M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

10 Then Sh’mu’el took a flask of oil he had prepared and poured it on Sha’ul’s head. He kissed him and said, “Adonai has anointed you to be prince over his inheritance. ² After you leave me today, you will find two men by Rachel’s Tomb, in the territory of Binyamin at Tzeltzah. They will tell you that the donkeys you were searching for have been found, and that your father has stopped thinking about the donkeys and is anxious over you and asking, ‘What am I to do about my son?’” ³ Go on from there, and you will come to the Oak of Tavor. Three men will meet you there on their way up to God at Beit-El. One of them will be carrying three kids, another three loaves of bread and the third a skin of wine. ⁴ They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you are to accept from them. ⁵ After that, you will come to Giv‘ah of God, where the P’lishtim are garrisoned. On arrival at the city there, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, preceded by lutes, tambourines, flutes and lyres; and they will be prophesying. ⁶ Then the Spirit of Adonai will fall on you; you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man! ⁷ When these signs come over you, just do whatever you feel like doing, because God is with you. ⁸ Then you are to go down ahead of me to Gilgal, and there I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and present sacrifices as peace offerings. Wait there seven days, until I come to you and tell you what to do.”

⁹ As it happened, as soon as he had turned his back to leave Sh’mu’el, God gave him another heart; and all those signs took place that day. ¹⁰ When they arrived at the hill, and there in front of him was a group of prophets, the Spirit of God fell on him and he prophesied along with them. ¹¹ When those who knew him from before saw him there, prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What’s happened to Kish’s son? Is Sha’ul a prophet, too?” ¹² Someone in the crowd answered, “Must prophets’ fathers be special?” So it became an expression — “Is Sha’ul a prophet, too?”

¹³ When he had finished prophesying, he arrived at the high place. ¹⁴ Sha’ul’s uncle said to him and his servant, “Where did you go?” He answered, “To look for the donkeys. When we saw that they hadn’t been found, we went to Sh’mu’el.” ¹⁵ “Tell me, please,” said Sha’ul’s uncle, “what Sh’mu’el said to you.” ¹⁶ Sha’ul answered his uncle, “He told us that the donkeys had been found,” but said nothing to him about the matter of his being made king.

¹⁷ Sh’mu’el summoned the people to Adonai in Mitzpah. ¹⁸ He said to the people of Isra’el, “Here is what Adonai the God of Isra’el says: ‘I brought Isra’el up from Egypt. I rescued you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’ ¹⁹ But today you have rejected your God, who himself saves you from all your disasters and distress. You have said to him, ‘No! Put a king over us!’ So now, present yourselves before Adonai by your tribes and families.” ²⁰ So Sh’mu’el had all the tribes come forward, and the tribe of Binyamin was chosen. ²¹ He had the tribe of Binyamin come forward by families, and the family of the Matri was chosen, and Sha’ul the son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him, he couldn’t be found. ²² They asked Adonai, “Has the man come here?” Adonai answered, “There he is, hiding, in among the equipment.” ²³ They ran and brought him from there, and when he stood among the people he was head and shoulders taller than anyone around. ²⁴ Sh’mu’el said to all the people, “Do you see the man Adonai has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” Then all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

²⁵ Sh’mu’el told the people what kinds of rulings should be made in the kingdom, then wrote it on a scroll and set it down before Adonai. After that, he sent all the people away, everyone to his own home. ²⁶ Sha’ul too went home to Giv‘ah, accompanied by warriors whose hearts God had touched. ²⁷ True, there were some scoundrels who said, “How can this man save us?” They showed him no respect and brought him no gift, but he held his peace.

8 Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua. ² Why? Because the Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the “Torah” of sin and death. ³ For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending his own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but without sin]. God did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing he executed the punishment against sin in human nature, ⁴ so that the just requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us who do not run our lives according to what our old nature wants but according to what the Spirit wants. ⁵ For those who identify with their old nature set their minds on the things of the old nature, but those who identify with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ Having one’s mind controlled by the old nature is death, but having one’s mind controlled by the Spirit is life and shalom. ⁷ For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah — indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Thus, those who identify with their old nature cannot please God.

⁹ But you, you do not identify with your old nature but with the Spirit — provided the Spirit of God is living inside you, for anyone who doesn’t have the Spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to him. ¹⁰ However, if the Messiah is in you, then, on the one hand, the body is dead because of sin; but, on the other hand, the Spirit is giving life because God considers you righteous. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead is living in you, then the One who raised the Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

¹² So then, brothers, we don’t owe a thing to our old nature that would require us to live according to our old nature. ¹³ For if you live according to your old nature, you will certainly die; but if, by the Spirit, you keep putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to bring you back again into fear; on the contrary, you received the Spirit, who makes us sons and by whose power we cry out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”). ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our own spirits that we are children of God; ¹⁷ and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah — provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him.

¹⁸ I don’t think the sufferings we are going through now are even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us in the future. ¹⁹ The creation waits eagerly for the sons of God to be revealed; ²⁰ for the creation was made subject to frustration — not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it. But it was given a reliable hope ²¹ that it too would be set free from its bondage to decay and would enjoy the freedom accompanying the glory that God’s children will have. ²² We know that until now, the whole creation has been groaning as with the pains of childbirth; ²³ and not only it, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we continue waiting eagerly to be made sons — that is, to have our whole bodies redeemed and set free. ²⁴ It was in this hope that we were saved. But if we see what we hope for, it isn’t hope — after all, who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But if we continue hoping for something we don’t see, then we still wait eagerly for it, with perseverance.

²⁶ Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don’t know how to pray the way we should. But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and the one who searches hearts knows exactly what the Spirit is thinking, because his pleadings for God’s people accord with God’s will. ²⁸ Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with his purpose; ²⁹ because those whom he knew in advance, he also determined in advance would be conformed to the pattern of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; ³⁰ and those whom he thus determined in advance, he also called; and those whom he called, he also caused to be considered righteous; and those whom he caused to be considered righteous he also glorified!

³¹ What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too? ³³ So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God — he is the one who causes them to be considered righteous! ³⁴ Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and — more than that — has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf! ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War? ³⁶ As the Tanakh puts it,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, ³⁹ neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.