M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Lord Rejects Saul
15 Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you to be king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of Hosts, ‘I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not have compassion on them but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
4 So Saul summoned the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 Then Saul came to the city of Amalek and laid an ambush in the valley. 6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7 Then Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah until you come to Shur, which is near Egypt. 8 He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, and lambs. And of all that was good, they were not willing to utterly destroy them. But everything that was despised and weak, that they completely destroyed.
10 Then came the word of the Lord to Samuel, saying, 11 “I regret that I have set up Saul to be king because he has turned back from following Me, and he has not carried out My words.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried to the Lord all night.
12 When Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel and set himself up a monument. Then he turned and has passed on down to Gilgal.”
13 Samuel came to Saul. And Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the word of the Lord.”
14 Samuel said, “Then what is the sound of this flock of sheep in my ears? And the sound of the cattle which I am hearing?”
15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop, and I will tell you what the Lord spoke to me this night.”
And he said to him, “Speak.”
17 Samuel said, “When you were little in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel? 18 And the Lord sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are destroyed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? And why did you rush upon the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. And I have followed in the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took from the plunder sheep and oxen, the first fruits of the banned things to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22 Samuel said,
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
a listening ear than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He has also rejected you from being king.”
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. For I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”
26 Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27 As Samuel turned about to go, he seized the edge of his robe and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. 29 Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent. For He is not a man, that He should repent.”
30 Then he said, “I have sinned, yet please honor me before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn back with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord.
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag the king of the Amalekites.”
And Agag came to him reluctantly. But Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
33 Samuel said,
“As your sword has made women childless,
so will your mother be childless among women.”
And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. 35 Now Samuel did not see Saul up to the day of his death. But Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Subjection to Authorities
13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil works. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from him, 4 for he is the servant of God for your good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him who practices evil. 5 So it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are God’s servants, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: taxes to whom taxes are due, respect to whom respect is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due.
Brotherly Love
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not give false testimony, You shall not covet,”[a] and if there are any other commandments, are summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love works no evil to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
The Approach of the Day of Christ
11 Furthermore, knowing the time, now is the moment to awake from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us take off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly, as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in immorality and wickedness, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.
The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed(A)
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 Through the anger of the Lord this came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah until He had cast them out from His presence.
Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; they built a siege wall all around it. 5 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city, and they went by way of the Arabah. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.
9 Then they took the king and carried him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath where he passed sentence on him. 10 The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also slew all the officials of Judah in Riblah. 11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and the king of Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.
The Temple Burned
12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon came into Jerusalem, 13 and burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Even all the large houses, he burned with fire. 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.
17 Also the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke and carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 The cauldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered, they took away. 19 The captain of the guard also took away the basins, and the fire pans, and the bowls, and the cauldrons, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the cups, what was of fine gold, and what was of fine silver.
20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. 21 Concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and it was twelve cubits in circumference and in thickness it was four fingers,[a] and hollow. 22 A capital of bronze was upon it, and the height of one capital was five cubits,[b] with network and pomegranates upon the capital all around, all of bronze. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like these. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were a hundred upon the network all around.
The Babylonian Exile
24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three officers of the temple. 25 He also took out of the city one official who had charge of the men of war, and seven men of the advisers of the king who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 26 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 27 The king of Babylon struck them and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath.
Thus Judah was carried away captive out of its own land. 28 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive:
in the seventh year three thousand and twenty-three Jews.
29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar
he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons.
30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five.
All the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
Jehoiachin Released(B)
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Awel-Marduk, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison, 32 and spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 Therefore Jehoiachin changed his prison garments and continually ate meals before him all the days of his life. 34 For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion all the days of his life until the day of his death.
Psalm 31(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O Lord, do I seek refuge;
may I never be ashamed;
deliver me in Your righteousness.
2 Incline Your ear to me;
deliver me speedily;
be my strong rock,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Lead me out of the net that they have hidden for me,
for You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
6 I have hated those who regard worthless vanity,
but I trust in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your lovingkindness,
for You have seen my trouble;
You have known my soul in adversities,
8 and have not delivered me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
my eye wastes away with grief,
yes, my soul and my body.
10 For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 I became a reproach among all my enemies,
but especially among my neighbors,
and a dread to my acquaintances;
those who saw me outside fled from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many;
fear was on every side;
while they took counsel together against me,
they planned to take away my life.
14 But I trusted in You, O Lord;
I said, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and my pursuers.
16 Make Your face to shine on Your servant;
save me by Your lovingkindness.
17 Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord,
for I have called on You;
let the wicked be ashamed,
and let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence,
who speak arrogantly
in pride and contempt against the righteous.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,
which You have laid up for those who fear You,
which You have done for those
seeking refuge in You before people!
20 You will hide them in the secret of Your presence
from conspirators;
You will keep them secretly in a shelter
from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
for He has shown me His marvelous lovingkindness
in a fortified city.
22 For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes.”
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried to You.
23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints,
for the Lord preserves the faithful,
but amply repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and He will strengthen your heart,
all you who wait for the Lord.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.