesied by Jeremiah (31) and Ezekiel (36–37). If the Corinthians agree the Spirit is working in them, then they have to agree that Paul’s ministry to them is productive.
How do we stand up to the same test? If our lives were judged based on the fruit of the seeds we have planted and nurtured in the lives of others, would we be proud or mortified?
7 Now consider this: if the ministry of death, which was chiseled in stone, came with so much glory that the Israelites could not bear to look at Moses’ face even as that glory was fading, 8 imagine the kind of greater glory that will accompany the ministry of the Spirit. 9 If glory ushered in the ministry that offers condemnation, how much more glory will attend the ministry that promises to restore and set the world right? 10 In fact, what seemed to have great glory will appear entirely inglorious in the light of the greater glory of the new covenant. 11 If something that fades away possesses glory, how much more intense is the glory of what remains?
12 In light of this hope that we have, we act with great confidence and speak with great courage. 13 We do not act like Moses who covered his face with a veil so the children of Israel would not stare as the glory of God faded from his face.[b] 14 Their minds became as hard as stones; for up to this day when they read the old covenant, the same veil continues to hide that glory; this veil is lifted only through the Anointed One. 15 Even today a veil covers their hearts when the words of Moses are read; 16 but in the moment when one turns toward the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 By “the Lord” what I mean is the Spirit, and in any heart where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is liberty. 18 Now all of us, with our faces unveiled, reflect the glory of the Lord as if we are mirrors; and so we are being transformed, metamorphosed, into His same image from one radiance of glory to another, just as the Spirit of the Lord accomplishes it.
17 The word of the Eternal came to me with a riddle.
Eternal One: 2 Son of man, tell the people of Israel a riddle. 3 Tell them the Eternal Lord says that a great eagle with strapping wings, long feathers, and thick plumage of various colors came to Lebanon. The great eagle took the top off of a cedar, 4 carried its top growth away to a land of merchants, and planted it in a city of traders. 5 Then the great eagle took some of the seed of the land and planted it in lush, fertile soil beside abundant waters so it could grow like a willow. 6 The seed sprouted in the soil and became a flourishing vine, growing low to the ground. The vine’s branches grew toward the great eagle, and the roots remained beneath it. The vine produced many sprouts and branches.
7 There was another great eagle with strapping wings and thick, colorful plumage. From where it had been planted, the vine sent out its roots and branches toward the second eagle, so that eagle could give it even more water. 8 The vine had been planted in lush, fertile soil beside abundant waters in order to produce healthy growth and branches, bear fruit, and become a magnificent vine instead of remaining a lowly one.
9 Now I, the Eternal Lord, ask, will that vine continue to flourish? Won’t the eagle pull it out of the lush, fertile soil by its roots, strip it of its fruit, and leave it to wither? It won’t take much strength or many people to pull it up by the roots. 10 Now if it is transplanted, will it flourish? When the angry east wind strikes it, won’t it wither away completely? Won’t it shrivel up in the plot of ground where it had grown?
11 The word of the Eternal came to me.
Eternal One: 12 Ask this rebellious crowd if they know what these stories represent. Give them this explanation: Remember how Babylon’s king swooped into Jerusalem like an eagle and took its young king and national leaders back to Babylon. 13 He replaced that young king with a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, making the new king swear an oath of loyalty. Babylon’s king also ordered all the remaining leaders of Judah taken into exile 14 so that the kingdom would remain weak and lowly, not able to rise up against him, and survive only by following the provisions of his covenant. 15 But Jerusalem’s newly appointed leader rebelled against Babylon’s king by sending his ambassadors to another king in Egypt to receive horses and recruit a large army. Do you think Jerusalem’s king and his ambassadors will succeed? Is it possible to get away with such things? Can this vassal king break a covenant and escape?
16 As surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, I declare that Jerusalem’s King Zedekiah will die in Babylon, the land of the king who gave him Jerusalem’s throne and whom he despised when he broke that covenant. 17 Pharaoh and his powerful army, a vast company, won’t be of any help when Babylon builds ramps and erects siege walls against Jerusalem; many will be destroyed behind those city walls. 18 Jerusalem’s king broke his word and betrayed the covenant. Because he pledged his allegiance, yet committed these betrayals, he will not escape.
19 Therefore, I say, as surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, what Jerusalem’s king despised was My oath and what he betrayed was My covenant. I will make him pay the consequences. 20 I will set a trap for him, and he will be caught in it. I will bring him to Babylon and punish him there because of his unfaithfulness and disloyalty to Me. 21 All of his elite soldiers will be killed in battle, and whoever manages to survive will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I, the Eternal One, have promised this.
This parable dramatizes Babylon’s attack on Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, represented by the first eagle, is indeed the largest predator in the area. He swooped into Jerusalem and exiled the young king, Jehoiachin, who was plucked from the top of the cedar tree. Nebuchadnezzar then planted a new monarch in Jerusalem, Zedekiah, as a vassal of Babylon.
Jerusalem flourishes under Zedekiah but doesn’t gain any power, just as the vine is strong but not tall. But when Zedekiah becomes ambitious for sovereignty, he will send envoys to King Hophra in Egypt—represented by the second eagle—looking for mercenaries. This betrayal will lead to Jerusalem’s complete destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. Since God is using Babylon to punish His disobedient people, and since Zedekiah’s betrayal will reflect badly on Him, the coming destruction is none other than divine judgment.
Eternal One: 22-23 I personally will take a sprig from the top growth of a lofty cedar—the highest, youngest, and most flexible—and plant it on a high and lofty mountain, on the mountain of Israel. It will produce healthy branches and bear fruit and become a noble cedar. All sorts of birds will come and nest in it and find shade in its branches. 24 All the trees of the field will know that I am the Eternal; I cut down the tall tree and make the small tree tall; I cause the flourishing tree to wither and the withering tree to flourish. I, the Eternal, have spoken, and I will do exactly as I’ve promised.
Psalm 60
For the worship leader. A prayer[a] of David after his victory over the Arameans, Joab’s return, and the striking down of 12,000 Edomites in the valley of Salt. A song for instruction to the tune “A Lily Reminds Us.”[b]
This is a communal lament recalling David’s battles with Zobah and Naharaim from Aram (Syria) and Joab’s victory over the Edomites (2 Samuel 8).
1 God, You have turned away from us;
You have shattered us into a million tiny pieces;
You have boiled with anger.
Now put us back together, and refresh us with Your mercy.
2 You have made the earth shake; You have cracked it open effortlessly.
Heal the fissures in the earth, for it is unsteady.
3 You have caused Your people to suffer;
You have provided us with wine that makes us stagger.
4 You have unfurled a banner for those who revere You,
a signal to gather in safety out of the enemy’s reach.
[pause][c]
5 So that Your treasured ones may be saved,
rescue us with Your right hand, and answer our pleas!
6 God’s voice has been heard in His holy sanctuary:
“I will celebrate; I will allocate Shechem
and the Succoth Valley to My people.
7 Gilead belongs to Me, and so does Manasseh;
Ephraim is the helmet that protects My head;
Judah is the scepter through which I rule;
8 Moab is the washpot in which I rinse My feet.
I will throw My shoe over Edom in conquest;
prepare for My victory, Philistia. Cry out because of Me!”
9 But who will take me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
10 Have You not turned Your back on us, O God?
Will You stay away and not accompany our armies, O God?
11 Help us against our enemy; we need Your help!
It’s useless to trust in the hand of man for liberation.
12 Only through God can we be successful.
It is God alone who will defeat our enemies and bring us victory!
Psalm 61
For the worship leader. A song of David accompanied by strings.
1 Hear me, O God, when I cry;
listen to my prayer.
2 You are the One I will call when pushed to the edge,
when my heart is faint.
Shoulder me to the rock above me.
3 For You are my protection,
an impenetrable fortress from my enemies.
4 Let me live in Your sanctuary forever;
let me find safety in the shadow of Your wings.
[pause][d]
5 You have heard the promises I made, O God.
You have laid upon me the legacy due to those who fear Your name.
6 Extend the king’s life, day after day;
increase his years for many generations.
7 May he be ever present before God,
attended and guarded by Your loyal love and truth.
8 So I will never stop singing Your praise;
as long as I live, I will fulfill my promise.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.