M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

28 At that time, the Philistine army joined together to fight against the Israelites. King Achish said to David, ‘I hope you know that you and your men must fight with me in the battle.’

² David said, ‘Yes, sir. Then you will see how well I can fight!’

Achish replied, ‘Good. Then you will always be my guard to keep me safe.’

King Saul visits a woman who uses magic

³ Samuel had died before this. All the Israelites had been very sad at his death. They had buried him in Ramah, the town where he had lived. When Samuel had been alive, Saul had removed magicians from Israel. Saul removed everyone who used magic to speak to the spirits of dead people.

⁴ The Philistine army came together and they put up their tents at Shunem. Saul called together the whole Israelite army. They put up their tents at Gilboa. ⁵ Saul saw the camp of the Philistine army. He became very afraid. ⁶ Saul asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord did not answer him in any way. He did not give Saul a dream. He did not use the Urim. He did not give a message to the prophets. ⁷ So Saul said to his servants, ‘Look for a woman who can talk to dead people. Then I will go and ask her what will happen.’

His servants replied, ‘There is a woman at Endor who can do that.’

⁸ Saul changed his clothes so that no one would recognize him. At night, Saul and two of his men went to see the woman. Saul said to her, ‘Use your magic to bring up the spirit of a certain dead man. I will tell you his name.’

⁹ But the woman said to him, ‘You know what King Saul has done. He has removed all the magicians from Israel. Are you using a trap to catch me? Do you want me to die?’

¹⁰ Then Saul promised the woman very strongly. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, nobody will punish you if you do this.’^[a]

¹¹ The woman said, ‘Who is it that you want me to bring for you?’ Saul replied, ‘Bring Samuel to me.’

¹² The woman screamed when she saw Samuel. She said to Saul, ‘You have deceived me! You are King Saul!’

¹³ The king said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Tell me what you can see.’

She replied, ‘I can see a spirit that is coming up from the ground.’

¹⁴ Saul asked, ‘What does he look like?’ She said, ‘I see an old man who is wearing a long coat.’

Saul realized that this was Samuel. He bent down low on his knees with his face towards the ground.

¹⁵ Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you caused this trouble for me? Why have you brought me back?’

Saul said, ‘I have a lot of trouble. The Philistines are fighting against me. God has turned away from me. He will not use the prophets or give me dreams to answer my questions. So I have called you to come here. Please tell me what I should do.’

¹⁶ Samuel said, ‘The Lord has turned away from you and he has become your enemy. So do not ask me what you should do. ¹⁷ I told you what the Lord would do. Now he has done it! The Lord has taken the kingdom away from you. He has given it to another Israelite, David. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished you today because you did not obey him. The Lord was very angry with the Amalekites. He told you to destroy them all. But you refused to do that. ¹⁹ The Lord will put you and the Israelites under the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me in the place for dead people. The Lord will also let the Philistines win against Israel's army.’

²⁰ Saul immediately fell down on the ground and he lay there. He was very afraid because of what Samuel had said. Saul was also very weak because he had eaten nothing all that day and night.

²¹ Then the woman came to Saul. She saw that he was very afraid. She said, ‘I have obeyed you, sir. I did what you asked me to do. I might have died because I did that. ²² Please listen to me now. I will give you some food to eat. Then you will be strong enough to travel back.’

²³ Saul refused and he said, ‘I will not eat.’ But the woman and Saul's servants continued to say that he must eat some food. So Saul agreed. He got up from the ground and he sat down on a bed.

²⁴ The woman had a fat calf at her home. She went quickly and she killed it. Then she took some flour and she cooked some flat bread without yeast. ²⁵ She gave the food to Saul and to his men and they ate it. Then they left her house that night.

Paul's work as an apostle

9 I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus, our Lord. You yourselves are the result of the work that I do to serve the Lord. You know that is all true. ² Other people may not accept me as a true apostle. But you surely must accept me. As a result of my work, you now belong to the Lord. That shows that I am truly his apostle.

³ Some people do not like what I do. This is my answer to what they say against me: ⁴ As apostles, Barnabas and I should receive food and drink from the people that we help. ⁵ If we have a Christian wife, we should take her with us as we travel. The other apostles do this. So do the Lord's brothers, and also Peter. We have the same authority that they have. ⁶ Barnabas and I seem to be the only leaders who must work at other jobs. We should not need to do that!

⁷ Think about these examples: A soldier never has to pay for his own food and clothes. A farmer who plants vines will eat some of the grapes. A person who takes care of sheep or goats will drink some of the milk from those animals. You know that is what always happens.

⁸ I am not just telling you human ideas. God's Law teaches the same thing. ⁹ God's Law that he gave to Moses says this: ‘Do not tie shut the mouth of your ox while it walks on your grain.’^[a]

But God's Law does not teach this only to help bulls. ¹⁰ No, God wanted to help us too. That is why he gave this rule to Moses for his people. Any farmer who works hard to grow food should get some of the food for himself. He ploughs his fields and he prepares the seeds because he hopes to eat some of the food. ¹¹ Our spiritual work among you is like we have planted seeds. In return, you should give to us the food and clothes that we need to live. That is like the harvest that we should receive from our work. ¹² You agree to help other people who teach God's message to you. So surely we should receive even more help from you!

But Barnabas and I have not used our authority to make you help us like that. Instead, we accept all these difficult things patiently. We want the good news about Christ to go everywhere. We do not want to do anything that might stop it.

¹³ Think about this: The people who work in the temple get their food from that place. The priests who offer sacrifices on the altar receive part of the animals for themselves. ¹⁴ In the same way, the people who tell God's good news to others should receive what they need to live. They should receive it from the people who hear the good news from them.

¹⁵ But I have not used my authority as an apostle to demand these things from you. And I am not writing this letter to demand that you help me now. No! It would be better for me to die than to change the way that I live. I can be proud of that and nobody should stop me. ¹⁶ I tell God's good news to people. But I have no reason to be proud because of that. It is something that I have to do. If I did not tell the good news, it would bring me great trouble.

¹⁷ If I were doing this work because I chose to do it, I would receive my pay. But I myself did not choose to do it. God has given me this work, so I have to do it. ¹⁸ So what kind of pay do I receive? It is this: I do not take any money from people when I tell them God's good news. I do not use all the authority that I could use when I tell God's good news to people.

¹⁹ Yes, I am a free man. I am not anybody's slave. But I choose to serve everybody like a slave. I do that so that I can help many more people to believe in Christ. ²⁰ When I was among Jews, I lived like they do, because I wanted to bring Jews to Christ. The Law that God gave to Moses no longer has authority over me. But I chose to obey that Law when I was among Jewish people who obey it. I did that so that I could help them to believe in Christ. ²¹ With Gentile people, who do not have Moses' Law, I lived like they do. I continued to respect God's Law. Yes, I obey Christ's law. But I lived like a Gentile, so that I could help Gentiles to believe in Christ. ²² With weak people, I became like someone who is weak too. I did that so that I could bring weak people to believe in Christ. Whoever I am living among, I live like they do. I want to do everything that I can to save some of them.

²³ I want to help people to accept God's good news. That is why I do all these things. I want to share in the good things that the good news gives to believers.

²⁴ Think about how people run in a race. All the runners run, but only one of them receives the prize. You must run like that, to win the race. ²⁵ People who run in races prepare their bodies well. They make themselves work very hard. They do this so that they will win a prize that will quickly become spoiled. But we work hard to receive a prize that will never become spoiled.

²⁶ Because of that, I do not run with no purpose. I do not fight like someone who only hits the air. ²⁷ I make my body do what I want it to do. I make it like my slave. I have told God's message to other people. I do not want to lose the prize myself. So I try very much to obey the rules of the race.

The day has come for the Lord to punish Israel

7 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, this is what I, the Almighty Lord, say to the land of Israel: The end is now here! I will soon destroy the whole land. ³ The time has come for your final punishment! You will know that I am very angry with you. I will punish you because of the bad way that you have lived. You will receive the punishment that you deserve for all the disgusting things that you have done. ⁴ I will not be sorry for you. I will not be kind to you. I will punish you as you deserve. You have done disgusting things. So I will punish you and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ This is what the Almighty Lord says: Terrible trouble is coming to you! It will be worse than any other trouble. ⁶ The end has now come! It is finally here to destroy you! Look out! ⁷ You people who live in the land will now receive terrible punishment. The day for that to happen is very near. There will be no more sound of happy parties on the mountains. Instead there will be shouts of fear. ⁸ Very soon, I will punish you because of my great anger. You will know how angry I am. I will judge you for the way that you have lived. I will punish you as you deserve for the disgusting things that you have done. ⁹ I will not be sorry for you. I will not be kind to you. I will punish you as you deserve, because of the disgusting things that you have done. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am causing you pain.

¹⁰ Yes, the day of your punishment is here! Terrible trouble is coming to you! Like a tree that is ready to make flowers, your proud and wicked acts are ready for punishment. ¹¹ You use violence to help you to do wicked things. None of all those people will escape. None of their riches or valuable things will remain. ¹² The day of punishment has now come! The person who buys things will no longer be happy. Nor will the person who sells things. My anger will bring pain to all of them. ¹³ Any man who sells his land will never get it back as long as he lives. God has shown what he will do to all those people. He will not change his mind. Each one will lose his life because of their sins.

¹⁴ The soldiers make a noise with trumpets to prepare for war. But nobody goes out to fight a battle because my anger has brought punishment for all the people.

¹⁵ The enemy is ready to attack outside the city. Inside the city, there is disease and famine. Enemy soldiers will kill the people who are in the country. Famine and disease will kill everyone who is in the city. ¹⁶ Those who remain alive will escape. They will run to the mountains. They will be like doves that hunters have chased out of the valleys. They will cry aloud because of their sins. ¹⁷ Their hands will be weak. Their knees will shake. ¹⁸ They will wear sackcloth. They will be very afraid. Their faces will show that they are ashamed. They will cut all the hair from their heads. ¹⁹ They will throw their silver away in the streets. They will think that their gold has no value, like dirt. Their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the Lord's great anger. When they are hungry, their money will not buy them any food. It is their riches that have caused them to do wicked things. ²⁰ They were proud of their beautiful jewels. They used them to make disgusting idols and images. That is why I, the Lord, have made them hate their valuable things. ²¹ I will allow foreigners and wicked people to take those things from them. They will use those valuable things in a disgusting way. ²² Those foreigners and robbers will go into my holy temple. They will cause it to become unclean. But I will look away and I will allow them to do that.

²³ Prepare chains to tie my people. The whole land is full of murder and violence. ²⁴ I will bring the most wicked people from other nations to attack. They will take the houses of my people and they will live in them. The strong men among my people will no longer boast. Enemies will spoil the holy places where my people worshipped.

²⁵ Terrible trouble is coming to my people! When they are afraid, they will look for peace. But they will not find it. ²⁶ Many troubles will happen, one after another. There will be lots of news about terrible things. People will ask the prophets to tell them what will happen. The priests will not have anything to teach the people. The leaders will not have any good advice. ²⁷ The king will be very sad. His son will not hope for anything good to happen. The people will shake with fear.

I will punish them as they deserve for the way that they have lived. I will judge them in the same way that they have judged other people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

This is a special song that the sons of Korah wrote for the music leader. Sing it to the music that they call ‘Lilies.’

A love song^[a]