M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Samuel’s Victory at Mizpah

7 Then the men of Kiriath-jearim came and fetched up the ark of Adonai, brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of Adonai. ² From the day the ark rested in Kiriath-jearim it was a long time, 20 years, and the whole house of Israel yearned after Adonai. ³ Then Samuel spoke to the whole house of Israel saying, “If you are returning to Adonai with all your heart, then remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, direct your hearts to Adonai and serve Him only. Then He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So Bnei-Yisrael removed the Baalim^[a] and the Ashtaroth, and served Adonai alone.

⁵ Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to Adonai for you.” ⁶ So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water and poured it out before Adonai. They fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against Adonai.” Then Samuel was judging Bnei-Yisrael at Mizpah.

⁷ Now when the Philistines heard that Bnei-Yisrael had assembled at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines marched against Israel. When Bnei-Yisrael heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. ⁸ So Bnei-Yisrael said to Samuel, “Don’t stop crying out to Adonai our God for us, so He may save us from the hand of the Philistines!”

⁹ Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to Adonai. Then Samuel cried out to Adonai for Israel and Adonai answered him. ¹⁰ As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But Adonai thundered with loud thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them so that they were defeated before Israel. ¹¹ Then the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down all the way to below Beth-car.

¹² Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named Eben-ezer^[b] saying, “Thus far Adonai has helped us.” ¹³ So the Philistines were subdued and they did not invade the border of Israel anymore. The hand of Adonai was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. ¹⁴ The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were restored to Israel, and Israel recovered its territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵ Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. ¹⁶ He used to go annually on a circuit to Beth-el and Gilgal and Mizpah, and would judge over Israel in all those places. ¹⁷ Then his return was to Ramah, because his home was there, and from there he would judge Israel. So he built an altar to Adonai there.

Israel Demands a King

8 Now when Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. ² The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second Abijah—they were judges in Beersheba. ³ His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain—they took bribes and perverted justice.

⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵ and said to him, “Behold, you have grown old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us—like all the nations.” ⁶ But the matter was displeasing in Samuel’s eyes when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to Adonai.

⁷ Then Adonai said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, rather they have rejected Me from being king over them. ⁸ Like all the deeds that they have done since the day I brought them out of Egypt to this day—forsaking Me and worshiping other gods—so they are doing to you also. ⁹ So now, listen to their voice. However, you must earnestly forewarn them, and declare to them the rulings of the king who will reign over them.”

¹⁰ Now Samuel reported all the words of Adonai to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ “This will be the practice of the king that will reign over you,” he said. “He will draft your sons and assign them as his charioteers and horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. ¹² He will appoint them as commanders of thousands and captains of fifties, also some to plow his fields, reap his harvest, make his weapons of war and the equipment for his chariots. ¹³ Also he will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will seize the best of your fields, vineyards and olive groves, and give them to his courtiers. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage and give it to his officials and slaves. ¹⁶ He will also take your male and female servants, your best young men and your donkeys and make them do his work. ¹⁷ He will also take the tenth of your flocks. Then you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When the day comes and you cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, Adonai will not answer you on that day.”

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel, and they said, “No! But a king should be over us! ²⁰ So we may become like all the nations—having our king who will judge us, go out before us and fight our battles.”

²¹ After Samuel heard all the words of the people, he reported them back in the hearing of Adonai. ²² Adonai said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and appoint a king to reign for them.” So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go, each one to his town.”

Who Is Your Master?

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? ² May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who were immersed into Messiah Yeshua were immersed into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried together with Him through immersion into death—in order that just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have become joined together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also will be joined together in His resurrection— ⁶ knowing our old man was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be done away with, so we no longer serve sin. ⁷ For he who has died is set free from sin.

⁸ Now if we have died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with Him. ⁹ We know that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, no longer dies; death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰ For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ So also continually count yourselves both dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.

¹² Therefore do not let sin rule in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ And do not keep yielding your body parts to sin as tools of wickedness; but yield yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your body parts as tools of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whatever you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to what you obey—whether to sin resulting in death, or to obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching under which you were placed; ¹⁸ and after you were set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you yielded your body parts as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now yield your body parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in holiness. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. ²¹ So then, what outcome did you have that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, having been set free from sin and having become enslaved to God, you have your fruit resulting in holiness. And the outcome is eternal life. ²³ For sin’s payment^[a] is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Calamity in Egypt

44 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews dwelling in the land of Egypt—at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph, and in the region of Pathros^[a], saying, ² thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “You have seen all the calamity that I brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah. Behold, today they are a ruin, and no one lives in them, ³ because of their wickedness which they committed to provoke Me, by continuing to burn sacrifices for and serve other gods, whom they had not known—not they, nor you, nor your fathers. ⁴ Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them early and often, saying: ‘Oh, do not do this loathsome thing that I hate.’ ⁵ But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to stop making offering to other gods.

⁶ “Therefore My fury and Mine anger was poured out and blazed in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. So they are waste and a ruin, as it is today. ⁷ So now, thus says Adonai, Elohim-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Why are you committing this great evil against your own souls? You cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child, from the midst of Judah, to leave yourself without a remnant. ⁸ You are provoking Me with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to dwell, so that you will be cut off and become a curse and a disgrace among all the nations of the earth. ⁹ Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, the evils of the kings of Judah, the evils of their wives, and your own evils and the evils of your wives, which were committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ They have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My Torah, My statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.”

¹¹ Therefore thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “I will soon set My face against you for calamity, to cut off all Judah. ¹² I will take the remnant of Judah who set their faces to enter the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all be consumed, falling in the land of Egypt by the sword and by famine. They will die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine, and they will be an execration, and a horror, a curse, and a disgrace.

¹³ So I will punish those dwelling in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by plague. ¹⁴ So none of the remnant of Judah entering the land of Egypt to sojourn there will escape or remain, to return to the land of Judah, when they are longing with their soul to return to live there; for none will return except as refugees.”

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women that stood by—a large assembly—with all the people dwelling in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying: ¹⁶ “As for the word that you spoke to us in the Name of Adonai, we are not going to listen to you! ¹⁷ Instead we will definitely do every word as went out of our mouth—burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we did, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—for then we had plenty of food, were well off, and saw no calamity. ¹⁸ But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine. ¹⁹ Moreover, when we were burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, when we made cakes for her in her image and poured out drink offerings to her, were we without our husbands?”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and the women, to all the people that were giving him such an answer, saying: ²¹ “The incense-burning that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you and your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—Adonai did remember them, they did come into His heart. ²² Then Adonai could no longer endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations that you committed! So your land has become a wasteland, a desolation and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. ²³ Because you have burned incense, because you have sinned against Adonai and have not listened to the voice of Adonai, nor walked in His Torah, nor in His statutes, nor in His testimonies—that is why this calamity has befallen you, as it is this day.”

²⁴ Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women: “Hear the word of Adonai, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands, saying: “We will definitely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink-offerings to her.” You surely will confirm your vows and surely will perform your vows!’”

²⁶ Therefore hear the word of Adonai, all Judah dwelling in the land of Egypt: “Behold, I have sworn by My great Name,”^[b] declares Adonai, “never more will My Name be invoked in the mouth of anyone of Judah in all the land of Egypt saying: ‘As my Lord Adonai lives.’ ²⁷ Here I am, watching over them for evil, and not for good. All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. ²⁸ Those escaping the sword will return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah only few in number. Then the remnant of Judah who entered the land of Egypt to sojourn there, will know whose word stands up—Mine or theirs!” It is a declaration of Adonai.

²⁹ “Moreover, this will be the sign to you: I will visit punishment on you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you as calamity.”

³⁰ Thus says Adonai: “Soon, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them who seek his life, just as I gave King Zedekiah of Judah into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, his enemy who was seeking his life.”

Adonai-Nissi

Psalm 20

The Victorious King

Psalm 21