M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Revival and Victory at Mizpah

7 The men of Kiriath Jearim came and brought up the ark of Yahweh, and they brought it to the house of Abinadab in Gibeah. They consecrated Eleazer his son to guard the ark of Yahweh. ² From^[a] the day the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, days multiplied and became twenty years^[b] while all the house of Israel mourned after Yahweh. ³ And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If with all your heart you are turning to Yahweh, remove the foreign gods and Ashtoreths^[c] from your midst. Commit your hearts to Yahweh and serve him alone. Then he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So the Israelites^[d] removed the Baals^[e] and the Ashtoreths, and they served Yahweh alone.

⁵ Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to Yahweh for you.” ⁶ So they gathered to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before Yahweh. They fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against Yahweh!” So Samuel judged the Israelites^[f] at Mizpah. ⁷ Now when the Philistines heard that the Israelites^[g] had gathered at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the Israelites^[h] heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.^{[i] 8} Then the Israelites^[j] said to Samuel, “You must not cease^[k] from crying out to Yahweh our God, so that he will deliver us from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁹ So Samuel took a single nursing lamb^[l] and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh. Then Samuel cried out to Yahweh on behalf of Israel, and Yahweh answered him. ¹⁰ While^[m] Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near for the battle against Israel. But Yahweh thundered against the Philistines with a great noise on that day and threw them into confusion so that they were defeated before Israel. ¹¹ Then the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and they struck them down as far as below Beth Car.

¹² So Samuel took a single stone and put it between Mizpah and Shen, and he named it Ebenezer and said, “Up to here Yahweh has helped us.” ¹³ So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come into the territory of Israel again, and the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. ¹⁴ The towns^[n] which the Philistines had taken from Israel were returned to Israel from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territories from the hand of the Philistines. Then there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

The Circuit Ministry of Samuel

¹⁵ Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. ¹⁶ He used to go on the circuit from year to year.^[o] He went around Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. ¹⁷ Then he returned^[p] to Ramah, because his house was there, and there he judged Israel, and he built an altar to Yahweh there.

Israel’s Demand for a King

8 When Samuel grew old he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. ² The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second son was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. ³ But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after gain, they took bribes, and they perverted justice.

⁴ So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “Look, you are old and your sons do not follow in your ways. So then appoint a king for us to judge^[q] us, like all the nations. ⁶ But the matter was displeasing to Samuel^[r] when they said, “Give us a king to judge^[s] us,” so Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

⁷ Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people concerning all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. ⁸ Like all the deeds they have done from the day I brought them up from Egypt until this day, they have forsaken me and have served other gods—so they are doing to you also. ⁹ And so then, listen to their voice. However, you must earnestly warn them; you must explain to them the custom of the king who will rule over them.”

¹⁰ So Samuel spoke all the words of Yahweh to the people who were requesting a king from him. ¹¹ He said, “This will be the custom of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. ¹² He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and those to do his plowing^[t] and to reap his harvest, and those to make weapons of war and the equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters as his perfume makers and as cooks and as bakers. ¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive trees and will give them to his servants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give it to his high officials and to his servants. ¹⁶ He will take your male slaves and your female slaves and the best of your young men^[u] and your donkeys and will use them for his projects.^{[v] 17} He will take a tenth of your flocks,^[w] and you yourselves will become his servants. ¹⁸ So you will cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but Yahweh will not answer you on that day!” ¹⁹ However, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said, “No, but there must be a king over us, ²⁰ so that we also^[x] may be like all the nations, and our king may rule us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

²¹ Now when Samuel heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of Yahweh. ²² Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and appoint a king for them.” So Samuel spoke to the men of Israel, “Each of you go to his own town.”

Formerly Dead to Sin, Now Alive in Christ

6 What therefore shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, in order that grace may increase? ² May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we may live a new way of life^[a]. ⁵ For if we have become identified with him in the likeness of his death, certainly also we will be identified with him in the likeness^[b] of his resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him, in order that the body of sin may be done away with, that we may no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For the one who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, because he^[c] has been raised from the dead, is going to die no more, death no longer being master over him. ¹⁰ For that death he died, he died to sin once and never again, but that life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ So also you, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires, ¹³ and do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will not be master over you, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Set Free from Sin

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 whomever you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whomever you obey, whether sin, leading to death, or obedience, leading to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸ and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you presented your members as slaves to immorality and lawlessness, leading to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with respect to righteousness.

²¹ Therefore what sort of fruit did you have then, about which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, having been set free from sin and having been enslaved to God, you have your fruit leading to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. ²³ For the compensation due sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A Message of Rebuke for the Rebellious Remnant

44 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, who were living at Migdol, and Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying,^{[a] 2} “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the towns of Judah. And look, they are a site of ruins this day, and there is not in them an inhabitant, ³ because of^[b] their wickedness that they committed to provoke me to anger by going to make smoke offerings, serving other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, or your ancestors.^{[c] 4} And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending over and over again,^[d] saying,^[e] “Please, you must not do this detestable thing that I hate.” ⁵ But they did not listen and they did not incline their ears^[f] to turn back from their wickedness, to not make smoke offerings to other gods. ⁶ So my wrath and my anger were poured out^[g] and burned^[h] in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as they are this day.’

⁷ So then, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Why are you doing great harm to yourselves,^[i] to cut off for yourselves man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah, to not leave over for yourselves a remnant, ⁸ provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, to make smoke offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to dwell as aliens, so as to cut off yourselves, and so that you are becoming as a curse, and as a disgrace among all the nations of the earth? ⁹ Have you forgotten the wicked things of your ancestors,^[j] and the wicked things of the kings of Judah, and the wicked things of their wives, and your wicked things, and the wicked things of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ They have not shown contrition up to this day, and they have not shown reverence, and they have not walked in my law and in my statutes that I set before you^[k] and before^[l] your ancestors.’^[m]

¹¹ Therefore^[n] thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Look, I am determined to bring disaster on you,^[o] even to exterminate all Judah. ¹² And I will take away the remnant of Judah who are determined^[p] to come to the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there, and everyone will perish. They will fall in the land of Egypt by the sword; they will perish by the famine, from the smallest to the greatest. By the sword and by the famine they will die and become as a curse, as a horror, and as a curse, and as a disgrace. ¹³ So I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt just as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague. ¹⁴ And there will not be a survivor or an escapee of the remnant of Judah, those who have come to dwell as an alien there in the land of Egypt, to return to the land of Judah where they are longing^[q] to return to dwell there, for they will not turn back, but only^[r] some survivors.’”

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were making smoke offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, and all the people who lived in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,^{[s] 16} “Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we are not going to listen to you! ¹⁷ But certainly we will do everything^[t] that went out from our mouths,^[u] to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors,^[v] our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then we had enough to eat,^[w] and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster. ¹⁸ But since^[x] we stopped making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by the famine we have perished. ¹⁹ And indeed, when we were making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out^[y] to her libations, was it not with the consent of^[z] our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes marked with her image,^[aa] and we poured out to her libations?”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and to the women, and to all the people who answered him a word, saying,^{[ab] 21} “The offering that you made, smoke offerings in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your ancestors,^[ac] your kings, and your officials, and the people of the land, did not Yahweh remember them, and did it not come to his mind?^{[ad] 22} And Yahweh was no longer able to bear^[ae] it, because of^[af] the evil of your deeds, because of^[ag] the detestable things that you committed. Thus your land became as a site of ruins, and as a horror, and as a curse, without^[ah] inhabitants, as it is this day. ²³ Because of^[ai] the fact that you made smoke offerings, and that you sinned against Yahweh, and you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you have not walked in his law, and in his statute, and in his legal provisions, therefore^[aj] this disaster has happened to you, as it is this day.”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, saying,^[ak] ‘You and your wives have promised with your mouths^[al] and with your hands^[am] you have fulfilled, saying,^[an] “We certainly will carry out our vows that we vowed, to make smoke offerings to the queen of the heavens,^[ao] and to pour out to her libations.” You must certainly keep your vows and you must certainly carry out your vows.’ ²⁶ Therefore^[ap] hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah, those who live in the land of Egypt: ‘Look, I hereby swear by my great name,’ says Yahweh, ‘surely my name will no longer be called in the mouth of any man of Judah, saying, “as the Lord Yahweh lives,”^[aq] in all the land of Egypt. ²⁷ Look, I am going to watch over them for harm and not for good, and all people^[ar] of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will perish by the sword and by the famine until their perishing. ²⁸ And the survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number.^[as] And all the remnant of Judah who have come to the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there will know whose word will endure, from me or from them. ²⁹ And this will be to you the sign,’ declares^[at] Yahweh, ‘that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that surely my words will endure against you for evil.’ ³⁰ Thus says Yahweh: ‘Look, I am going to give Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who sought his life.’”

God’s Blessing on the King

For the music director. A psalm of David.^[a]

Joy in the Salvation of Yahweh

For the music director. A psalm of David.^[i]