M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David at Nob
21 [a]David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was trembling as he went to meet David. “Why are you alone?” he asked David. “Why is no one with you?”
2 “The king ordered me to do something,” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “and he told me, ‘No one must know anything about this mission I’m sending you on and about the orders I’ve given you. I’ve stationed[b] my young men at a certain place.’” 3 David added, “Now, what do you have to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.”
4 “I don’t have any ordinary bread,” the chief priest answered David. “But there is holy bread for the young men if they haven’t had sexual intercourse today.”
5 David answered the priest, “Of course women have been kept away from us as usual when we go on a mission. The young men’s bodies are kept holy even on ordinary campaigns. How much more then will their bodies be holy today?”
6 So the priest gave him holy bread because he only had the bread of the presence which had been taken from Yahweh’s presence and replaced with warm bread that day.
7 That same day one of Saul’s servants who was obligated to stay in Yahweh’s presence was there. His name was Doeg. A foreman for Saul’s shepherds, he was from Edom.
8 David asked Ahimelech, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I didn’t take either my spear or any other weapon because the king’s business was urgent.”
9 The chief priest answered, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Elah Valley, is here. It is wrapped in a cloth behind the priestly ephod.[c] If you want to take it, take it. There’s no other weapon here.”
David said, “There’s none like it. Let me have the sword.”
David at Gath
10 That day David left. He was still fleeing from Saul when he came to King Achish of Gath. 11 Achish’s officers asked, “Isn’t this David, the king of his country? He’s the one they used to sing about in the dances:
‘Saul has defeated thousands
but David tens of thousands.’”
12 When David realized what they had said, he was terrified of King Achish of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior when he was in their presence and acted insane as long as he was under their authority. He scribbled on the doors of the city gate and let his spit run down his beard.
14 Achish said to his officers, “Look at him! Don’t you see that he’s insane? Why bring him to me? 15 Do I have such a shortage of lunatics that you bring this man so that he can show me he is insane? Does this man have to come into my house?”
David in Judah and Moab
22 So David escaped from that place and fled to the cave at Adullam. When his brothers and all the rest of his family heard about it, they went to him. 2 Then everyone who was in trouble, in debt, or bitter about life joined him, and he became their commander. There were about four hundred men with him.
3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab. He asked the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay with you until I know what Elohim is going to do for me.” 4 He brought them to the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was living in his fortified camp.
5 “Don’t live in your fortified camp,” the prophet Gad told David. “Go to the land of Judah.” So David went to the forest of Hereth.
Saul Massacres the Priests at Nob
6 Saul heard that David and his men had been found. Saul was staying in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree at the worship site[d] with his spear in his hand and all his officials standing around him. 7 He said to his officials, “Listen here, men of Benjamin! Will Jesse’s son give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all officers over a regiment or a battalion of soldiers? 8 All of you are plotting against me, and no one informed me when my son entered into a loyalty pledge with Jesse’s son. No one felt sorry for me and informed me that my son has encouraged my servant David to ambush me, as he’s doing now.”
9 Then Doeg from Edom, standing with Saul’s officials, answered him, “I saw Jesse’s son when he came to Ahimelech, Ahitub’s son, in Nob. 10 Ahimelech prayed to Yahweh for David and gave him food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
11 Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelech, who was Ahitub’s son, and his entire family who were the priests in Nob. All of them came to the king. 12 Saul said, “Listen here, son of Ahitub!”
“Yes, sir?” he responded.
13 Saul asked him, “Why did you and Jesse’s son plot against me? You gave him bread and a sword and prayed to Elohim for him so that he can rise up against me and ambush me, as he’s doing now.”
14 Ahimelech asked the king, “But whom among all your officials can you trust like David? Your Majesty, he’s your son-in-law, the commander of your bodyguard. He’s honored in your own household. 15 Is this the first time I have prayed to Elohim for him? Not at all! You shouldn’t blame me or anyone in my family for this. I knew nothing at all about this.”
16 Saul said, “Ahimelech, you and your entire family are going to die.”
17 “Turn and kill Yahweh’s priests because they support David,” the king said to the runners standing around him. “When they knew David was fleeing, they didn’t inform me.” But the king’s men refused to attack Yahweh’s priests.
18 So the king said to Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests.” Doeg from Edom turned and attacked the priests, and that day he killed 85 men wearing the linen priestly ephod.[e] 19 He also killed the people of Nob, the city of the priests. Using his sword, he killed men and women, children and infants, cows, donkeys, and sheep.
20 But Ahimelech, Ahitub’s son, had one son who escaped. His name was Abiathar. He fled to David. 21 Abiathar told David that Saul had killed Yahweh’s priests.
22 David told Abiathar, “I knew that day when Doeg from Edom was there that he would be certain to tell Saul. I am the one responsible[f] for all the lives of your family. 23 Stay with me. Don’t be afraid. The one who is seeking my life is also seeking your life. However, you will be under my protection.”
You Belong to Christ
3 Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t talk to you as spiritual people but as people still influenced by your corrupt nature. You were infants in your faith in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink. I didn’t give you solid food because you weren’t ready for it. Even now you aren’t ready for it 3 because you’re still influenced by your corrupt nature.
When you are jealous and quarrel among yourselves, aren’t you influenced by your corrupt nature and living by human standards? 4 When some of you say, “I follow Paul” and others say, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting like sinful humans? 5 Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? They are servants who helped you come to faith. Each did what the Lord gave him to do. 6 I planted, and Apollos watered, but God made it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is important because only God makes it grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have the same goal, and each will receive a reward for his own work. 9 We are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field.
You are God’s building. 10 As a skilled and experienced builder, I used the gift[a] that God gave me to lay the foundation for that building. However, someone else is building on it. Each person must be careful how he builds on it. 11 After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that foundation is Yeshua Christ. 12 People may build on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. 13 The day will make what each one does clearly visible because fire will reveal it. That fire will determine what kind of work each person has done. 14 If what a person has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If his work is burned up, he will suffer the loss. However, he will be saved, though it will be like going through a fire.
16 Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him because God’s temple is holy. You are that holy temple!
18 Don’t deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise in the ways of this world, you should give up that wisdom in order to become really wise. 19 The wisdom of this world is nonsense in God’s sight. That’s why Scripture says, “God catches the wise in their cleverness.” 20 Again Scripture says, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are pointless.”
21 So don’t brag about people. Everything belongs to you. 22 Whether it is Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life or death, present or future things, everything belongs to you. 23 You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Ezekiel Sees the Lord’s Throne
1 On the fifth day of the fourth month in the thirtieth year, while I was living among the exiles by the Chebar River, the sky opened, and I saw visions from Elohim. 2 On the fifth day of the month, during the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiakin, 3 Yahweh spoke his word to the priest Ezekiel, son of Buzi, in Babylon by the Chebar River. The power of Yahweh came over Ezekiel.
4 As I looked, I saw a storm coming from the north. There was an immense cloud with flashing lightning surrounded by a bright light. The middle of the lightning looked like glowing metal. 5 In the center of the cloud I saw what looked like four living creatures. They were shaped like humans, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight, their feet were like those of calves, and they glittered like polished bronze. 8 They had human hands under their wings on each of their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings. 9 Their wings touched each other. The creatures went straight ahead, and they did not turn as they moved.
10 Their faces looked like this: From the front, each creature had the face of a human. From the right, each one had the face of a lion. From the left, each one had the face of a bull. And from the back, each one had the face of an eagle. 11 That is what their faces looked like. Their wings were spread out, pointing upward. Each creature had two wings with which they touched each other. The other two wings covered their bodies. 12 Each of the creatures went straight ahead. They went wherever their spirit wanted to go, and they didn’t turn as they moved. 13 The living creatures looked like burning coals and torches. Fire moved back and forth between the living creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning came out of the fire. 14 The living creatures ran back and forth like lightning.
15 As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each of them. 16 This is how the wheels looked and how they were made: They looked like beryl. All four wheels looked the same. They looked like a wheel within a wheel. 17 Whenever they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without turning as they moved. 18 The rims of the wheels were large and frightening. They were covered with eyes.
19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved with them. When the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. 20 Wherever their spirit wanted to go, the creatures went. The wheels rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 So whenever the creatures moved, the wheels moved. Whenever the creatures stood still, the wheels stood still. And whenever the creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
22 Something like a dome was spread over the heads of the living creatures. It looked like dazzling crystal. 23 Under the dome, each creature had two wings that were stretched out straight, touching one another. Each creature had two wings that covered its body. 24 When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings. The sound was like the noise of rushing water, like the thunder of Shadday, like the commotion in an army camp. When the creatures stood still, they lowered their wings.
25 A voice came from above the dome over their heads as they stood still with their wings lowered. 26 Above the dome over their heads was something that looked like a throne made of sapphire. On the throne was a figure that looked like a human. 27 Then I saw what he looked like from the waist up. He looked like glowing bronze with fire all around it. From the waist down, he looked like fire. A bright light surrounded him. 28 The brightness all around him looked like a rainbow in the clouds. It was like Yahweh’s glory. When I saw it, I immediately bowed down, and I heard someone speaking.
Psalm 37[a]
By David.
1 Do not be preoccupied with evildoers.
Do not envy those who do wicked things.
2 They will quickly dry up like grass
and wither away like green plants.
3 Trust Yahweh, and do good things.
Live in the land, and practice being faithful.
4 Be happy with Yahweh,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Entrust your ways to Yahweh.
Trust him, and he will act on your behalf.
6 He will make your righteousness shine like a light,
your just cause like the noonday sun.
7 Surrender yourself to Yahweh, and wait patiently for him.
Do not be preoccupied with an evildoer who succeeds in his way
when he carries out his schemes.
8 Let go of anger, and leave rage behind.
Do not be preoccupied.
It only leads to evil.
9 Evildoers will be cut off from their inheritance,
but those who wait with hope for Yahweh will inherit the land.
10 In a little while a wicked person will vanish.
Then you can carefully examine where he was,
but there will be no trace of him.
11 Oppressed people will inherit the land
and will enjoy unlimited peace.
12 The wicked person plots against a righteous one
and grits his teeth at him.
13 Adonay laughs at him
because he has seen that his time is coming.
14 Wicked people pull out their swords and bend their bows
to kill oppressed and needy people,
to slaughter those who are decent.
15 But their own swords will pierce their hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
16 The little that the righteous person has is better
than the wealth of many wicked people.
17 The arms of wicked people will be broken,
but Yahweh continues to support righteous people.
18 Yahweh knows the daily struggles of innocent people.
Their inheritance will last forever.
19 They will not be put to shame in trying times.
Even in times of famine they will be satisfied.
20 But wicked people will disappear.
Yahweh’s enemies will vanish like the best part of a meadow.
They will vanish like smoke.
21 A wicked person borrows, but he does not repay.
A righteous person is generous and giving.
22 Those who are blessed by him will inherit the land.
Those who are cursed by him will be cut off.
23 A person’s steps are directed by Yahweh,
and Yahweh delights in his way.
24 When he falls, he will not be thrown down headfirst
because Yahweh holds on to his hand.
25 I have been young, and now I am old,
but I have never seen a righteous person abandoned
or his descendants begging for food.
26 He is always generous and lends freely.
His descendants are a blessing.
27 Avoid evil, do good, and live forever.
28 Yahweh loves justice,
and he will not abandon his godly ones.
They will be kept safe forever,
but the descendants of wicked people will be cut off.
29 Righteous people will inherit the land
and live there permanently.
30 The mouth of the righteous person reflects on wisdom.
His tongue speaks what is fair.
31 The teachings of his Elohim are in his heart.
His feet do not slip.
32 The wicked person watches the righteous person
and seeks to kill him.
33 But Yahweh will not abandon him to the wicked person’s power
or condemn him when he is brought to trial.
34 Wait with hope for Yahweh, and follow his path,
and he will honor you by giving you the land.
When wicked people are cut off, you will see it.
35 I have seen a wicked person acting like a tyrant,
spreading himself out like a large cedar tree.
36 But he moved on, and now there is no trace of him.
I searched for him, but he could not be found.
37 Notice the innocent person,
and look at the decent person,
because the peacemaker has a future.
38 But rebels will be completely destroyed.
The future of wicked people will be cut off.
39 The victory for righteous people comes from Yahweh.
He is their fortress in times of trouble.
40 Yahweh helps them and rescues them.
He rescues them from wicked people.
He saves them because they have taken refuge in him.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.