M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

29 The P’lishtim gathered all their army together at Afek, while Isra’el’s army pitched camp by the spring in Yizre‘el. ² The leaders of the P’lishtim were passing by with their hundreds and thousands; David and his men were bringing up the rear with Akhish. ³ The chiefs of the P’lishtim asked, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” Akhish answered the chiefs of the P’lishtim, “This is David, who was a servant of Sha’ul, king of Isra’el. He’s been with me now for well over a year, and I haven’t found anything wrong with him between the time he deserted to me and now.” ⁴ But the chiefs of the P’lishtim became angry and said to him, “Have the man return and go back to the place you set aside for him. Don’t let him go into battle with us, because on the battlefield he might become our enemy. What better way could there be for him to get reconciled with his lord than by [cutting off] the heads of our men? ⁵ This is David! They used to dance and sing about him,

⁶ So Akhish summoned David and said to him, “As Adonai lives, you have been upright; and I myself would be more than pleased to have you go on campaign with me; because I haven’t found anything wrong with you between the day you arrived and now. However, the chiefs don’t trust you. ⁷ Therefore, now, go on back; and go in peace, so as not to do what appears bad to the chiefs of the P’lishtim. ⁸ David said to Akhish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant during the time I’ve been with you that disqualifies me from going and fighting against the enemies of my lord the king?” ⁹ Akhish answered David, “I know that you are as good, from my point of view, as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the chiefs of the P’lishtim have said, ‘He is not to go up with us to the battlefield.’ ¹⁰ So get up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you; and as soon as you are up and it gets light, leave.” ¹¹ David got up early in the morning, he and his men, to leave and go back into the land of the P’lishtim; while the P’lishtim continued up to Yizre‘el.

30 Three days later, when David and his men arrived in Ziklag, they found that the ‘Amaleki had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had sacked Ziklag and burned it down; ² and they had taken captive the women and everyone there, great and small. They hadn’t killed anyone but had carried them off as they went on their way. ³ So when David and his men arrived at the city, there it was, burned down, with their wives, sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people with him cried aloud until they had no more power to cry. ⁵ David’s two wives had been taken captive — Achino‘am from Yizre‘el and Avigayil the widow of Naval from Karmel.

⁶ David was in serious trouble: the people were talking about stoning him to death, because all the people were in such deep grief, each man over his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in Adonai his God. ⁷ David said to Avyatar the cohen, the son of Achimelekh, “Please bring the ritual vest here to me.” Avyatar brought the vest to David. ⁸ Then David consulted Adonai. He asked, “Should I go in pursuit of these raiders? Will I catch up with them?” And [Adonai] answered him, “Go in pursuit, because you will overtake them and recover everyone and everything.” ⁹ So David went, he and the six hundred men with him. They came to Vadi B’sor, where those who were to stay behind waited. ¹⁰ Then David continued in pursuit with four hundred men, while two hundred too exhausted to cross Vadi B’sor stayed behind.

¹¹ They found an Egyptian in the countryside and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink; ¹² they also gave him a lump of dried figs and two bunches of raisins. After eating, he revived; because he hadn’t eaten anything or drunk any water for three days and nights. ¹³ David asked him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” He answered, “I’m an Egyptian boy, the slave of an ‘Amaleki. My master abandoned me three days ago, because I got sick. ¹⁴ We raided the Negev of the K’reti, the Negev of Y’hudah and the Negev of Kalev; and we burned down Ziklag.” ¹⁵ David asked him, “Will you lead me down to this raiding party?” He said, “If you will swear by God to me that you won’t kill me or hand me back to my master, I will lead you down to the raiders.” ¹⁶ He led them down, and there they were, spread out all over the ground, eating, drinking and celebrating how much spoil they had taken from the territory of the P’lishtim and the territory of Y’hudah. ¹⁷ David attacked them from dawn until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except for 400 young men who jumped on camels and got away. ¹⁸ David recovered all that the ‘Amaleki had taken; he also rescued his two wives. ¹⁹ They found nothing missing, big or little — not sons, not daughters, not plundered goods or anything else they had taken — David brought it all back. ²⁰ David took all the flocks and herds and drove them ahead of their own livestock, announcing, “This is David’s spoil.”

²¹ David came to where the two hundred men were who had been too exhausted to follow him, whom they had let stay at Vadi B’sor. They came out to meet David and the people with him. When David approached them he greeted them. ²² But some of the men who had gone with David were evil men, scoundrels; and they said, “They didn’t go with us, so we’re not giving them any of the property we’ve recovered. Each man can take his wife and children and leave.” ²³ Then David said, “No, my brothers, don’t do this with the goods Adonai has given us. He protected us, and he handed the raiding party over to us. ²⁴ Anyhow, no one agrees with you about this. No, the share of someone who stays with the equipment will be the same as the share of someone who goes out and fights — they will share equally.” ²⁵ It has been that way from that day on; he established it as a ruling for Isra’el to this day.

²⁶ When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the leaders of Y’hudah who were his friends with a note, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of Adonai.” ²⁷ He sent such gifts

and to all the places where David and his men had frequently visited.

10 For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea, ² and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe, ³ also they all ate the same food from the Spirit, ⁴ and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah. ⁵ Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.

⁶ Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷ Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were — as the Tanakh puts it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in revelry.”^{[a] 8} And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day. ⁹ And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. ¹⁰ And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.

¹¹ These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim. ¹² Therefore, let anyone who thinks he is standing up be careful not to fall! ¹³ No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.

¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, run from idolatry! ¹⁵ I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. ¹⁶ The “cup of blessing” over which we make the b’rakhah — isn’t it a sharing in the bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah? The bread we break, isn’t it a sharing in the body of the Messiah? ¹⁷ Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many constitute one body, since we all partake of the one loaf of bread. ¹⁸ Look at physical Isra’el: don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? ¹⁹ So, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself? ²⁰ No, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to God but to demons; and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons! ²¹ You can’t drink both a cup of the Lord and a cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the Lord and a meal of demons. ²² Or are we trying to make the Lord jealous? We aren’t stronger than he is, are we?

²³ “Everything is permitted,” you say? Maybe, but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted?” Maybe, but not everything is edifying. ²⁴ No one should be looking out for his own interests, but for those of his fellow. ²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶ for the earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.^{[b] 27} If some unbeliever invites you to a meal, and you want to go, eat whatever is put in front of you without raising questions of conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This meat was offered as a sacrifice,” then don’t eat it, out of consideration for the person who pointed it out and also for conscience’s sake — ²⁹ however, I don’t mean your conscience but that of the other person. You say, “Why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? ³⁰ If I participate with thankfulness, why am I criticized over something for which I myself bless God?” ³¹ Well, whatever you do, whether it’s eating or drinking or anything else, do it all so as to bring glory to God. ³² Do not be an obstacle to anyone — not to Jews, not to Gentiles, and not to God’s Messianic Community. ³³ Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not looking out for my own interests but for those of the many, so that they may be saved;

8 On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, as I was sitting in my house, and the leaders of Y’hudah were sitting there with me, the hand of Adonai Elohim fell on me. ² I looked and saw what seemed like a man made of fire. From what appeared to be his waist downward was fire, and from his waist upward was what appeared to be a gleaming amber-colored brilliance. ³ The form of a hand was put out, which took me by a lock of my hair; and a spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me, in these visions from God, to Yerushalayim, to the entrance of the inner [courtyard] gate that faces north. There stood the idol that [arouses God’s] jealousy and provokes [his] zealous indignation. ⁴ There before me was the glory of the God of Isra’el, as in the vision I had seen in the valley.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Human being, raise your eyes toward the north.” I raised my eyes toward the north and saw, north of the Altar Gate, this image that [arouses God’s] jealousy in the entryway. ⁶ He asked me, “Human being, do you see what they are doing, the horribly disgusting practices that the house of Isra’el is committing here, so that I must distance myself from my own sanctuary? But you will see even worse abominations.”

⁷ He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard; and when I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me, “Human being, dig into the wall.” After digging in the wall, I saw a door. ⁹ “Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked practices they are engaged in here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and there, carved on the walls all around, were every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, along with all the idols of the house of Isra’el. ¹¹ Standing in front of them were seventy of the leading men of the house of Isra’el — in the center stood Ya’azanyahu the son of Shafan. Each man had his incense-burner in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹² Then he said to me, “Human being, did you see what the leaders of the house of Isra’el are doing in the dark, each one in the room of his own carved image, because they say, ‘Adonai can’t see us; Adonai has left the land.’?” ¹³ He also said to me, “You will see even worse abominations that they are doing.”

¹⁴ He brought me to the entrance of the north gate to Adonai’s house; and there before me were women weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ “Human being,” he asked me, “have you seen this? You will see practices even more disgusting than these.” ¹⁶ He brought me into the inner courtyard of Adonai’s house; and there, at the entrance to the temple of Adonai, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of Adonai and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east. ¹⁷ He asked me, “Human being, have you seen this? Does the house of Y’hudah consider it a casual matter that they commit the disgusting practices they are committing here, thus filling the land with violence, provoking me still more? Look! They are even putting the branch to their nose! ¹⁸ Therefore I will act in fury, my eye will not spare, I will have no pity. Even if they cry loudly right in my ears, I will not listen to them.”