M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Reaffirming Covenant Loyalty
20 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah, came before Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my crime? What is my sin against your father that he should be seeking my life?”
2 “Never!” he said to him. “You will not die! Behold, my father does nothing great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this matter from me? It cannot be.”
3 Then David swore again saying, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes. So he must have thought, ‘Let’s not let Jonathan know about this, else he will be grieved.’ But truly as Adonai lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you!”
5 So David said to Jonathan, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, when I am supposed to sit down with the king to eat. Instead, let me go hide myself in the countryside until the third evening. 6 If your father misses me at all, then say: ‘David earnestly asked my permission to run to Beth-lehem, his town, for it is the annual sacrifice there for the whole family.’ 7 If he says thus, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe; but if he becomes very angry, then know that he is determined to harm me. 8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Adonai with you. But if there is any iniquity in me, then kill me yourself! Why should you bring me to your father?”
9 Jonathan replied, “Far be it from you! For if I know for sure that my father has determined evil to come on you, then wouldn’t I tell you about it?”
10 Then David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
11 Jonathan said to David, “Come, let’s go out to the field.” So they both went out to the field. 12 Then Jonathan said to David, “By Adonai, God of Israel, I will sound out my father about this time tomorrow or the day after. Look, if it is good toward David, wouldn’t I then send word to you and disclose it to you? 13 May Adonai do so to Jonathan and even worse, should my father intend to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in shalom. So may Adonai be with you as He has been with my father.
14 “Now if I am still alive, wouldn’t you show me the loyal love of Adonai so I wouldn’t die? 15 Yet also, don’t cut off your loyal love from my household ever—not even when Adonai cuts off all of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David, “So may Adonai requite David’s enemies.” 17 Jonathan made David swear again because of the love he had for him, for he loved him as he loved himself.
18 Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon. You’ll be missed because your seat will be empty. 19 On the third day, you must go down quickly and come to the place where you hid as you did on that day, and remain close to the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Now look, I will send a lad saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I specifically say to the lad, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you—get them,’ then come; for it is safe for you and no danger, as Adonai lives. 22 But if I say to the boy: ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go your way, for Adonai has released you. 23 But as for the matter which I and you have spoken about, behold, Adonai is between me and you forever.”
24 So David hid himself in the field, and when the New Moon came, the king sat down to eat a meal. 25 So the king sat on his seat—as usual, the seat by the wall—Jonathan stood up and Abner sat down by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 Nevertheless, Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “It must be an accident; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he’s unclean.”
27 Yet it came to pass on the day following the New Moon, the second day, that David’s place was still empty. So Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal yesterday or today?”
28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem, 29 as he said, ‘Please let me go, for we are going to have a family feast in the town, and my brother has commanded me. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me go, please, to see my brothers. That’s why he hasn’t come to the king’s table.”
30 Then Saul’s rage blazed against Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse—to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingship will be secure. Now, send word and bring him to me, for he is a son of death!”
32 But Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”
33 Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. 34 So Jonathan rose up from the table in fierce anger, and did not eat food the second day of the new month, for he was grieved over David, because his father had dishonored him.
35 It came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out to the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him. 36 He said to his lad, “Run, find now the arrows that I am about to shoot.” Now as the lad was running, he shot an arrow past him. 37 When the lad reached the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then Jonathan called out after the lad, “Quick, hurry! Don’t stand there!” So Jonathan’s lad picked up the arrow and came to his master. 39 But the lad knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, “Go, take them back to the town.”
41 As soon as the lad was gone, David emerged from the south side and fell on his face to the ground and bowed down three times. Then they kissed each other and wept together, though David wept more. 42 Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in the shalom that we both have sworn to each other in the Name of Adonai saying: ‘May Adonai be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’”
Wisdom that Rests on God’s Power
2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery[a] of God. 2 For I decided not to know about anything among you except Yeshua the Messiah—and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power— 5 so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
6 We do speak wisdom, however, among those who are mature—but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 Rather, we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery—a wisdom that has been hidden, which God destined for our glory before the ages. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it—for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written,
“Things no eye has seen
and no ear has heard,
that have not entered the heart of mankind—
these things God has prepared
for those who love Him.”[b]
10 But God revealed these things to us through the Ruach.[c] For the Ruach searches all things—even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of a man, except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the things of God except the Ruach Elohim. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God—so we might come to know the things freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak—not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Ruach, explaining the spiritual to the spiritual.
14 Now a natural man does not accept the things of the Ruach Elohim, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is discerned by no one. For
16 “who has known the mind of Adonai,
that he will instruct Him?”[d]
But we have the mind of Messiah.
Remember Us!
5 Remember, Adonai,
what has come upon us.
Look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless,
our mothers are like widows.
4 We pay silver for the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks.
We are weary and have no rest.
6 We have held out our hand to Egypt
and Assyria to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more,
but we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us.
There is no one to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven
due to fever from famine.
11 The women in Zion have been ravished,
maidens in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
elders are dishonored.
13 Young men toil at the millstone.
Boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 Elders are gone from the gate,
young men from their music.
15 Joy has ceased in our hearts.
Our dance has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Oy to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our heart is faint,
for these things our eyes are dim,
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
as jackals prowl over it.
Hashiveinu (Restore Us)
19 You, Adonai, are enthroned forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.[a]
20 Why do You always forget us
and forsake us for so long?
21 Bring us back to You, Adonai,
and we will return.
Renew our days as of old—
22 unless You have utterly rejected us
and are exceedingly angry with us.
With God Is the Fountain of Life
Psalm 36
1 For the music director, of David the servant of Adonai.
2 An oracle of Transgression—within my heart, to the wicked one:
“There is no fear of God before his eyes.[a]
3 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to notice his iniquity—or hate it.
4 His mouth’s words are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and do good.
5 Even on his bed he plans sin.
He puts himself on a path that is no good, never refusing evil.”
6 Your love, Adonai, is in the heavens,
Your faithfulness up to the skies.
7 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.
Your judgments are like the great deep.
You preserve man and beast, Adonai.
8 How precious is Your love, O God!
The children of men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
9 They drink their fill from the abundance of Your House.
You give them drink from the river of Your delights.
10 For with You is the fountain of life—
in Your light we see light.
11 Continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
and Your justice to the upright in heart.
12 May the foot of pride never tread on me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
13 There the evildoers lie fallen—
thrown down, not able to rise!
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.