M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Lord Speaks to Samuel

3 ^1-2 Samuel served the Lord by helping Eli the priest, who was by that time almost blind. In those days, the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often. But one night, Eli was asleep in his room, ³ and Samuel was sleeping on a mat near the sacred chest in the Lord's house. They had not been asleep very long^{[a] 4} when the Lord called out Samuel's name.

“Here I am!” Samuel answered. ⁵ Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”

“I didn't call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to bed.”

Samuel went back.

⁶ Again the Lord called out Samuel's name. Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “What do you want?”

Eli told him, “Son, I didn't call you. Go back to sleep.”

⁷ The Lord had not spoken to Samuel before, and Samuel did not recognize the voice. ⁸ When the Lord called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”

Eli finally realized that it was the Lord who was speaking to Samuel. ⁹ So he said, “Go back and lie down! If someone speaks to you again, answer, ‘I'm listening, Lord. What do you want me to do?’ ”

Once again Samuel went back and lay down.

¹⁰ The Lord then stood beside Samuel and called out as he had done before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

“I'm listening,” Samuel answered. “What do you want me to do?”

¹¹ The Lord said:

Samuel, I am going to do something in Israel that will shock everyone who hears about it! ¹² I will punish Eli and his family, just as I promised. ¹³ He knew that his sons refused to respect me,^[b] and he let them get away with it, even though I said I would punish his family forever. ¹⁴ I warned Eli that sacrifices or offerings could never make things right! His family has done too many disgusting things.

¹⁵ The next morning, Samuel got up and opened the doors to the Lord's house. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said. ¹⁶ But Eli told him, “Samuel, my boy, come here!”

“Yes, sir!” Samuel answered.

¹⁷ Eli said, “What did God say to you? Tell me everything. I'll ask God to punish you terribly if you don't tell me every word he said!”

¹⁸ Samuel told Eli everything. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord, and he will do what's right.”

The Lord Helps Samuel

¹⁹ As Samuel grew up, the Lord helped him and made everything Samuel said come true. ²⁰ From the town of Dan in the north to the town of Beersheba in the south, everyone in the country knew that Samuel was truly the Lord's prophet. ²¹ The Lord often appeared to Samuel at Shiloh and told him what to say.

3 What good is it to be a Jew? What good is it to be circumcised? ² It is good in a lot of ways! First of all, God's messages were spoken to the Jews. ³ It is true that some of them did not believe the message. But does this mean that God cannot be trusted, just because they did not have faith? ^4 (A) No, indeed! God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar. The Scriptures say about God,

⁵ If our evil deeds show how right God is, then what can we say? Is it wrong for God to become angry and punish us? What a foolish thing to ask. ⁶ But the answer is, “No.” Otherwise, how could God judge the world? ⁷ Since your lies bring great honor to God by showing how truthful he is, you may ask why God still says you are a sinner. ⁸ You might as well say, “Let's do something evil, so that something good will come of it!” Some people even claim that we are saying this. But God is fair and will judge them as well.

No One Is Good

⁹ What does all this mean? Does it mean that we Jews are better off^[a] than the Gentiles? No, it doesn't! Jews, as well as Gentiles, are ruled by sin, just as I have said. ^10 (B) The Scriptures tell us,

¹⁹ We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is guilty. ^20 (G) God doesn't accept people simply because they obey the Law. No, indeed! All the Law does is to point out our sin.

God's Way of Accepting People

²¹ Now we see how God does make us acceptable to him. The Law and the Prophets^[b] tell how we become acceptable, and it isn't by obeying the Law of Moses. ^22 (H) God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. ²³ All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. ²⁴ But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. ^25-26 (I) God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷ What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith. ²⁸ We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law. ²⁹ Does God belong only to the Jews? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is! ^30 (J) There is only one God, and he accepts Gentiles as well as Jews, simply because of their faith. ³¹ Do we destroy the Law by our faith? Not at all! We make it even more powerful.

41 ^(A) But in the seventh month,^[a] Ishmael^[b] came to Mizpah with ten of his soldiers. He had been one of the king's officials and was a member of the royal family. Ishmael and his men were invited to eat with Gedaliah. ² During the meal, Ishmael and his soldiers killed Gedaliah, the man chosen as ruler of Judah by the king of Babylonia. ³ Then they killed the Jews who were with Gedaliah, and they also killed the Babylonian soldiers who were there.

⁴ The next day, the murders had still not been discovered, ⁵ when 80 men came down the road toward Mizpah from the towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They were on their way to the temple to offer gifts of grain and incense to the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, because they were mourning.

⁶ Ishmael went out the town gate to meet them. He pretended to be weeping, and he asked them to come into Mizpah to meet with Gedaliah, the ruler of Judah. ⁷ But after they were inside the town, Ishmael ordered his soldiers to kill them and throw their bodies into a well. ⁸ He let ten of the men live, because they offered to give him supplies of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey they had hidden in a field. ⁹ The well that he filled with bodies^[c] had been dug by King Asa^[d] of Judah to store rainwater, because he was afraid that King Baasha^[e] of Israel might surround Mizpah and keep the people from getting to their water supply.

¹⁰ Nebuzaradan, King Nebuchadnezzar's^[f] officer in charge of the guard, had left King Zedekiah's^[g] daughters and many other people at Mizpah, and he had put Gedaliah in charge of them. But now Ishmael took them all prisoner and led them toward Ammon, on the other side of the Jordan River.

¹¹ Johanan and the other army officers heard what Ishmael had done. ¹² So they and their troops chased Ishmael and caught up with him at the large pit at Gibeon. ¹³ When Ishmael's prisoners saw Johanan and the officers, they were happy ¹⁴ and turned around and ran toward Johanan. ¹⁵ But Ishmael and eight of his men escaped and went to Ammon.

Johanan Decides To Take the People to Egypt

¹⁶ Johanan and the officers had rescued the women, children, and royal officials that Ishmael had taken prisoner after killing Gedaliah. Johanan led the people from Gibeon ^17-18 toward Egypt. They wanted to go there, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they found out that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the ruler appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar.^[h]

The People Ask Jeremiah To Pray for Them

On the way to Egypt, we^[i] stopped at the town of Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem.

(A prayer by David.)

The Prayer of an Innocent Person