M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David and Jonathan
20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my offense? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”
2 And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Look, my father does nothing either great or small that he does not reveal to me. Why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.”
3 David vowed again and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your sight. And he says, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be distressed.’ However, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do it for you.”
5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go that I may hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day. 6 If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David asked for leave from me that he might run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good,’ it will be well for your servant. But if he gets angry, know that evil is determined by him. 8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any guilt in me, kill me yourself. For why should you bring me to your father?”
9 Then Jonathan said, “Far be it from you. For if I indeed knew that my father had determined evil against you, would I not tell it you?”
10 David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me? Or what if your father answers you roughly?”
11 So Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” And the two of them went out to the field.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or by the third day, and if he is favorable toward David, then will I not send and reveal it to you? 13 May the Lord do so to Jonathan and much more. If it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will reveal it you and send you away that you may go in peace. And may the Lord be with you as He has been with my father. 14 And if I live, not only will you show me the kindness of the Lord, that I shall not die, 15 but you will not cut off your faithfulness from my house forever, even when the Lord has cut off each one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, “May the Lord require it at the hand of the enemies of David.” 17 Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him. For he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 When you have stayed three days, you will surely go down and come to the place where you hid yourself on the day this happened, and wait there beside the stone Ezel. 20 And I will shoot three arrows to its side, as though I shot at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the boy, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then come, for it will be safe for you. And as the Lord lives, it is nothing of concern. 22 But if I say to the young man, ‘See, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for the Lord has sent you away. 23 As for the matter upon which you and I have spoken, the Lord is between you and me forever.”
24 So David hid himself in the field. And when the New Moon appeared, the king sat down over food to eat. 25 Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on a seat by the wall. Then Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day. For he thought, “Something has happened. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” 27 It happened on the following day, which was the second day of the month, that David’s place remained empty. So Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to eat food either yesterday or today?”
28 And Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave from me to go to Bethlehem. 29 And he said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to come. Now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me leave and see my brothers.’ This is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
30 Then Saul was angry with Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now, send and bring him to me, for he is a dead man.”
32 Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?” 33 So Saul cast a spear at him to strike him. Therefore Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.
34 And Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and did not eat food on the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David, because his father had dishonored him.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy was with him. 36 And he said to his boy, “Run, find the arrows which I shoot.” He ran, and he shot the arrow over him. 37 When the boy came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then Jonathan cried after the boy, “Hurry quickly! Do not stay!” And Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrow and came to his master. 39 But the boy did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”
41 When the boy had gone, David arose from the south side of the stone, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another and wept together, but David wept more.
42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since the two of us swore in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’ ” So he arose and departed, but Jonathan went into the city.
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
2 Brothers, when I came to you, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
The Revelation by God’s Spirit
6 Yet we speak wisdom among those who are mature, although not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age knew it. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written,
“Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”[a]
10 But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Likewise, no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. 13 These things also we proclaim, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things. Yet he himself is not judged by anyone. 16 For
“who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct Him?”[b]
But we have the mind of Christ.
A Prayer for Restoration
5 Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us;
look, and see our reproach!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans and fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
our wood is sold to us.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks;
we labor and have no rest.
6 We have given our hand to Egypt and to Assyria,
to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more,
but we bear their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us;
there is no one to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion,
the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hung up by their hands,
the faces of elders were not honored.
13 Young men ground at the millstones;
boys staggered under loads of wood.
14 The elders have left the city gate,
the young men stopped their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint;
for these things our eyes grow dim;
18 because of Mount Zion, which is desolate,
with foxes walking upon it.
19 You, O Lord, remain forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why do You forget us forever,
and forsake us for so long a time?
21 Restore us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may return!
Renew our days as of old,
22 unless You have utterly rejected us,
and are very angry with us.
Psalm 36
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord.
1 An oracle within my heart
about the transgression of the wicked:
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
2 For they flatter themselves in their own eyes,
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of their mouth are wickedness and deceit;
they have ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 They devise mischief on their bed;
they set themselves on a path that is not good;
they do not reject evil.
5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains,
Your judgments like the great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How excellent is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore mankind
seeks refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They will drink their fill from the abundance of Your house,
and You will cause them to drink from the river of Your pleasures.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light.
10 Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant come against me,
and do not let the hand of the wicked cause me to wander.
12 There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
they are cast down and not able to rise.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.