M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David refuses to kill Saul

24 When Saul had finished fighting against the Philistines, he returned to his home. Someone told him that David was in the desert at En Gedi. ² So Saul chose 3,000 of the best soldiers in Israel. They went to look for David and his men near Wild Goat Rocks.

³ Saul came to the place near the road where the shepherds keep their sheep. There was a cave near to this place. Saul went in there to use it as a toilet.

David and his men were hiding at the back of the same cave. ⁴ David's men said to him, ‘This is the day that the Lord told you about! The Lord said to you, “I will give your enemy to you. Then you can decide what is the right thing to do to him.” ’ So David stood up very quietly. He went and he cut off a small piece of cloth from Saul's coat. Saul did not know what had happened.

⁵ After that, David thought that he had done something wrong. He felt sorry that he had cut a piece of cloth from Saul's coat. ⁶ David said to his men, ‘I ask the Lord to stop me doing anything wrong to my master. The Lord has chosen him to be Israel's king. I must never do anything to hurt him. He is the king that the Lord has chosen.’ ⁷ David spoke like this to stop his men from attacking Saul.

Then Saul left the cave and he started to travel along the road.

⁸ After that, David went out of the cave. He shouted to Saul, ‘My master and my king!’ Saul looked behind him. David went down on his knees with his face on the ground to respect the king. ⁹ David said to Saul, ‘You should not listen to the people who say, “David wants to hurt you.” ¹⁰ You can see that the Lord has kept you safe today when I had a chance to hurt you in the cave. Some of my men wanted me to kill you, but I did not agree. I said, “I will not hurt my master, because the Lord has chosen him to be king.” ¹¹ My father, look at what I have in my hand! It is a small piece of your coat. I cut this off the corner of your coat, but I did not kill you. So you must know that I do not want to do anything bad against you. I have not turned against you. I am not guilty of anything, but you are chasing after me so that you can kill me. ¹² The Lord is the judge who will decide which of us is guilty. I pray that he will punish you for what you are doing to me. But I myself will never do anything to hurt you. ¹³ You know the proverb, “Evil people do evil things.” But I will never try to hurt you. ¹⁴ You are Israel's king. So why are you chasing after someone like me? I am less important than a dead dog or a little fly! ¹⁵ The Lord will be the judge to decide who is right. I pray that he will see that I am not guilty. I pray that he will save me from your power.’

¹⁶ When David stopped speaking, Saul said, ‘Is that really you, David my son?’ Then Saul started to weep loudly. ¹⁷ He said to David, ‘You are a better man than I am. You have been kind to me even when I have tried to hurt you. ¹⁸ You have shown me today how kind you have been to me. The Lord gave you a chance to hurt me, but you did not kill me. ¹⁹ If someone catches his enemy, he does not let him escape. But you have not tried to hurt me today. So I ask that the Lord will bless you in return. ²⁰ I know that you will be the king of Israel one day. The kingdom will be strong when you rule. ²¹ So promise me in the Lord's name that you will not kill any of my descendants. Please make sure that people do not forget my family's name.’

²² So David made a strong promise to Saul. Then Saul returned to his home. But David and his men went back to the place where they had been hiding.

Send the bad person away from you

5 We have heard bad news about what is happening among you. Some of you are having sex in wrong ways. We have heard that one man is even having sex with his own father's wife! Even people who do not know God do not do things as bad as that! ² But, you are still proud of yourselves! Instead, you ought to be very sad and ashamed. You should have sent this man away from your group.

³ My body is not there with you, but my spirit is with you. It seems like I am present with you. So I have already decided about this man. This is how you should punish him for what he has done. ⁴ You have the authority of the Lord Jesus to do this. When you meet together as a group, my spirit will be with you. The power of our Lord Jesus will also be with you. ⁵ When you meet, put this man under Satan's authority. Satan will then destroy the man's body. Then God may save the man's spirit on the day when the Lord Jesus returns.

⁶ You should not be so proud of yourselves. Think about what yeast does in bread. A very small amount of yeast changes the whole loaf of bread. ⁷ The yeast in the flour is like one person who does wrong things. You must remove this old yeast from among you. Then you will be like a new loaf of bread. You are really like a loaf which has no yeast in it.^[a] You are pure, because Christ died as a sacrifice on our behalf. He is like the lamb that the Israelites killed for their Passover meal. ⁸ As a result, we can have our own Passover festival. We must remove everything that is bad from among us. That is like what the Israelites did when they removed all the old yeast from their homes. Instead we live in a way that is pure and honest. It is like we are eating bread which has no yeast in it.^[b]

⁹ I already wrote a letter to you. I told you that you must not be friends with people who have sex in wrong ways. ¹⁰ But I was not talking about people who do not know God. Those people have sex in wrong ways. They want many things to please themselves. They deceive people and they rob them. They worship idols. You could not keep away from all people like that, unless you left this world!

¹¹ Now I am telling you this: I was talking about people who say that they are believers. If they say that, but they have sex in a wrong way, do not be friends with them. It is the same if they want many things for themselves. They may worship idols. They may insult people. They may often get drunk. They may deceive people and rob them. If one of your own group does things like that, do not even agree to eat a meal with them. ^12-13 It is not right for me to decide about people who do not belong to the church group. God will judge those people. But you should decide what is right for the people who do belong to your group. Do what the Bible says:

3 He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you can see in front of you. Eat this scroll with words on it. Then go and speak to the Israelites.’ ² So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.

³ He said, ‘Son of man, I am giving you this scroll. Eat it all and fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it. It had a sweet taste like honey in my mouth.^[a]

⁴ Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, now go to Israel's people and speak my words to them. ⁵ I am not sending you to a people whose words you cannot understand. They do not speak a difficult language. No, I am sending you to Israel's people. ⁶ I am not sending you to people who speak many different languages that you cannot understand. If I did send you to people like that, I am sure that they would listen to you. ⁷ But Israel's people will not agree to listen to you. That is because they refuse to listen to me. All the Israelites have decided not to obey me, and they will not change. ⁸ But I will make you as strong in your mind as they are. You will not change what you think. ⁹ You will be as strong as the strongest stone that nobody can break. Do not be afraid of them. Do not be afraid of how they look at you. Remember that they are people who refuse to obey me.’

¹⁰ Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, listen carefully to all the words that I say to you. Remember them. ¹¹ Now you must go to the Israelites who are prisoners in Babylon. They are your own people. Give my message to them and say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says.” They may listen to you or they may refuse to listen. But you must still give them my message.’

¹² Then a spirit lifted me up.^[b] I heard a loud noise like thunder behind me. It was the sound of the Lord's great glory as it rose up from its place! ¹³ I heard the sound of the living things' wings as they touched each other. I also heard the loud noise of the wheels that were at the side of the living things. It was like the noise of thunder. ¹⁴ Then a spirit lifted me up and he took me away. I was angry and upset in my mind. But the Lord gave me great power and strength. ¹⁵ I came to Tel Abib near the Kedar river, where the Israelite prisoners lived. I stayed with them for seven days. I was very upset as I sat among them.

Ezekiel must warn the Lord's people

¹⁶ When the seven days were finished, the Lord gave this message to me:

¹⁷ ‘Son of man, I have made you a guard to warn Israel's people about danger. You must listen to the messages that I will give to you. Then you must use my messages to warn the Israelites. ¹⁸ I may say to a wicked person, “Your punishment will be death.” Then you must warn that person. You must tell him to stop doing wicked things so that he may save his life. If you do not tell the wicked person this, he will die because of his sins. But I will say that you are guilty, as if you had killed him yourself. ¹⁹ So you must warn the wicked person. If you warn him, he still may not stop doing wicked things. Then that wicked person will die because of his sins. But you will have saved your own life.

²⁰ A righteous person may stop doing things that are right. He may start to do bad things. Then I will put him in danger. He will die as punishment for his sins. I will not remember the good things that he did. But if you have not warned him of the danger, I will say that you are guilty. It is as if you killed him yourself. ²¹ But if you do warn that righteous person to stop doing bad things, he may agree. Then he will continue to live, because you warned him. You also will have saved your own life.’

²² The Lord continued to give me strength. He said to me, ‘Stand up now! Go out into the valley and I will speak to you there.’ ²³ So I got up and I went out to the valley. I saw the glory of the Lord in that place. It was like the glory that I had seen beside the Kebar river. I bent down low, with my face to the ground.

²⁴ Then a spirit came into me. He lifted me up and he made me stand on my feet. The Lord said to me, ‘Go into your house and shut the door. ²⁵ Son of man, people will tie you with ropes so that you cannot move. You will not be able to go out among the people. ²⁶ I will also stop your tongue from moving so that you cannot speak. You will not be able to warn the Israelites. They are people who refuse to obey me. ²⁷ But sometimes I will speak to you. Then you will be able to open your mouth and give them my message. You must tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says.” Some of them will listen to my message. But other people will refuse to listen. They are a nation of people who refuse to obey me.’^[c]

David wrote this song for Jeduthun, the leader of the music.

Life is short^[a]