M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
23 Here are the last words of David, son of Jesse: the words of the one raised up, the anointed one of Jacob’s True God, the sweet songwriter of Israel.
2 David: The Spirit of the Eternal speaks through me;
His voice emerges from my mouth.
3 The God of Israel has talked to me;
and the Rock of Israel said,
“One who rules people with justice
and who leads them in the fear of God
4 Is like the morning light,
the sun rising on a cloudless morning,
and the shining grasslands brought up from rain.”
5 Isn’t this how God has raised up my house?
Because He has made a perpetual covenant with me,
well-ordered and secure,
Won’t He make all things to grow and prosper,
save me, and give me all I desire?
6 But the wicked are like thorns cut off and tossed away
that can’t be picked up with your hands;
7 No, to touch them, use the iron tip
on the shaft of a spear.
They are burned up on the spot.
David has been brought up from his position as a lowly shepherd, the youngest son in the household, to the pinnacle of success by his faith in God and his own willingness to follow God. It has been an adventure fraught with danger and intrigue, and marked with loss and heartbreak along the way. David’s own failings find themselves reflected—and magnified—in his children. But here is one of the high points of the story of the people of God, united at last under a powerful and beloved king, and victorious against their enemies.
8 Here is a list of the warriors who fought for David:
Josheb-basshebeth the Tahchemonite was the most powerful of David’s three most-honored warriors; he took up his spear[a] and killed 800 in one battle.
9 The next of David’s three mighty men was Eleazar, son of Dodo of Ahohi. Eleazar stood with David when they defied the Philistines who had gathered there to fight. The Israelites retreated, 10 but Eleazar stood his ground. He killed Philistine soldiers that day until his arm grew tired, but he never dropped his sword. The Eternal One gave them a decisive victory that day; and then the people came back, only to pillage the fallen.
11 Last of these top three was Shammah, son of Agee of Harar. The Philistines gathered at Lehi[b] where there was a field full of lentils, and the Israelites fled from them. 12 But Shammah stood in the center of the field and fought, killing many Philistines; and the Eternal gave His people a great victory.
13 At the beginning of harvest, these top three of David’s thirty chief warriors joined David at the cave of Adullam. A group of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim, 14 David was hiding in his safe place, and the main force of the Philistines was quartered in Bethlehem.
David (with longing): 15 I wish someone would bring me some water to drink from the well of Bethlehem by the gate!
16 So these three mighty men broke through the nearby camp of the Philistines, drew water from the Bethlehem well that was by the gate, and brought it back for David. But he would not drink it; instead he poured it out, although he was parched with thirst, as a drink offering to the Eternal One.
David: 17 O Eternal God, I have no right to drink this water. It would be like drinking the blood of the men who risked their lives for it!
So he did not drink it. This is the kind of thing the three mighty men did for David.
18 Besides the three highest ranking soldiers, there was Abishai (Zeruiah’s son and the brother of Joab), who was commander of the elite force of 30.[c] With his spear he killed 300 men in battle and won honor as the three did. 19 Abishai was the most honored of the 30 and became their commander, but he did not become one of the three.
20 And there was Benaiah (Jehoiada’s son), son of a great man from Kabzeel, who also did great deeds. He struck down two lionhearted heroes of Moab. Benaiah also killed a lion in a pit one snowy day, 21 and he killed an Egyptian who was a powerful-looking man. The Egyptian was armed with a spear while Benaiah had only his staff, but he took the spear away from him and killed the Egyptian with his own weapon. 22 These were the kinds of feats Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, performed that won him a name equal to the three mighty men for bravery. 23 He was famous among the 30, but never became one of the three. David made him the captain of his personal guard.
24 These are the warriors who were counted among the 30: Asahel, Joab’s brother; Elhanan, son of Dodo of Bethlehem; 25 Shammah of Harod; Elika of Harod; 26 Helez the Paltite; Ira, son of Ikkesh of Tekoa; 27 Abiezer of Anathoth; Mebunnai the Hushathite; 28 Zalmon the Ahohite; Maharai of Netophah; 29 Heleb, son of Baanah of Netophah; Ittai, son of Ribai of Gibeah in Benjamin; 30 Benaiah of Pirathon; Hiddai of the waters of Gaash; 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite; Azmaveth of Barhum; 32 Eliahba of Shaalbon; Jashen the Gimzonite; Jonathan, son of 33 Shammah of Harar; Ahiam, son of Sharar of Harar; 34 Eliphelet, son of Ahasbai of Maacah; Eliam, son of Ahithophel the Gilonite; 35 Hezro of Carmel; Paarai the Arbite; 36 Igal, son of Nathan of Zobah; Bani the Gadite; 37 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai of Beeroth; the armor-bearer of Joab, Zeruiah’s son; 38 Ira the Ithrite; Gareb the Ithrite; 39 Uriah the Hittite—37 men in all who were counted among the 30.
3 Galatians, don’t act like fools! Has someone cast a spell over you? Did you miss the crucifixion of Jesus the Anointed that was reenacted right in front of your eyes? 2 Tell me this: Did the Holy Spirit come upon you because you lived according to the law? Or was it because you heard His message of grace through faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Do you think you can perfect something God’s Spirit started with any human effort? 4 Have you suffered so greatly for nothing—if it was indeed for nothing? 5 You have experienced the Spirit He gave you in powerful ways. Miracle after miracle has occurred right before your eyes in this community, so tell me: did all this happen because you have kept certain provisions of God’s law, or was it because you heard the gospel and accepted it by faith?
Paul primarily focuses on the efficacy of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the foundation of the church and of a right relationship with God, but he also correlates this with the presence of the Spirit. If the Spirit is working among the outsiders, it shows that they aren’t really “outsiders” when it comes to membership in the people of God. Paul supports this by showing how the presence of the Spirit is none other than the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. However, the Spirit only came through Abraham’s descendant, that is, the new covenant with God is mediated by Jesus and the Spirit, not the law.
6 You remember Abraham. Scripture tells us, “Abraham believed God and trusted in His promises, so God counted it to his favor as righteousness.”[a] 7 Know this: people who trust in God are the true sons and daughters of Abraham. 8 For it was foretold to us in the Scriptures that God would set the Gentile nations right by faith when He told Abraham, “I will bless all nations through you.”[b] 9 So those who have faith in Him are blessed along with Abraham, our faithful ancestor.
10 Listen, whoever seeks to be righteous by following certain works of the law actually falls under the law’s curse. I’m giving it to you straight from Scripture because it is as true now as when it was written: “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t live by and do all that is written in the law.”[c] 11 Now it is absolutely clear that no one is made right with God through the law because the prophet Habakkuk told us, “By faith the just will obtain life.”[d] 12 The law is not the same thing as life formed by faith. In fact, you are warned against this when God says, “The one who observes My laws will live by them.”[e] I am trying to tell you that 13 the Anointed One, the Liberating King, has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. It was stated in the Scriptures, “Everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed by God.”[f] 14 This is what God had in mind all along: the blessing He gave to Abraham might extend to all nations through the Anointed One, Jesus; and we are the beneficiaries of this promise of the Spirit that comes only through faith.
15 My dear brothers and sisters, here’s a real-life example I can give you: With a last will and testament, when all the property is accounted for, the document is signed, witnessed, and notarized; and afterward no one can make changes to it. 16 In a similar way, God’s promises established a binding agreement with Abraham and his offspring. In the Scriptures, it is carefully stated, “and to your descendant” (meaning one), not “and to your descendants”[g] (meaning many). Therefore, in these covenant promises, God was not referring to every son and daughter born into Abraham’s family but to the Anointed One to come. 17 What this all means is that the law given to Israel comes along some 430 years after the promise made to Abraham; so it does not invalidate the covenant God previously agreed to or in any way do away with His promise. 18 You see, if the law became the sole basis for the inheritance, then it would put God in the position of breaking a covenant because He had promised it to Abraham.
Throughout this argument, one critical question remains: why would God give the law if it would not bring His people into a right standing with Him? Couldn’t God have found a better way of doing this? It isn’t as if the law is a bad thing or a mistake that God needs to correct. It has a good purpose, but a limited one. It never supplants God’s promise to Abraham. Rather, the law keeps sin in check until the time is right for the saving justice that comes through faith in Jesus. The law serves as a tutor or a schoolmaster, revealing our great need for salvation and pointing everyone toward Jesus.
19 Now you’re asking yourselves, “So why did God give us the law?” God commanded His heavenly messengers to deliver it into the hand of a mediator for this reason: to help us rein in our sins until the Offspring, about whom the promise was made in the first place, would come. 20 A mediator represents more than one, but God is only one. 21 “So,” you ask, “does the law contradict God’s promise?” Absolutely not! Never was there written a law that could lead to resurrection and life; if there had been, then surely we could have experienced saving righteousness through keeping the law. But we haven’t. 22 Scripture has subjected the whole world to sin’s power so that the faithful obedience of Jesus the Anointed might extend God’s promises to everyone who has faith. 23 Before faith came on the scene, the law did its best to keep us in line, restraining us until the faith that was to come was fully revealed. 24 So then, the law was like a tutor, assigned to train us and point us to the Anointed, so that we will be acquitted of all wrong and made right by faith. 25 But now that true faith has come, we have no need for a tutor. 26 It is your faith in the Anointed Jesus that makes all of you children of God 27 because all of you who have been initiated into the Anointed One through the ceremonial washing of baptism[h] have put Him on. 28 It makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a freeman, a man or a woman, because in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, you are all one. 29 Since you belong to Him and are now subject to His power, you are the descendant of Abraham and the heir of God’s glory according to the promise.
30 The word of the Eternal came to me with a lament for Egypt.
Eternal One: 2 Son of man, speak! Tell them this is what the Eternal Lord has to say:
Weep and wail,
for today is the day you’ve dreaded;
3 The day of God’s judgment is near;
the day of the Eternal is closing in!
It is a day of dark clouds and gloom
that foreshadows the doom of the nations.
4 A sword will come against Egypt,
agony will invade Ethiopia,
When the dead cover the land of Egypt,
when her wealth is taken away and her foundations are leveled.
5 Every nation in league with her will be destroyed in the war: Ethiopia,[a] Put, Lud, all of Arabia, and Libya.
6 Egypt’s friends will crumble
along with her arrogance, her proud strength.
From Migdol to Aswan,[b]
they will fall by the sword.
7 Egypt will be laid waste, a tragedy among tragedies, the most devastating of devastations! Her cities will lie in ruins, surrounded by the empty desolation of other ruined cities. 8 Then they will all know that I am the Eternal One after I burn down Egypt and demolish her allies. 9 On that day of destruction, I will dispatch messengers in ships to wake up the sleeping nation of Ethiopia. They will drown in agony when they hear the news of Egypt’s doom! They will know, “We’re next! Judgment is on the horizon!”
10-11 This is what the Eternal Lord has to say:
Eternal One: I will put an end to the wealth and population of Egypt
using the power of Nebuchadnezzar as My weapon.
I will dispatch the king of Babylon and his armies—
the most ruthless in the world—
to ravage the land!
They will unsheathe their swords against Egypt
and fill the land with the slain.
12 I will dry up the waterways of the Nile
and sell the land to those who have evil designs.
I, the Eternal, promise to recruit foreigners
to destroy the land and plunder away everything of value.
13 I, the Eternal Lord, have this to say:
I will demolish the breathless idols
and destroy the vulgar images in Memphis.[c]
There won’t be a prince left in all the land of Egypt anymore;
I will infect the entire nation with a plague of fear!
14 I will crush Pathros in the south, set fire to Zoan in the delta,
and deliver a horrific punishment to Thebes[d] and all its temples.
15 I will drown Sin[e]—the great fortress of Egypt—in My wrath
and put an end to the wealth and population of Thebes.
16 I will set fire to all of Egypt!
Sin will writhe in pain.
Thebes will be torn apart;
day after day Memphis will live in fear.
17 The young soldiers of Heliopolis[f] and Pi-beseth will die in the battle;
the women will go into captivity.
In the ancient world, conquered peoples become the victors’ property. While the men are often killed, the women are taken away and used as slaves for various purposes.
18 An unnatural darkness will cover Tehaphnehes
when I destroy the dominion of Egypt.
I will put an end to her arrogance, her proud strength!
Dark clouds will veil her,
and her daughters will be led away as slaves.
19 This is how I will deliver My punishing judgments against Egypt;
then they will know that I am the Eternal One.
20 During the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, the word of the Eternal came to me with a message about Egypt:
Eternal One: 21 Son of man, I’ve broken the arm of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Look! The bone has not yet been set, and his arm has not been splinted in order to promote healing. Therefore, he won’t be able to handle a sword to defend the nation’s power. 22 So this is what I, the Eternal Lord, have to say: Look! I oppose Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I will break both arms—the strong one and the already-broken one. I’ll make sure he’ll not be able to handle a sword! 23 I will scatter the Egyptians to the wind—dividing them among the nations. 24-25 Meanwhile I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king, and I will place My sword in his hand. But I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and the king of Egypt will groan with the pain of his injury before Nebuchadnezzar. So I will make the arms of Babylon’s king strong, even as the arms of Pharaoh grow weak and fall limp at his side. Then Egypt will know that I am the Eternal One—when I place My sword in the hands of the Babylonian king and he wields it against the land of Egypt. 26 When I scatter the Egyptians to the wind and divide them among the nations, they will know that I am the Eternal One.
38 Yet by His great compassion,
He forgave them
and decided not to put an end to them.
Most of the time, He held back His anger
and did not unleash His wrath against them.
39 He was mindful that they were human, frail and fleeting,
like a wind that touches one’s skin for a moment, then vanishes.
40 Oh, how often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness
and frustrated Him during their time in the desert!
41 Over and over again, they tested God’s patience
and caused great pain for Israel’s Holy One.
42 They failed to be mindful of His great strength.
They forgot all about the day He saved them from the enemy,
43 When He displayed all sorts of signs and wonders in Egypt,
and all the amazing things He did in the region of Zoan[a]
44 When He transformed their rivers into blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent armies of flies to bite and torment them
and hordes of frogs to ruin and devastate them;
46 He handed over all of their crops to grasshoppers
and the fruit of all their labor to locusts;
47 He sent violent hailstorms, which smashed all their vines,
and ruined their sycamore-fig trees with biting frost.
48 He handed over all of their cattle to the hailstorms as well
and struck all their herds with lightning.
49 He poured His burning wrath upon them—
anger, resentment, and trouble—
sending a company of heavenly warriors to destroy them.
50 He carved out a road for His wrath;
He did not spare any from the sting of death
but handed them over to the fangs of the plague.
51 He killed all the firstborn of Egypt,
the first products of their manhood in the tents of Ham, the Egyptians’ ancestor.
52 But then He guided His people like sheep to safety
and led them like a flock into the desert to freedom;
53 He took them on a safe route so that they would not be afraid,
and He allowed the hungry sea to swallow all of their enemies.
54 He led them to His sacred land—
to this holy hill, which He had won by the power of His right hand.
55 He forced out the other nations which were living there before them,
and He redistributed the lands as an inheritance to His people;
He settled the tribes and families of Israel peaceably in their tents.
56 Even after all this, they disobeyed the Most High God
and tested His patience
and did not live by His commands.
57 Rather, they regressed to their fathers’ ways and lived faithlessly—disloyal traitors!
They were as undependable and untrustworthy as a defective bow,
58 For they triggered His wrath by setting up high places,
altars to strange gods in His land;
they aroused His jealousy by bowing down to idols in the shadow of His presence.
59 God boiled with wrath when He witnessed what they were doing;
He totally rejected Israel.
60 He deserted His own sanctuary at Shiloh,
the tent where He had lived in the midst of His people.
61 He handed His strength over to captivity;
He put His splendor under the enemy’s control.
62 He handed His people over to the sword,
and He was filled with anger toward His chosen ones;
He was burning with wrath!
63 A great fire consumed all the young men,
and the virgin girls were without the joy of their wedding songs.
64 Priests met their doom by the blade of a sword,
and widows had no tears to cry;
they could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke like a man who has been asleep,
like a warrior who has been overcome with wine.
66 He forced all His enemies back;
He defeated them, weighing them down with everlasting disgrace.
67 He even rejected the tent of Joseph as His home
and showed no favor toward the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead, He favored the tribe of Judah—
Mount Zion, the place He adored.
69 He built His sanctuary like the mountain heights;
like the earth, He created it to last forever.
70 He chose His servant David,
and called Him out of the sheep pastures.
71 From caring for the ewes, who gently nurse their young,
He called him to shepherd His people Jacob
and to look after Israel, His inheritance.
72 David shepherded them with the honor and integrity of his heart;
he led them in wisdom with strong and skillful hands.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.