M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

31 Now the P’lishtim pressed their attack on Isra’el. The men of Isra’el fled before the P’lishtim, leaving their dead on Mount Gilboa. ² The P’lishtim pursued and overtook Sha’ul and his sons; and the P’lishtim killed Y’honatan, Avinadav and Malkishua, the sons of Sha’ul. ³ The fighting went hard against Sha’ul; then the archers overtook and wounded him, so that he was in agony. ⁴ Sha’ul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it. Otherwise these uncircumcised men will come, run me through and make sport of me.” But his armor-bearer refused, he was too frightened. So Sha’ul took his sword and fell on it. ⁵ When his armor-bearer saw that Sha’ul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him. ⁶ Thus Sha’ul, his three sons, his armor-bearer and all his men died that same day together.

⁷ When the men of Isra’el who were on the other side of the valley and those who were on the far side of the Yarden saw that the men of Isra’el had fled and that Sha’ul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the P’lishtim came and lived in them.

⁸ The following day, when the P’lishtim came to strip the dead, they found Sha’ul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off his head, stripped off his armor and sent these all over the territory of the P’lishtim to carry the news to the temples of their idols and to the people. ¹⁰ Then they put his armor in the temple for the ‘ashtarot and fastened his body to the wall of Beit-Sh’an.

¹¹ When the people living in Yavesh-Gil‘ad heard what the P’lishtim had done to Sha’ul, ¹² all their warriors set out, traveling all night. They took the body of Sha’ul and the bodies of his sons off the wall of Beit-Sh’an, returned to Yavesh and burned them there. ¹³ Then they took their bones, buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yavesh and fasted seven days.

11 try to imitate me, even as I myself try to imitate the Messiah.

² Now I praise you because you have remembered everything I told you and observe the traditions just the way I passed them on to you. ³ But I want you to understand that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of the Messiah is God. ⁴ Every man who prays or prophesies wearing something down over his head brings shame to his head, ⁵ but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame to her head — there is no difference between her and a woman who has had her head shaved. ⁶ For if a woman is not veiled, let her also have her hair cut short; but if it is shameful for a woman to wear her hair cut short or to have her head shaved, then let her be veiled. ⁷ For a man indeed should not have his head veiled, because he is the image and glory of God, and the woman is the glory of man. ⁸ For man was not made from woman, but woman from man; ⁹ and indeed man was not created for the sake of the woman but woman for the sake of the man. ¹⁰ The reason a woman should show by veiling her head that she is under authority has to do with the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, in union with the Lord neither is woman independent of man nor is man independent of woman; ¹² for as the woman was made from the man, so also the man is now born through the woman. But everything is from God. ¹³ Decide for yourselves: is it appropriate for a woman to pray to God when she is unveiled? ¹⁴ Doesn’t the nature of things itself teach you that a man who wears his hair long degrades himself? ¹⁵ But a woman who wears her hair long enhances her appearance, because her hair has been given to her as a covering. ¹⁶ However, if anyone wants to argue about it, the fact remains that we have no such custom, nor do the Messianic communities of God.

¹⁷ But in giving you this next instruction I do not praise you, because when you meet together it does more harm than good! ¹⁸ For, in the first place, I hear that when you gather together as a congregation you divide up into cliques; and to a degree I believe it ¹⁹ (granted that there must be some divisions among you in order to show who are the ones in the right). ²⁰ Thus, when you gather together, it is not to eat a meal of the Lord; ²¹ because as you eat your meal, each one goes ahead on his own; so that one stays hungry while another is already drunk! ²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or are you trying to show your contempt for God’s Messianic community and embarrass those who are poor? What am I supposed to say to you? Am I supposed to praise you? Well, for this I don’t praise you!

²³ For what I received from the Lord is just what I passed on to you — that the Lord Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took bread; ²⁴ and after he had made the b’rakhah he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this as a memorial to me”; ²⁵ likewise also the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant effected by my blood; do this, as often as you drink it, as a memorial to me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.

²⁷ Therefore, whoever eats the Lord’s bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of desecrating the body and blood of the Lord! ²⁸ So let a person examine himself first, and then he may eat of the bread and drink from the cup; ²⁹ for a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. ³⁰ This is why many among you are weak and sick, and some have died! ³¹ If we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment. ³² But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined, so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

³³ So then, my brothers, when you gather together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴ If someone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it will not result in judgment.

As for the other matters, I will instruct you about them when I come.

9 Then he cried loudly right in my ears: “Summon the commanders of the city, each holding his weapon of destruction.” ² At once, six men approached on the path from the upper gate, to the north, each man holding his weapon of destruction. Among them was a man clothed in linen, with a scribe’s writing equipment at his waist. They entered and stood by the bronze altar. ³ Then the glory of the God of Isra’el was made to go up from over the keruv, where it had been, to the threshold of the house. He called to the man clothed in linen, who had the scribe’s writing equipment at his waist. ⁴ Adonai said to him, “Go throughout the city, through all Yerushalayim, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and crying over all the disgusting practices that are being committed in it.” ⁵ To the others I heard him say, “Go through the city after him and strike! Don’t let your eye spare; have no pity! ⁶ Kill old men, young men, girls, little children, women — slaughter them all! But don’t go near anyone with the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” They began with the leaders in front of the house. ⁷ Then he said to them, “Defile the house! Fill the courtyards with corpses! Get going!” So they went out, spreading death in the city.

⁸ While the killing was going on, I was left alone. I fell on my face, cried, and said, “Oh, Adonai Elohim! In pouring out your fury on Yerushalayim, are you going to destroy everyone left in Isra’el?” ⁹ Then he said to me, “The wickedness of the house of Isra’el and Y’hudah is enormous, the land is full of blood, and the city is full of justice denied; because they say, ‘Adonai has left the land, Adonai doesn’t see.’ ¹⁰ But as far as I am concerned, my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity, but I will bring [the consequences of] their ways on their own heads.”

¹¹ At this point the man clothed in linen with the writing equipment at his waist returned and reported, “I have done everything you ordered me to do.”