M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

God Calls Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no vision coming forth.

² At that time, Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow weak that he could not see), ³ and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was.

⁴ Then the Lord called to Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” ⁵ He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called to me.”

And he said, “I did not call. Return, lie down again.” And he went and lay down.

⁶ The Lord called Samuel again. So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

And he answered, “I did not call, my son. Return, lie down again.”

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him.

⁸ The Lord again called Samuel a third time. So he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling to the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down. And it will be, if He calls you, that you will say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant listens.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and stood, and He called as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant listens.”

¹¹ The Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am doing something in Israel which will make both ears ring of every one that hears it. ¹² In that day I will bring about against Eli everything which I have spoken with regard to his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For I told him that I will judge his house forever, for the guilt which he knew, because his sons are cursed, and he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for with sacrifice nor offering forever.”

¹⁵ Samuel lay until the morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Now Samuel feared to report the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ Then Eli called Samuel, and said, “Samuel, my son.”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

¹⁷ He said, “What is the thing that the Lord has spoken to you? Do not hide it from me. Thus may God do so to you, and more also, if you hide from me a word out of all the things that He spoke to you.” ¹⁸ Samuel told him everything, and did not hide from him a thing. And he said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes.”

¹⁹ And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and did not let any of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰ All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was proven to be a prophet of the Lord. ²¹ And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

3 What advantage then does the Jew have? Or what profit is there in circumcision? ² Much in every way! Chiefly because the oracles of God were entrusted to them.

³ What if some did not believe? Would their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴ God forbid! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:

⁵ But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous in taking vengeance? (I am speaking in human terms.) ⁶ God forbid! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷ If through my lie the truth of God has abounded more to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? ⁸ Why not rather say, “Let us do evil that good may come,” as we are slanderously accused and as some claim that we say? Their condemnation is just.

There Is None Righteous

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? No, not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. ¹⁰ As it is written:

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and all the world may become accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Righteousness Through Faith

²¹ But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. ²² This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ^[k] to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction. ²³ For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith, in His blood, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins previously committed, ²⁶ to prove His righteousness at this present time so that He might be just and be the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. ²⁹ Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, ³⁰ seeing it is one God, who shall justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then make the law void through faith? God forbid! Instead, we establish the law.

41 In the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama of the royal seed, and the officials of the king, even ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah. While they were eating bread together in Mizpah, ² Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men that were with him arose and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan with the sword and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. ³ Ishmael also slew all the Jews who were with him, even with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, and the men of war.

⁴ On the day after he had slain Gedaliah, when no one knew it, ⁵ eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, having their beards shaven, and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, with offerings and incense in their hands to bring them to the house of the Lord. ⁶ Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went. As he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!” ⁷ Yet it was so when they came into the midst of the city that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, he and the men who were with him, slew them and cast them into the midst of the cistern. ⁸ But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Do not slay us, for we have stores in the field, of wheat and barley, and of oil and honey.” So he refrained and did not slay them among their brothers. ⁹ Now the cistern in which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was what Asa the king had made because of Baasha the king of Israel. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were slain.

¹⁰ Then Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites.

¹¹ But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, ¹² then they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. ¹³ And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him, they were glad. ¹⁴ So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and returned, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. ¹⁵ But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites.

¹⁶ Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. ¹⁷ And they departed and lived in the habitation of Geruth Kimham, which is by Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt, ¹⁸ because of the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

Psalm 17

A Prayer of David.