1 SAMUEL 20:1-21:15
JOHN 9:1-41
PSALM 113:1-114:8
PROVERBS 15:15-17
1 SAMUEL 20:1-21:15
David now fled from Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan. " What have I done?" he exclaimed. " What is my crime? How have I offended your father that he is so determined to kill me?" 2 " That's not true!" Jonathan protested. " I'm sure he's not planning any such thing, for he always tells me everything he's going to do, even the little things. I know he wouldn't hide something like this from me. It just isn't so!" 3 Then David took an oath before Jonathan and said, " Your father knows perfectly well about our friendship, so he has said to himself, ` I won't tell Jonathan--why should I hurt him?' But I swear to you that I am only a step away from death! I swear it by the LORD and by your own soul!" 4 " Tell me what I can do!" Jonathan exclaimed. 5 David replied, " Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. I've always eaten with your father on this occasion, but tomorrow I'll hide in the field and stay there until the evening of the third day. 6 If your father asks where I am, tell him I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family sacrifice. 7 If he says, ` Fine!' then you will know all is well. But if he is angry and loses his temper, then you will know he was planning to kill me. 8 Show me this kindness as my sworn friend--for we made a covenant together before the LORD--or kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father. But please don't betray me to him!" 9 " Never!" Jonathan exclaimed. " You know that if I had the slightest notion my father was planning to kill you, I would tell you at once." 10 Then David asked, " How will I know whether or not your father is angry?" 11 " Come out to the field with me," Jonathan replied. And they went out there together. 12 Then Jonathan told David, " I promise by the LORD, the God of Israel, that by this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father and let you know at once how he feels about you. If he speaks favorably about you, I will let you know. 13 But if he is angry and wants you killed, may the LORD kill me if I don't warn you so you can escape and live. May the LORD be with you as he used to be with my father. 14 And may you treat me with the faithful love of the LORD as long as I live. But if I die, 15 treat my family with this faithful love, even when the LORD destroys all your enemies." 16 So Jonathan made a covenant with David, saying, " May the LORD destroy all your enemies!" 17 And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as much as he loved himself. 18 Then Jonathan said, " Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. You will be missed when your place at the table is empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid before, and wait there by the stone pile. 20 I will come out and shoot three arrows to the side of the stone pile as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy to bring the arrows back. If you hear me tell him, ` They're on this side,' then you will know, as surely as the LORD lives, that all is well, and there is no trouble. 22 But if I tell him, ` Go farther--the arrows are still ahead of you,' then it will mean that you must leave immediately, for the LORD is sending you away. 23 And may the LORD make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them." 24 So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon festival began, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat at his usual place against the wall, with Jonathan sitting opposite him and Abner beside him. But David's place was empty. 26 Saul didn't say anything about it that day, for he said to himself, " Something must have made David ceremonially unclean. Yes, that must be why he's not here." 27 But when David's place was empty again the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, " Why hasn't the son of Jesse been here for dinner either yesterday or today?" 28 Jonathan replied, " David earnestly asked me if he could go to Bethlehem. 29 He wanted to take part in a family sacrifice. His brother demanded that he be there, so I told him he could go. That's why he isn't here." 30 Saul boiled with rage at Jonathan. " You stupid son of a whore!" he swore at him. " Do you think I don't know that you want David to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother? 31 As long as that son of Jesse is alive, you'll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!" 32 " But what has he done?" Jonathan demanded. " Why should he be put to death?" 33 Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him. So at last Jonathan realized that his father was really determined to kill David. 34 Jonathan left the table in fierce anger and refused to eat all that day, for he was crushed by his father's shameful behavior toward David. 35 The next morning, as agreed, Jonathan went out into the field and took a young boy with him to gather his arrows. 36 " Start running," he told the boy, " so you can find the arrows as I shoot them." So the boy ran, and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy had almost reached the arrow, Jonathan shouted, " The arrow is still ahead of you. 38 Hurry, hurry, don't wait." So the boy quickly gathered up the arrows and ran back to his master. 39 He, of course, didn't understand what Jonathan meant; only Jonathan and David knew. 40 Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy and told him to take them back to the city. 41 As soon as the boy was gone, David came out from where he had been hiding near the stone pile. Then David bowed to Jonathan with his face to the ground. Both of them were in tears as they embraced each other and said good-bye, especially David. 42 At last Jonathan said to David, " Go in peace, for we have made a pact in the LORD's name. We have entrusted each other and each other's children into the LORD's hands forever." Then David left, and Jonathan returned to the city.21:1 DAVID went to the city of Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him. " Why are you alone?" he asked. " Why is no one with you?" 2 " The king has sent me on a private matter," David said. " He told me not to tell anyone why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later. 3 Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have." 4 " We don't have any regular bread," the priest replied. " But there is the holy bread, which I guess you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently." 5 " Don't worry," David replied. " I never allow my men to be with women when they are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!" 6 So, since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread--the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the LORD in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread. 7 Now Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief herdsman, was there that day for ceremonial purification. 8 David asked Ahimelech, " Do you have a spear or sword? The king's business was so urgent that I didn't even have time to grab a weapon!" 9 " I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah," the priest replied. " It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here." " There is nothing like it!" David replied. " Give it to me!" 10 So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath. 11 But Achish's officers weren't happy about his being there. " Isn't this David, the king of the land?" they asked. " Isn't he the one the people honor with dances, singing, ` Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?" 12 David heard these comments and was afraid of what King Achish might do to him. 13 So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard. 14 Finally, King Achish said to his men, " Must you bring me a madman? 15 We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?"
JOHN 9:1-41
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 " Teacher," his disciples asked him, " why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?" 3 " It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins," Jesus answered. " He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. 5 But while I am still here in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and smoothed the mud over the blind man's eyes. 7 He told him, " Go and wash in the pool of Siloam" (Siloam means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing! 8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, " Is this the same man--that beggar?" 9 Some said he was, and others said, " No, but he surely looks like him!" And the beggar kept saying, " I am the same man!" 10 They asked, " Who healed you? What happened?" 11 He told them, " The man they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me, ` Go to the pool of Siloam and wash off the mud.' I went and washed, and now I can see!" 12 " Where is he now?" they asked. " I don't know," he replied. 13 Then they took the man to the Pharisees. 14 Now as it happened, Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath. 15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, " He smoothed the mud over my eyes, and when it was washed away, I could see!" 16 Some of the Pharisees said, " This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath." Others said, " But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?" So there was a deep division of opinion among them. 17 Then the Pharisees once again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, " This man who opened your eyes--who do you say he is?" The man replied, " I think he must be a prophet." 18 The Jewish leaders wouldn't believe he had been blind, so they called in his parents. 19 They asked them, " Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he see?" 20 His parents replied, " We know this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we don't know how he can see or who healed him. He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him." 22 They said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. 23 That's why they said, " He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him." 24 So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, " Give glory to God by telling the truth, because we know Jesus is a sinner." 25 " I don't know whether he is a sinner," the man replied. " But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!" 26 " But what did he do?" they asked. " How did he heal you?" 27 " Look!" the man exclaimed. " I told you once. Didn't you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?" 28 Then they cursed him and said, " You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know anything about him." 30 " Why, that's very strange!" the man replied. " He healed my eyes, and yet you don't know anything about him! 31 Well, God doesn't listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. 32 Never since the world began has anyone been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he couldn't do it." 34 " You were born in sin!" they answered. " Are you trying to teach us?" And they threw him out of the synagogue. 35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and said, " Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36 The man answered, " Who is he, sir, because I would like to." 37 " You have seen him," Jesus said, " and he is speaking to you!" 38 " Yes, Lord," the man said, " I believe!" And he worshiped Jesus. 39 Then Jesus told him, " I have come to judge the world. I have come to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind." 40 The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, " Are you saying we are blind?" 41 " If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty," Jesus replied. " But you remain guilty because you claim you can see."
PSALM 113:1-114:8
Praise the LORD!
Yes, give praise, O servants of the LORD.
Praise the name of the LORD!
2 Blessed be the name of the LORD
forever and ever.
3 Everywhere--from east to west--
praise the name of the LORD.
4 For the LORD is high above the nations;
his glory is far greater than the heavens.
5 Who can be compared with the LORD our God,
who is enthroned on high?
6 Far below him are the heavens and the earth.
He stoops to look,
7 and he lifts the poor from the dirt
and the needy from the garbage dump.
8 He sets them among princes,
even the princes of his own people!
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
so that she becomes a happy mother.
Praise the LORD!
114:1 WHEN the Israelites escaped from Egypt--
when the family of Jacob left that foreign land--
2 the land of Judah became God's sanctuary,
and Israel became his kingdom.
3 The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way!
The water of the Jordan River turned away.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the little hills like lambs!
5 What's wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way?
What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away?
6 Why, mountains, did you skip like rams?
Why, little hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Israel.
8 He turned the rock into pools of water;
yes, springs of water came from solid rock.
PROVERBS 15:15-17
For the poor, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast. It is better to have little with fear for the LORD than to have great treasure with turmoil. A bowl of soup with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.
