M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

7 The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took the Lord’s Holy Box up the hill to the house of Abinadab the priest. They performed a special ceremony to prepare Abinadab’s son, Eleazar, to guard the Lord’s Holy Box. ² The Box stayed there at Kiriath Jearim for a long time.

The Lord Saves the Israelites

Twenty years passed while the Holy Box was in Kiriath Jearim, and the Israelites began to follow the Lord again. ³ Samuel told the Israelites, “If you are really coming back to the Lord with all your heart, you must throw away your foreign gods and your idols of Ashtoreth. You must give yourselves fully to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will save you from the Philistines.”

⁴ So the Israelites threw away their statues of Baal and Ashtoreth. The Israelites served only the Lord.

⁵ Samuel said, “All Israel must meet at Mizpah. I will pray to the Lord for you.”

⁶ The Israelites met together at Mizpah. They got water and poured it out before the Lord. In this way they began a time of fasting. They did not eat any food that day, and they confessed their sins. They said, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel served as a judge of Israel at Mizpah.

⁷ When the Philistines heard that the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah, they went to fight them. The Israelites were frightened when they heard the Philistines were coming ⁸ and said to Samuel, “Don’t stop praying to the Lord our God for us. Ask him to save us from the Philistines.”

⁹ Samuel took a baby lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He prayed to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered his prayer. ¹⁰ The Philistines came closer and closer to fight the Israelites while Samuel offered the sacrifice. But then, the Lord caused a loud clap of thunder to hit near the Philistines. The thunder scared the Philistines, and they became confused, so the Israelites defeated them in battle. ¹¹ The men of Israel ran out of Mizpah and chased the Philistines all the way to Beth Car. They killed Philistine soldiers all along the way.

Peace Comes to Israel

¹² After this Samuel set up a special stone to help people remember what God did. Samuel put the stone between Mizpah and Shen^[a] and named the stone “Stone of Help.”^[b] Samuel said, “The Lord helped us all the way to this place.”

¹³ The Philistines were defeated and did not enter the land of Israel again. The Lord was against the Philistines during the rest of Samuel’s life. ¹⁴ The Philistines had taken some cities from Israel, but the Israelites won them back. They recovered those cities throughout the Philistine area, from Ekron to Gath.

There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵ Samuel led Israel all his life. ¹⁶ He went from place to place judging the Israelites. Every year he traveled around the country. He went to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah and he judged the Israelites in all these places. ¹⁷ But Samuel always went back to his home in Ramah. There he built an altar to the Lord and judged Israel.

Israel Asks for a King

8 When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons to be judges for Israel. ² Samuel’s first son was named Joel. His second son was named Abijah. Joel and Abijah were judges in Beersheba. ³ But Samuel’s sons did not live the same way he did. Joel and Abijah accepted bribes. They took money secretly and changed their decisions in court. They cheated people in court. ⁴ So all the elders of Israel met together and went to Ramah to meet with Samuel. ⁵ The elders said to Samuel, “You’re old, and your sons don’t live right. They are not like you. Now, give us a king to rule us like all the other nations.”

⁶ So the elders asked for a king to lead them. Samuel thought this was a bad idea, so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ The Lord told Samuel, “Do what the people tell you. They have not rejected you. They have rejected me. They don’t want me to be their king. ⁸ They are doing the same thing they have always done. I took them out of Egypt, but they left me and served other gods. They are doing the same to you. ⁹ So listen to the people and do what they say. But give them a warning. Tell the people what a king will do to them. Tell them how a king rules people.”

¹⁰ Those people asked for a king. So Samuel told them everything the Lord said. ¹¹ Samuel said, “If you have a king ruling over you, this is what he will do: He will take away your sons and force them to serve him. He will force them to be soldiers—they must fight from his chariots and become horse soldiers in his army. Your sons will become guards running in front of the king’s chariot.

¹² “A king will force your sons to become soldiers. He will choose which of your sons will be officers over 1000 men and which will be officers over 50 men.

“A king will force some of your sons to plow his fields and gather his harvest. He will force some of your sons to make weapons for war and to make things for his chariots.

¹³ “A king will take your daughters and force some of them to make perfume for him and some to cook and bake for him.

¹⁴ “A king will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves. He will take them from you and give them to his officers. ¹⁵ He will take one-tenth of your grain and grapes, and he will give them to his officers and servants.

¹⁶ “A king will take your men and women servants. He will take your best cattle^[c] and your donkeys. He will use them all for his own work. ¹⁷ He will take one-tenth of your flocks.

“And you yourselves will become slaves of this king. ¹⁸ When that time comes, you will cry because of the king you chose. But the Lord won’t answer you at that time.”

¹⁹ But the people would not listen to Samuel. They said, “No, we want a king to rule over us. ²⁰ Then we will be the same as all the other nations. Our king will lead us. He will go before us and fight our battles.”

²¹ Samuel listened to the people and then repeated their words to the Lord. ²² The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

Then Samuel told the Israelites, “You will have a king. Now go home.”

Dead to Sin but Alive in Christ

6 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? ² Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin? ³ Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death. ⁴ So when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life.

⁵ Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from death as he did. ⁶ We know that our old life was put to death on the cross with Christ. This happened so that our sinful selves would have no power over us. Then we would not be slaves to sin. ⁷ Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control.

⁸ If we died with Christ, we know that we will also live with him. ⁹ Christ was raised from death. And we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now. ¹⁰ Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God. ¹¹ In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive for God through Christ Jesus.

¹² But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do. ¹³ Don’t offer the parts of your body to serve sin. Don’t use your bodies to do evil, but offer yourselves to God, as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. ¹⁴ Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.

Slaves of Goodness

¹⁵ So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under law? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Surely you know that you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to. Anything or anyone you follow will be your master. You can follow sin, or you can obey God. Following sin brings spiritual death, but obeying God makes you right with him. ¹⁷ In the past you were slaves to sin—sin controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed what you were taught. ¹⁸ You were made free from sin, and now you are slaves to what is right. ¹⁹ I use this example from everyday life because you need help in understanding spiritual truths. In the past you offered the parts of your body to be slaves to your immoral and sinful thoughts. The result was that you lived only for sin. In the same way, you must now offer yourselves to be slaves to what is right. Then you will live only for God.

²⁰ In the past you were slaves to sin, and you did not even think about doing right. ²¹ You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of what you did. Did those things help you? No, they only brought death. ²² But now you are free from sin. You have become slaves of God, and the result is that you live only for God. This will bring you eternal life. ²³ When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. But God gives his people a free gift—eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Lord Warns the People of Judah

44 Jeremiah received a message from the Lord for all the people of Judah living in Egypt. The message was for the people of Judah living in the towns of Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and southern Egypt. This was the message: ² “This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘You people saw the disasters that I brought on the city of Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. The towns are empty piles of stones today. ³ They were destroyed because the people living in them did evil. They gave sacrifices to other gods, and that made me angry! Your people and your ancestors did not worship those gods in the past. ⁴ I sent my servants, the prophets, to those people again and again. They spoke my message and said to the people, “Don’t do this terrible thing. I hate for you to worship idols.” ⁵ But they didn’t listen to the prophets or pay attention to them. They didn’t stop doing wicked things. They didn’t stop making sacrifices to other gods. ⁶ So I showed my anger against them. I punished the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. My anger made Jerusalem and the towns of Judah the empty piles of stone they are today.’

⁷ “So this is what the Lord God All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘Why are you hurting yourselves by continuing to worship idols? You are separating the men and women, the children and babies from the family of Judah. And so you leave yourselves without anyone left from the family of Judah. ⁸ Why do you people want to make me angry by making idols? Now you are living in Egypt. And now you are making me angry by offering sacrifices to the false gods of Egypt. You will destroy yourselves, and it will be your own fault. The people of all the other nations on the earth will say bad things about you and make fun of you. ⁹ Have you forgotten about the wicked things your ancestors did? And have you forgotten about the wicked things the kings and queens of Judah did? Have you forgotten about the wicked things you and your wives did in Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ Even to this day the people of Judah have not made themselves humble. They have not shown any respect for me, and they have not followed my teachings. They have not obeyed the laws I gave you and your ancestors.’

¹¹ “So this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have decided to make terrible things happen to you. I will destroy the whole family of Judah. ¹² There were a few survivors from Judah. They came here to Egypt. But I will destroy the few survivors from the family of Judah. They will be killed with swords or die from hunger. The people of other nations will point at them and wish evil for them. People will be shocked and frightened by what has happened to them. The name Judah will become a curse word and an insult. ¹³ I will punish those who have gone to live in Egypt. I will use war, hunger, and disease to punish them. I will punish them just as I punished the city of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ Not one of the few survivors of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape my punishment. None of them will survive to come back to Judah. They want to come back to Judah and live there. But not one of them will go back to Judah, except a few people who escape.’”

¹⁵ There were many people from Judah living in southern Egypt. Many of the women from Judah were meeting together in a large group and making sacrifices to other gods, and their husbands knew what they were doing. Those men said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to the message from the Lord that you spoke to us. ¹⁷ We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, and we will do everything we promised. We will offer sacrifices and pour out drink offerings in worship to her. We did that in the past. Our ancestors, our kings, and our officials did that in the past. All of us did those things in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. When we worshiped the Queen of Heaven, we had plenty of food. We were successful. Nothing bad happened to us. ¹⁸ But then we stopped making sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, and we stopped pouring out drink offerings to her. And we have had problems ever since we stopped worshiping her. Our people have been killed by war and hunger.”

¹⁹ Then the women spoke up^[a] and said to Jeremiah, “Our husbands knew what we were doing. We had their permission to make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. We had their permission to pour out drink offerings to her. Our husbands also knew that we were making cakes that looked like her.”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the men and women who told him these things. ²¹ He said, “The Lord remembered that you made sacrifices in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. You and your ancestors, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land did that. He remembered what you had done and thought about it. ²² The Lord hated the terrible things you did, and he could not be patient with you any longer. So he made your country an empty desert. No one lives there now. Other people say bad things about that country. ²³ The reason all those bad things happened to you is that you made sacrifices to other gods. You sinned against the Lord. You didn’t obey him or follow his teachings or the laws he gave you. You didn’t keep your part of the agreement.^[b]”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the men and women. He said, “All you people of Judah who are now in Egypt, listen to this message from the Lord. ²⁵ This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘You women did what you said you would do. You said, “We will keep the promises we made. We promised to make sacrifices and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.” So go ahead. Do what you promised you would do. Keep your promises.’ ²⁶ But listen to this message from the Lord, all you people of Judah who are living in Egypt: ‘I, the Lord, use my own great name to make this promise: None of the people of Judah who are now living in Egypt will ever again use my name to make promises. They will never again say, “As surely as the Lord God lives ….” ²⁷ I am watching over the people of Judah, but I am not watching over them to take care of them. I am watching over them to bring them harm. The people of Judah who live in Egypt will die from hunger or be killed in war until they are completely destroyed. ²⁸ Some people of Judah will escape being killed by the sword. They will come back to Judah from Egypt. But only a few people of Judah will escape. Then the survivors of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word proves to be true. They will know whether it was my word or their word that came true. ²⁹ I will give you people proof,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will punish you here in Egypt. Then you will know for sure that my promises to harm you will really happen. ³⁰ This will be your proof that I will do what I say.’ This is what the Lord says: ‘Pharaoh Hophra is the king of Egypt. His enemies want to kill him. I will give Pharaoh Hophra to his enemies. Just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah to his enemy Nebuchadnezzar, in the same way I will give Pharaoh Hophra to his enemies.’”

To the director: A song of David.

To the director: A song of David.