M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Saul Is Rejected
15 Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you to be king over his people Israel. Therefore, listen to the voice of the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord of Armies says. I will repay Amalek for what they did to Israel when they blocked Israel’s way as it was coming up out of Egypt. 3 Go and strike Amalek. Devote everything they have to destruction. Do not spare them. Kill both men and women, infants and nursing babies, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
4 So Saul summoned the troops and organized them for battle at Telaim. There were two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. 5 Then Saul came to the city of Amalek and set up an ambush in the ravine. 6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go! Leave! Get away from the Amalekites, so that I do not destroy you along with them, because you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
7 Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which borders Egypt. 8 He took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, and he devoted all the people to destruction with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the cattle, the fattened calves, and the lambs, along with everything else that was good, because they were not willing to devote them to destruction. But everything that was undesirable and worthless, that they devoted to destruction.
10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret[a] that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and he has not carried out my words.” Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.
12 Samuel got up to meet Saul early in the morning, but Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel, and he set up a monument for himself there. Then he turned and continued down to Gilgal.”
⎣So Samuel went to Saul, and there he saw Saul, offering a burnt offering to the Lord from the best of the spoils that he had brought from the Amalekites.⎦[b]
13 When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, “You are blessed by the Lord! I have carried out the word of the Lord.”
14 Samuel said, “Then what does this mean—this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of cattle that I hear?”
15 Saul said, “They have been brought here from the Amalekites, because the people spared the best of the sheep and the cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God. But we have completely destroyed the rest.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop right there! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
He said to him, “Tell me.”
17 Samuel said, “Though you were insignificant in your own sight, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel. The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 Then the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go and devote the Amalekites, that sinful people, to destruction. Fight against them until they are exterminated.’ 19 Why didn’t you listen to the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”
20 Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have completed the mission that the Lord gave me. I have captured Agag king of Amalek, and I have completely destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took some of the plunder: sheep, cattle, and the best of what was devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22 Samuel said, “Does the Lord take as much pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Know this! To obey is better than sacrifice, and to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is the same as the sin of witchcraft, and arrogance is like having useless idols or consulting household gods. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you as king.”
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed against the command[c] of the Lord, as well as against your words, because I was afraid of the people, so I listened to their voice. 25 But now, please pardon my sin and come back with me again, so that I may worship the Lord.”
26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul grabbed the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you today, and he has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. 29 The Splendor of Israel will not lie or change his mind, because he is not a man, who changes his mind.”
30 Then Saul said, “I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord.
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites here to me!”
Agag came to him confidently. He said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”[d]
33 Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women!” Then Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
34 Samuel then went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. 35 Until the day of his death, Samuel never again came to see Saul. Samuel did, however, mourn for Saul, but the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Governments Are Established by God
13 Everyone must submit to the governing authorities. For no authority exists except by God, and the authorities that do exist have been established by God. 2 Therefore the one who rebels against the authority is opposing God’s institution, and those who oppose will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to evil. Would you like to have no fear of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will receive praise from him, 4 because he is God’s servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because he does not carry the sword without reason. He is God’s servant, a punisher to bring wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore it is necessary to submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience.
6 For this reason you also pay taxes, because the authorities are God’s ministers, who are employed to do this very thing. 7 Pay what you owe to all of them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed.
Love One Another
8 Do not owe anyone anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments—do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal,[a] do not covet[b] (and if there is any other commandment)—are summed up in this statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[c] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor, so love is the fulfillment of the law.
The End of the World Is Approaching
11 And do this since you understand the present time. It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near. So let us put away the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light. 13 Let us walk decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual sin and wild living, not in strife and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give any thought to satisfying the desires of your sinful flesh.
The Fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just like everything that Jehoiakim had done. 3 All this took place in Jerusalem and Judah because of the anger of the Lord, until he cast them out of his presence.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army. They set up camp around the city and built siege works all around it. 5 The city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land. 7 Then a breach was made in the city wall, and all the men in the army fled. Since the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, the men left it at night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They fled toward the Arabah, 8 but the Chaldean army pursued the king. They caught up with King Zedekiah in the plain near Jericho, where his whole army was scattered, 9 and he was captured and taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath. There the king of Babylon passed judgment on him. 10 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. 11 Then the king of Babylon put out the eyes of Zedekiah and put him in bronze shackles. He brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day he died.
12 On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He burned the temple of the Lord, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned down every important building. 14 The whole Chaldean army under his command broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried off some of the poorest of the people, some of the survivors left in the city, some of the people who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and farms.
17 The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars that were in the Lord’s temple, along with the carts for water and the bronze Sea, and carried away all the bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers,[a] the bowls, the dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 19 The commander of the guard took away the bowls, fire pans, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes, and the drink offering bowls—the best of the gold and the best of the silver.
20 The two pillars, the Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the basins, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, were made of more bronze than could be weighed.
21 As for the pillars, each pillar was twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet in circumference. Each was four fingers thick and hollow. 22 Each had a bronze capital, seven and a half feet high, with a network and pomegranate decorations on the capital all around, all of bronze. The other pillar with its pomegranates was just like it. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides. There was a total of one hundred pomegranates above the surrounding network.
24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25 From the people left in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men and seven royal advisors he found in the city. He also took the scribe of the military officer who conscripted the people of the land, along with sixty of his men who were found in the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 The king of Babylon struck them down and executed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath.
So Judah was carried away into exile from its native soil.
28 This is a tally of people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile:
In the seventh year, 3,023 Jews.
29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 people from Jerusalem.
30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews into exile.
There were 4,600 people in all.
Jehoiachin Released
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil Merodak[b] king of Babylon, he elevated Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. 32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 Jehoiachin changed from his prison clothes and ate his meals in the king’s presence continually all the days of his life. 34 For his provisions, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a set amount each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
Psalm 31
Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit
Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David.
A Declaration of Confidence
1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
Petition
Let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me.
2 Turn your ear toward me.
Hurry! Rescue me!
Be a rock where I take refuge,
a fortified place that saves me.
The Basis for Confidence
3 Yes, you are my rocky cliff and my stronghold.
For the sake of your name you will lead me and guide me.
4 You will pull me out of the net that they hid for me,
because you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.
6 I hate those who keep worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy,
because you saw my affliction.
You knew the distress of my soul.
8 You have not left me in the hand of the enemy.
You have made my feet stand in a wide-open space.
The Prayer for Delivery
9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress.
My eye grows weak with sorrow—
my soul and my body too.
10 Yes, my life is consumed by grief,
and my years by groaning.
My strength fails because of my guilt,
and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my foes,
I am a disgrace, especially to my neighbors.
I am dreaded by those who know me.
Those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I have been forgotten like a dead man, gone from memory.[a]
I have become like a broken pot.
13 Yes, I hear the slander of many.
There is terror on every side.
When they conspire together against me,
they plot to take my life.
Confident Petition
14 But I—I trust in you, O Lord.
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant.
Save me in your mercy.
17 Do not allow me to be put to shame, O Lord,
because I have cried out to you.
But let the wicked be put to shame.
Let them be silent in the grave.[b]
18 Let lying lips be silenced,
those who speak against the righteous
impudently with pride and contempt.
Closing Praise
19 How great is your goodness,
which you store up for those who fear you,
which you deliver for those who take refuge in you
in the presence of the people.
20 You hide them in your presence from the schemes of man.
You conceal them in your shelter from accusing tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
because he made his mercy wonderful for me
when I was in a besieged city.
22 In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from before your eyes!”
But you heard the sound of my cry for mercy
when I cried out to you.
23 Love the Lord, all his favored ones!
The Lord preserves the faithful,
but he pays back in full the one who acts proudly.
24 Be strong, and let your heart be firm,
all you who wait confidently for the Lord.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.