M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Philistine leaders will not have David in their army
29 The Philistine army put up their tents at Aphek. The Israelites made their camp near the spring of water at Jezreel. 2 The Philistine rulers marched out with their groups of soldiers. They were in groups of 100 soldiers and 1,000 soldiers. David and his men were marching with King Achish at the back of the army. 3 The Philistine leaders asked, ‘Why are these Hebrew people here?’
Achish said to them, ‘This is David. He was the servant of Israel's King Saul. But he came to me more than a year ago. Since he turned against King Saul and came to me, he has always been faithful to me.’
4 But the Philistine leaders were angry with Achish. They said to him, ‘Send David back to the town that you gave to him. He must not go with us to fight the battle. He might turn against us and become our enemy. Then he would start to kill our own soldiers. That would make his master, Saul, very happy! 5 Remember who this man David is! The Israelites sing this about him when they dance:
“Saul has killed thousands of his enemies.
And David has killed tens of thousands of his enemies.” ’
6 So Achish called David to come to him. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, I know that I can trust you. I would like you to go with me to fight the battle. Since the first day that you came to me, I have never found anything wrong with you. But the other leaders do not trust you. 7 So return to your home and have peace in your mind. Do not do anything that will make the other Philistine leaders angry.’
8 David said to King Achish, ‘What have I done that is wrong? You say that you have found nothing wrong with me all the time that I have been with you. You are my master and king. So why should I not go with you to fight your enemies?’
9 Achish replied, ‘I believe that you are as good as an angel from God. But the Philistine leaders have said, “David must not go with us to fight the battle.” 10 So you must all get up early tomorrow morning. As soon as there is light at dawn, you must leave with the men who came with you.’
11 So David and his men got up early in the morning. They returned along the road back to Ziklag. The Philistine army went to Jezreel.
David fights against the Amalekites
30 David and his men arrived at Ziklag three days after they left King Achish. They found that the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag and towns in the south of Judah. The Amalekites had destroyed Ziklag with fire. 2 They had caught the women and the other people who were in the town, both young people and old people. They did not kill any of them, but they took them away as prisoners.[a]
3 So when David and his men arrived at Ziklag, they saw that the Amalekites had destroyed the city. The Amalekites had taken away their wives, their sons and their daughters as prisoners. 4 David and his men wept loudly. They continued to weep until they had no strength to weep any more. 5 The Amalekites had taken both of David's wives: Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail from Carmel, who was Nabal's widow. 6 David was very upset because his men were complaining. They wanted to kill him with stones. His men were very upset because they had lost their sons and their daughters. But David trusted the Lord his God to make him strong.
7 Then David spoke to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son. David said to him, ‘Bring the priests' ephod to me.’ So Abiathar took the ephod to David. 8 David asked the Lord, ‘Should I chase after the men who attacked our town? Will I catch them?’
The Lord answered, ‘Yes, chase after them and you will certainly catch them. You will rescue your families.’[b]
9-10 So David and his 600 men left Ziklag. They arrived at Besor stream. Some of the men were too tired to go across the valley. So 200 men remained there.[c] David and the other 400 men continued to chase after the Amalekites.
11 David's men found an Egyptian man in a field. They took him to David. They gave the man some water to drink and food to eat. 12 They gave him some dried figs and some raisins. Then he became stronger, because he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days.
13 David asked the man, ‘Who is your master? Where do you come from?’
The young man answered, ‘I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite man. My master left me here three days ago because I was ill. 14 We had attacked the south part of Judah, where the Kerethites live.[d] We also attacked the land where the people of Caleb's clan live. We destroyed Ziklag with fire too.’
15 David said to him, ‘Can you take me to find these men?’
The man said, ‘Please promise me in God's name that you will not kill me. Promise me that you will not take me back to my master. If you do that, I will lead you to find them.’
16 So the Egyptian man took David to find the Amalekites. The men were sitting everywhere, all over the ground. They were having a party, eating and drinking. They were happy because they had taken so many things from the towns of the Philistines and from the people in Judah.
17 That evening, David attacked the Amalekites. The fight continued until the next evening. David and his men killed all the Amalekites except for 400 young men. Those 400 men rode away on their camels. 18 David got back everything that the Amalekites had taken. And he rescued his two wives. 19 The people had lost nothing. David brought everyone back, the young people and the old people, the sons and the daughters. He brought back all the valuable things and everything that the Amalekites had taken. 20 David took all the sheep, goats and cows from the Amalekites. His men led these animals in front of the other animals. They said, ‘These animals will belong to David!’
21 David returned to the 200 men who had stayed beside the Besor stream. These men had been too tired to go with David. They came to meet David and the men who were with him. When David met them, he happily said ‘hello’ to them. 22 But some of the men who had gone with David were wicked and stupid. They said, ‘These men did not come with us to attack the Amalekites. So we will not give them any of the things that we have brought back. Each man can have only his wife and his children. Then they must take them back home.’
23 David said, ‘No, my brothers. You cannot do that. The Lord has given all these things to us. He has kept us safe. He has helped us to win against the enemies who attacked us. 24 Nobody will agree with what you say. Each person will receive an equal part. The men who stayed here with our things and the men who went to fight will all receive the same amount.’
25 David made this a rule for the Israelites, and they still obey it.
26 David arrived back at Ziklag with all the things that they had taken from the Amalekites. He sent some of the things to the leaders of Judah who were his friends. David sent this message, ‘Here is a gift for you. We took these things from the Lord's enemies.’
27 David sent gifts to the leaders in these towns:
Bethel, Ramoth in the desert in the south, Jattir,
28 Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, 29 Racal,
the towns where the clan of Jerahmeel live,
the towns where the Kenites live,
30 Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athach 31 and Hebron.
David also sent gifts to the people in the towns that he and his men had visited.
Idols
10 My Christian friends, remember what happened to our Israelite ancestors. Moses led them out of Egypt long ago. While they followed Moses, they all walked under the same cloud. All of them walked across the Red Sea.[a] 2 It is like God baptized all of them in the cloud and in the sea. In that way, they became people who followed Moses. 3 All our ancestors ate the same spiritual food.[b] 4 All of them drank the same spiritual drink. They drank water from the spiritual rock that went with them. Christ was that rock.[c] 5 They all received the same help from God, but most of them did not please God. God caused most of them to die in the wilderness.[d]
6 We must learn from those things that happened to our ancestors. We must not want to do very bad things, like they did. 7 Do not worship idols, as some of them did. The Bible says: ‘The people sat down to eat and to drink. After that, they got up from their meal and they danced.’[e]
8 Nor must we ever have sex in wrong ways. Some of our ancestors did that, and 23,000 of them died in one day as a result.[f]
9 Nor must we do bad things to see whether the Lord will punish us. Some of our ancestors did that, and God sent snakes to destroy them.[g]
10 Do not complain against God. Some of our ancestors spoke like that, and God sent an angel of death to kill them.[h]
11 All these things happened to our ancestors so that we would learn from them. They are written in the Bible to teach us important lessons. We are people who live at a time when all things will become complete.
12 If you think that you are standing strongly, be careful! Do not fall down! 13 You may often want to do wrong things. The things that are difficult for you are difficult for other people too. Remember that God is always there to help you. He will not let any bad thing be too difficult for you. He will help you to stand against it. When you want to do something wrong, God will make you strong in your spirit. He will show you a way out, so that you do not do anything wrong.
14 So, my friends, keep away from idols. Do not worship them. 15 You are people who think carefully about things. So think about what I am saying to you. 16 When we eat the Lord's Supper together, we remember that Christ died on our behalf. We thank God for the wine that we drink from the cup. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his blood. We also break the bread and we eat it together. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his body that died on the cross. 17 We are many people, but all of us eat part of the same loaf of bread. That shows that we are one group of people. We belong together because Christ died on our behalf.
18 Think about Israel's people. They eat part of the animals that the priests offer on the altar as a sacrifice. This shows that they share together in the sacrifice. 19 So think about food that people offer to idols as a sacrifice. I am not saying that the idols are real gods. The food that people offer to them is not special food. 20 But the people who offer food to idols are worshipping demons. They are not worshipping God when they do that. I do not want you to share in what they do to worship demons. 21 If you drink anything from the cup of demons, you can not then drink wine from the Lord's cup. If you share a meal with demons, you can not also share in the Lord's meal.
22 If we do things like that, we will cause the Lord to be angry. We should worship only him. You know that we are not stronger than he is!
23 Some of you may say, ‘We are free to do anything that we want to do!’ But not everything is good for you to do. You may say, ‘We are free to do anything!’ But not everything helps you to be strong as a believer. 24 Do not think about the things that will help you. Instead, each of you should think about what will help other people.
25 You can eat any meat that people sell in the market. Do not ask questions about the meat. Do not cause your thoughts to have trouble. 26 The Bible says this: ‘The earth, and everything in it, belongs to the Lord.’[i]
27 People who do not believe in Christ may ask you to eat a meal with them. Agree to go to his home, if you want to. Then you should eat whatever food they give to you. Do not ask questions about the food. Do not cause your thoughts to have trouble. 28 But someone there may say to you, ‘They offered this food to an idol.’ If someone tells you that, do not eat the food. It might cause trouble to the thoughts of the person who told you. 29 It may not cause your own thoughts to have trouble. But the other person may not be sure if it is right to eat that kind of food.
Perhaps you will say, ‘Why should another person's thoughts decide what is right for me? I am free to do what I want. 30 I thank God for my food before I eat it. If I do that, nobody should say that it is wrong for me to eat it.’
31 Whatever you are doing, show that God is great. When you eat anything, or you drink anything, do it all in a way that praises God. 32 Do not cause problems for other people. Whether they are Jews or Gentiles, or people who belong to God's church, live in a way that does not cause problems for them. 33 Copy my example. Whatever I do, I try to make other people happy. I do not try to do what will help me. Instead, I want to help other people. I live in that way so that God will save many people.
Disgusting things in God's temple
8 On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, I was sitting in my house. The leaders of Judah were sitting in front of me.[a] While I sat there, the Almighty Lord took hold of me with great power.[b]
2 I looked up and I saw something that looked like a man. The lower part of his body looked like fire. Above that, his body looked like bright metal. 3 He put out something in the shape of a hand. He took hold of the hair on my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up, high in the sky, and took me to Jerusalem.[c] This happened in the vision which God gave to me. I came to the north gate of the temple's inside yard. In that place there was a disgusting idol that made God very angry. 4 Then I saw that the bright glory of Israel's God was there. It was like the glory that I had seen beside the River Kebar.
5 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, look up towards the north.’ When I looked, I saw the disgusting idol. It stood at the entrance, on the north side of the altar gate.
6 He said to me, ‘Son of man, look at what they are doing! Israel's people are doing very disgusting things here. They are chasing me far away from my holy temple. But you will see even worse things than these.’
7 Then the Lord took me to the entrance of the temple's yard. As I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, ‘Son of man, make a hole through the wall here.’ So I dug into the wall. I found a door in it.
9 He said to me, ‘Go in there. Look at the wicked things that they are doing in this place.’ 10 So I went in and I looked. I saw pictures of many things on the walls all around. There were pictures of snakes and other disgusting animals. There were also images of the things that Israel's people were worshipping. 11 70 of Israel's leaders were there. Shaphan's son Jaazaniah, was also among them. Each of them held a pot to burn incense. The smell of the incense rose up above them.
12 The Lord said, ‘Son of man, look at the wicked things that Israel's leaders are doing! They are doing them secretly in the dark. Each of them has a room where they worship their images of idols. They say, “The Lord does not see us! The Lord has gone away from our land!” ’
13 The Lord said to me, ‘You will see even worse things that they are doing.’
14 Then he took me to entrance at the north gate of the temple. I saw some women who were sitting there. They were weeping because the god Tammuz was dead.[d] 15 He said to me, ‘Son of man, look at that! But you will see even worse things than these.’
16 Then the Lord took me to the inside yard of his temple. I could see about 25 men who were standing between the altar and the front of the temple. Their backs were turned towards the Lord's temple. Their faces looked towards the east. They were bending down low to worship the sun that was rising in the east![e]
17 The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, look at that! The people of Judah are doing these disgusting things here in my temple! That is a terrible thing! And they are also doing violent things everywhere in their land. They continue to make me angry all the time. Look at them! They insult me as much as they can! 18 So now I will punish them in my great anger. I will not be sorry for them. I will not be kind to them. They may shout at me for help, but I will not listen to them.’
The sons of Korah wrote this special song for the music leader.
The city of God[a]
46 God is a strong place for us,
where he will keep us safe.
He will always help us
when troubles come.
2 So even when the earth shakes,
we will not be afraid.
And when the mountains fall down
into the deep sea,
we will still not be afraid.
3 If the sea makes dangerous waves,
so that even the mountains shake,
we will never be afraid.
Selah.
4 There is a river that runs into the city of God,
and it brings God's blessing to the people there.
That is the holy place
where the Most High God lives.
5 God is in that city.
Nothing can ever destroy it.
When dawn comes, God will be there to help it.
6 Nations are shouting with anger!
Kingdoms shake and fall.
God calls in a loud voice,
and even the earth melts!
7 The Lord Almighty is there to help us.
The God of Jacob keeps us safe.
Selah.
8 Come and see the great things
that the Lord has done.
He has brought terrible things to the earth!
9 All over the world, he causes wars to finish.
He destroys the soldiers' bows and spears.
He burns their shields in a fire.
10 He says, ‘Be still and quiet!
Understand that I am God.
I rule as king over the nations.
All the world will say that I am great.’
11 The Lord Almighty is there to help us.
The God of Jacob keeps us safe.
Selah.
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
God rules the earth!
47 People from every nation,
clap your hands together.
Shout aloud to God,
with the sound of happy songs.
2 The Lord, the Most High God, is wonderful.
He is the great King
who rules over the whole earth.
3 He has won the battle against our enemies,
and those nations are now under our power.
4 He chose a special land to belong to us.
Jacob's descendants are proud of that land.
They are his own people that he loves.
Selah.
5 God has gone up to sit on his throne,
while the people shout aloud.
The Lord has gone up there,
while the trumpets make a loud noise.
6 Sing to praise God! Yes, sing!
Sing to praise our king! Sing!
7 God is the King who rules over the whole earth!
So sing a special song to praise him!
8 God rules over the nations.
God is sitting on his holy throne.
9 The leaders of the nations have met together.
They have joined with the people who serve Abraham's God.[b]
God has authority over all the world's rulers
and their armies.
Everyone should praise him,
for he is great!
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