1 SAMUEL 26:1-28:25
JOHN 11:1-54
PSALM 117:1-2
PROVERBS 15:22-23
1 SAMUEL 26:1-28:25
Now some messengers from Ziph came back to Saul at Gibeah to tell him, " David is hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which overlooks Jeshimon." 2 So Saul took three thousand of his best troops and went to hunt him down in the wilderness of Ziph. 3 Saul camped along the road beside the hill of Hakilah, near Jeshimon, where David was hiding. But David knew of Saul's arrival, 4 so he sent out spies to watch his movements. 5 David slipped over to Saul's camp one night to look around. Saul and his general, Abner son of Ner, were sleeping inside a ring formed by the slumbering warriors. 6 " Will anyone volunteer to go in there with me?" David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother. " I'll go with you," Abishai replied. 7 So David and Abishai went right into Saul's camp and found him asleep, with his spear stuck in the ground beside his head. Abner and the warriors were lying asleep around him. 8 " God has surely handed your enemy over to you this time!" Abishai whispered to David. " Let me thrust that spear through him. I'll pin him to the ground, and I won't need to strike twice!" 9 " No!" David said. " Don't kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the LORD's anointed one? 10 Surely the LORD will strike Saul down someday, or he will die in battle or of old age. 11 But the LORD forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed! But I'll tell you what--we'll take his spear and his jug of water and then get out of here!" 12 So David took the spear and jug of water that were near Saul's head. Then he and Abishai got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the LORD had put Saul's men into a deep sleep. 13 David climbed the hill opposite the camp until he was at a safe distance. 14 Then he shouted down to Abner and Saul, " Wake up, Abner!" " Who is it?" Abner demanded. 15 " Well, Abner, you're a great man, aren't you?" David taunted. " Where in all Israel is there anyone as mighty? So why haven't you guarded your master the king when someone came to kill him? 16 This isn't good at all! I swear by the LORD that you and your men deserve to die, because you failed to protect your master, the LORD's anointed! Look around! Where are the king's spear and the jug of water that were beside his head?" 17 Saul recognized David's voice and called out, " Is that you, my son David?" And David replied, " Yes, my lord the king. 18 Why are you chasing me? What have I done? What is my crime? 19 But now let my lord the king listen to his servant. If the LORD has stirred you up against me, then let him accept my offering. But if this is simply a human scheme, then may those involved be cursed by the LORD. For you have driven me from my home, so I can no longer live among the LORD's people and worship as I should. 20 Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of the LORD? Why has the king of Israel come out to search for a single flea? Why does he hunt me down like a partridge on the mountains?" 21 Then Saul confessed, " I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong." 22 " Here is your spear, O king," David replied. " Let one of your young men come over and get it. 23 The LORD gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the LORD placed you in my power, for you are the LORD's anointed one. 24 Now may the LORD value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles." 25 And Saul said to David, " Blessings on you, my son David. You will do heroic deeds and be a great conqueror." Then David went away, and Saul returned home.27:1 BUT David kept thinking to himself, " Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing for me to do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me, and I will finally be safe." 2 So David took his six hundred men and their families and went to live at Gath under the protection of King Achish. 3 David brought his two wives along with him--Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow. 4 Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped hunting for him. 5 One day David said to Achish, " If it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city." 6 So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day), 7 and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months. 8 David and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites--people who had lived near Shur, along the road to Egypt, since ancient times. 9 David didn't leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish. 10 " Where did you make your raid today?" Achish would ask. And David would reply, " Against the south of Judah, the Jerahmeelites, and the Kenites." 11 No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines. 12 Achish believed David and thought to himself, " By now the people of Israel must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!"28:1 ABOUT that time the Philistines mustered their armies for another war with Israel. King Achish told David, " You and your men will be expected to join me in battle." 2 " Very well!" David agreed. " Now you will see for yourself what we can do." Then Achish told David, " I will make you my personal bodyguard for life." 3 Meanwhile, Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. And Saul had banned all mediums and psychics from the land of Israel. 4 The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul and the armies of Israel camped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. 6 He asked the LORD what he should do, but the LORD refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. 7 Saul then said to his advisers, " Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do." His advisers replied, " There is a medium at Endor." 8 So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman's home at night, accompanied by two of his men. " I have to talk to a man who has died," he said. " Will you call up his spirit for me?" 9 " Are you trying to get me killed?" the woman demanded. " You know that Saul has expelled all the mediums and psychics from the land. Why are you setting a trap for me?" 10 But Saul took an oath in the name of the LORD and promised, " As surely as the LORD lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this." 11 Finally, the woman said, " Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?" " Call up Samuel," Saul replied. 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, " You've deceived me! You are Saul!" 13 " Don't be afraid!" the king told her. " What do you see?" " I see a god coming up out of the earth," she said. 14 " What does he look like?" Saul asked. " He is an old man wrapped in a robe," she replied. Saul realized that it was Samuel, and he fell to the ground before him. 15 " Why have you disturbed me by calling me back?" Samuel asked. " Because I am in deep trouble," Saul replied. " The Philistines are at war with us, and God has left me and won't reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do." 16 But Samuel replied, " Why ask me if the LORD has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The LORD has done just as he said he would. He has taken the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David. 18 The LORD has done this because you did not obey his instructions concerning the Amalekites. 19 What's more, the LORD will hand you and the army of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me. The LORD will bring the entire army of Israel down in defeat." 20 Saul fell full length on the ground, paralyzed with fright because of Samuel's words. He was also faint with hunger, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. 21 When the woman saw how distraught he was, she said, " Sir, I obeyed your command at the risk of my life. 22 Now do what I say, and let me give you something to eat so you can regain your strength for the trip back." 23 But Saul refused. The men who were with him also urged him to eat, so he finally yielded and got up from the ground and sat on the couch. 24 The woman had been fattening a calf, so she hurried out and killed it. She kneaded dough and baked unleavened bread. 25 She brought the meal to Saul and his men, and they ate it. Then they went out into the night.
JOHN 11:1-54
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 2 This is the Mary who poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, " Lord, the one you love is very sick." 4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, " Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God. I, the Son of God, will receive glory from this." 5 Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days and did not go to them. 7 Finally after two days, he said to his disciples, " Let's go to Judea again." 8 But his disciples objected. " Teacher," they said, " only a few days ago the Jewish leaders in Judea were trying to kill you. Are you going there again?" 9 Jesus replied, " There are twelve hours of daylight every day. As long as it is light, people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. 10 Only at night is there danger of stumbling because there is no light." 11 Then he said, " Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up." 12 The disciples said, " Lord, if he is sleeping, that means he is getting better!" 13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was having a good night's rest, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. 14 Then he told them plainly, " Lazarus is dead. 15 And for your sake, I am glad I wasn't there, because this will give you another opportunity to believe in me. Come, let's go see him." 16 Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, " Let's go, too--and die with Jesus." 17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to pay their respects and console Martha and Mary on their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, " Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus told her, " Your brother will rise again." 24 " Yes," Martha said, " when everyone else rises, on resurrection day."25 Jesus told her, " I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. 26 They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?" 27 " Yes, Lord," she told him. " I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God." 28 Then she left him and returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, " The Teacher is here and wants to see you." 29 So Mary immediately went to him. 30 Now Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. 31 When the people who were at the house trying to console Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus's grave to weep. So they followed her there. 32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell down at his feet and said, " Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, he was moved with indignation and was deeply troubled. 34 " Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, " Lord, come and see." 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, " See how much he loved him." 37 But some said, " This man healed a blind man. Why couldn't he keep Lazarus from dying?" 38 And again Jesus was deeply troubled. Then they came to the grave. It was a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 " Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man's sister, said, " Lord, by now the smell will be terrible because he has been dead for four days." 40 Jesus responded, " Didn't I tell you that you will see God's glory if you believe?" 41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, " Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so they will believe you sent me." 43 Then Jesus shouted, " Lazarus, come out!" 44 Lazarus came out, bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, " Unwrap him and let him go!" 45 Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. 46 But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together to discuss the situation. " What are we going to do?" they asked each other. " This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. 48 If we leave him alone, the whole nation will follow him, and then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation." 49 And one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, " How can you be so stupid? 50 Why should the whole nation be destroyed? Let this one man die for the people." 51 This prophecy that Jesus should die for the entire nation came from Caiaphas in his position as high priest. He didn't think of it himself; he was inspired to say it. 52 It was a prediction that Jesus' death would be not for Israel only, but for the gathering together of all the children of God scattered around the world.53 So from that time on the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death. 54 As a result, Jesus stopped his public ministry among the people and left Jerusalem. He went to a place near the wilderness, to the village of Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples.
PSALM 117:1-2
Praise the LORD, all you nations.
Praise him, all you people of the earth.
2 For he loves us with unfailing love;
the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD!
PROVERBS 15:22-23
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success. Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!
