M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Hannah's Prayer

2 ^(A)Hannah prayed:

¹¹ Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah, but the boy Samuel stayed in Shiloh and served the Lord under the priest Eli.

The Sons of Eli

¹² The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the Lord ¹³ or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when someone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking, ¹⁴ he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this. ¹⁵ In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, “Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

¹⁶ If the person answered, “Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want,” the priest's servant would say, “No! Give it to me now! If you don't, I will have to take it by force!”

¹⁷ This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the Lord's sight, because they treated the offerings to the Lord with such disrespect.

Samuel at Shiloh

¹⁸ In the meantime the boy Samuel continued to serve the Lord, wearing a sacred linen apron. ¹⁹ Each year his mother would make a little robe and take it to him when she accompanied her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰ Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, “May the Lord give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him.”

After that they would go back home.

²¹ The Lord did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.

Eli and His Sons

²² Eli was now very old. He kept hearing about everything his sons were doing to the Israelites and that they were even sleeping with the women who worked at the entrance to the Tent of the Lord's presence. ²³ So he said to them, “Why are you doing these things? Everybody tells me about the evil you are doing. ²⁴ Stop it, my sons! This is an awful thing the people of the Lord are talking about! ²⁵ If anyone sins against someone else, God can defend the one who is wrong; but who can defend someone who sins against the Lord?”

But they would not listen to their father, for the Lord had decided to kill them.

^26 (C)The boy Samuel continued to grow and to gain favor both with the Lord and with people.

The Prophecy against Eli's Family

²⁷ A prophet came to Eli with this message from the Lord: “When your ancestor Aaron and his family were slaves of the king of Egypt, I revealed myself to Aaron. ^28 (D)From all the tribes of Israel I chose his family to be my priests, to serve at the altar, to burn the incense, and to wear the ephod^[a] to consult me. And I gave them the right to keep a share of the sacrifices burned on the altar. ²⁹ Why, then, do you look with greed^[b] at the sacrifices and offerings which I require from my people? Why, Eli, do you honor your sons more than me by letting them fatten themselves on the best parts of all the sacrifices my people offer to me? ³⁰ I, the Lord God of Israel, promised in the past that your family and your clan would serve me as priests for all time. But now I say that I won't have it any longer! Instead, I will honor those who honor me, and I will treat with contempt those who despise me. ³¹ Listen, the time is coming when I will kill all the young men in your family and your clan, so that no man in your family will live to be old. ³² You will be troubled and look with envy^[c] on all the blessings I will give to the other people of Israel, but no one in your family will ever again live to old age. ³³ Yet I will keep one of your descendants alive, and he will serve me as priest. But he^[d] will become blind and lose all hope, and all your other descendants will die a violent death. ^34 (E)When your two sons Hophni and Phinehas both die on the same day, this will show you that everything I have said will come true. ³⁵ I will choose a priest who will be faithful to me and do everything I want him to. I will give him descendants, who will always serve in the presence of my chosen king. ³⁶ Any of your descendants who survive will have to go to that priest and ask him for money and food, and beg to be allowed to help the priests, in order to have something to eat.”

God's Judgment

2 ^(A)Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself. ² We know that God is right when he judges the people who do such things as these. ³ But you, my friend, do those very things for which you pass judgment on others! Do you think you will escape God's judgment? ^4 (B)Or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent. ⁵ But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgments will be revealed. ^6 (C)For God will reward each of us according to what we have done. ⁷ Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honor, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life. ⁸ Other people are selfish and reject what is right, in order to follow what is wrong; on them God will pour out his anger and fury. ⁹ There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil, for the Jews first and also for the Gentiles. ¹⁰ But God will give glory, honor, and peace to all who do what is good, to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles. ^11 (D)For God judges everyone by the same standard.

¹² The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law. ¹³ For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands. ¹⁴ The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law. ¹⁵ Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. ¹⁶ And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on that Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all.

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷ What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God; ¹⁸ you know what God wants you to do, and you have learned from the Law to choose what is right; ¹⁹ you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth. ²¹ You teach others—why don't you teach yourself? You preach, “Do not steal”—but do you yourself steal? ²² You say, “Do not commit adultery”—but do you commit adultery? You detest idols—but do you rob temples? ²³ You boast about having God's law—but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law? ^24 (E)The scripture says, “Because of you Jews, the Gentiles speak evil of God.”

²⁵ If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised. ²⁶ If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will not God regard him as though he were circumcised? ²⁷ And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised. ²⁸ After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. ^29 (F)Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

Jeremiah Stays with Gedaliah

40 The Lord spoke to me after Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, had set me free at Ramah. I had been taken there in chains, along with all the other people from Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken away as prisoners to Babylonia.

² The commanding officer took me aside and said, “The Lord your God threatened this land with destruction, ³ and now he has done what he said he would. All this happened because your people sinned against the Lord and disobeyed him. ⁴ Now, I am taking the chains off your wrists and setting you free. If you want to go to Babylonia with me, you may do so, and I will take care of you. But if you don't want to go, you don't have to. You have the whole country to choose from, and you may go wherever you wish.”

⁵ When I did not answer,^[a] Nebuzaradan said, “Go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylonia has made governor of the towns of Judah. You may stay with him and live among the people, or you may go anywhere you think you should.” Then he gave me a present and some food to take with me, and let me go on my way. ⁶ I went to stay with Gedaliah in Mizpah and lived among the people who were left in the land.

Gedaliah, Governor of Judah^(A)

^7 (B)Some of the Judean officers and soldiers had not surrendered. They heard that the king of Babylonia had made Gedaliah governor of the land and had placed him in charge of all those who had not been taken away to Babylonia—the poorest people in the land. ⁸ So Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai from Netophah, and Jezaniah from Maacah went with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah. ⁹ Gedaliah said to them, “I give you my word that there is no need for you to be afraid to surrender to the Babylonians. Settle in this land, serve the king of Babylonia, and all will go well with you. ¹⁰ I myself will stay in Mizpah and be your representative when the Babylonians come here. But you can gather and store up wine, fruit, and olive oil, and live in the villages you occupy.” ¹¹ Meanwhile, all the Israelites who were in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other countries, heard that the king of Babylonia had allowed some Israelites to stay on in Judah and that he had made Gedaliah their governor. ¹² So they left the places where they had been scattered, and returned to Judah. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and there they gathered in large amounts of wine and fruit.

Gedaliah Is Murdered^(C)

¹³ After this, Johanan and the leaders of the soldiers who had not surrendered came to Gedaliah at Mizpah ¹⁴ and said to him, “Don't you know that King Baalis of Ammon has sent Ishmael to murder you?” But Gedaliah did not believe it. ¹⁵ Then Johanan said privately to him, “Let me go and kill Ishmael, and no one will know who did it. Why should he be allowed to murder you? That would cause all the Jews who have gathered around you to be scattered, and it would bring disaster on all the people who are left in Judah.”

¹⁶ But Gedaliah answered, “Don't do it! What you are saying about Ishmael is not true!”

What God Requires^[a]

A Prayer of Confidence^[c]