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Reading Plan
Day 111 Day 112Day 113

1 Samuel chapter 25

1
Samuel died, and all the Israelites came together and mourned for him. Then they buried him at his home in Ramah. After this, David went to the wilderness of Paran.
2
There was a man of the clan of Caleb named Nabal, who was from the town of Maon, and who owned land near the town of Carmel. He was a very rich man, the owner of three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. His wife Abigail was beautiful and intelligent, but he was a mean, bad-tempered man. Nabal was shearing his sheep in Carmel,
3
(SEE 25:2)
4
and David, who was in the wilderness, heard about it,
5
so he sent ten young men with orders to go to Carmel, find Nabal, and give him his greetings.
6
He instructed them to say to Nabal: "David sends you greetings, my friend, with his best wishes for you, your family, and all that is yours.
7
He heard that you were shearing your sheep, and he wants you to know that your shepherds have been with us and we did not harm them. Nothing that belonged to them was stolen all the time they were at Carmel.
8
Just ask them, and they will tell you. We have come on a feast day, and David asks you to receive us kindly. Please give what you can to us your servants and to your dear friend David."
9
David's men delivered this message to Nabal in David's name. Then they waited there,
10
and Nabal finally answered, "David? Who is he? I've never heard of him! The country is full of runaway slaves nowadays!
11
I'm not going to take my bread and water, and the animals I have butchered for my sheepshearers, and give them to people who come from I don't know where!"
12
David's men went back to him and told him what Nabal had said.
13
"Buckle on your swords!" he ordered, and they all did. David also buckled on his sword and left with about four hundred of his men, leaving two hundred behind with the supplies.
14
One of Nabal's servants said to Nabal's wife Abigail, "Have you heard? David sent some messengers from the wilderness with greetings for our master, but he insulted them.
15
Yet they were very good to us; they never bothered us, and all the time we were with them in the fields, nothing that belonged to us was stolen.
16
They protected us day and night the whole time we were with them looking after our flocks.
17
Please think this over and decide what to do. This could be disastrous for our master and all his family. He is so mean that he won't listen to anybody!"
18
Abigail quickly gathered two hundred loaves of bread, two leather bags full of wine, five roasted sheep, two bushels of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dried figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19
Then she said to the servants, "You go on ahead and I will follow you." But she said nothing to her husband.
20
She was riding her donkey around a bend on a hillside when suddenly she met David and his men coming toward her.
21
David had been thinking, "Why did I ever protect that fellow's property out here in the wilderness? Not a thing that belonged to him was stolen, and this is how he pays me back for the help I gave him!
22
May God strike me dead if I don't kill every last one of those men before morning!"
23
When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted and threw herself on the ground
24
at David's feet, and said to him, "Please, sir, listen to me! Let me take the blame.
25
Please, don't pay any attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing! He is exactly what his name means---a fool! I wasn't there when your servants arrived, sir.
26
It is the LORD who has kept you from taking revenge and killing your enemies. And now I swear to you by the living LORD that your enemies and all who want to harm you will be punished like Nabal.
27
Please, sir, accept this present I have brought you, and give it to your men.
28
Please forgive me, sir, for any wrong I have done. The LORD will make you king, and your descendants also, because you are fighting his battles; and you will not do anything evil as long as you live.
29
If anyone should attack you and try to kill you, the LORD your God will keep you safe, as someone guards a precious treasure. As for your enemies, however, he will throw them away, as someone hurls stones with a sling.
30
And when the LORD has done all the good things he has promised you and has made you king of Israel,
31
then you will not have to feel regret or remorse, sir, for having killed without cause or for having taken your own revenge. And when the LORD has blessed you, sir, please do not forget me."
32
David said to her, "Praise the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me!
33
Thank God for your good sense and for what you have done today in keeping me from the crime of murder and from taking my own revenge.
34
The LORD has kept me from harming you. But I swear by the living God of Israel that if you had not hurried to meet me, all of Nabal's men would have been dead by morning!"
35
Then David accepted what she had brought him and said to her, "Go back home and don't worry. I will do what you want."
36
Abigail went back to Nabal, who was at home having a feast fit for a king. He was drunk and in a good mood, so she did not tell him anything until the next morning.
37
Then, after he had sobered up, she told him everything. He suffered a stroke and was completely paralyzed.
38
Some ten days later the LORD struck Nabal and he died.
39
When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, "Praise the LORD! He has taken revenge on Nabal for insulting me and has kept me his servant from doing wrong. The LORD has punished Nabal for his evil." Then David sent a proposal of marriage to Abigail.
40
His servants went to her at Carmel and said to her, "David sent us to take you to him to be his wife."
41
Abigail bowed down to the ground and said, "I am his servant, ready to wash the feet of his servants."
42
She rose quickly and mounted her donkey. Accompanied by her five maids, she went with David's servants and became his wife.
43
David had married Ahinoam from Jezreel, and now Abigail also became his wife.
44
Meanwhile, Saul had given his daughter Michal, who had been David's wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from the town of Gallim.

1 Samuel chapter 26

1
Some men from Ziph came to Saul at Gibeah and told him that David was hiding on Mount Hachilah at the edge of the Judean wilderness.
2
Saul went at once with three thousand of the best soldiers in Israel to the wilderness of Ziph to look for David,
3
and camped by the road on Mount Hachilah. David was still in the wilderness, and when he learned that Saul had come to look for him,
4
he sent spies and found out that Saul was indeed there.
5
He went at once and located the exact place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, slept. Saul slept inside the camp, and his men camped around him.
6
Then David asked Ahimelech the Hittite, and Abishai the brother of Joab (their mother was Zeruiah), "Which of you two will go to Saul's camp with me?" "I will," Abishai answered.
7
So that night David and Abishai entered Saul's camp and found Saul sleeping in the center of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the troops were sleeping around him.
8
Abishai said to David, "God has put your enemy in your power tonight. Now let me plunge his own spear through him and pin him to the ground with just one blow---I won't have to strike twice!"
9
But David said, "You must not harm him! The LORD will certainly punish whoever harms his chosen king.
10
By the living LORD," David continued, "I know that the LORD himself will kill Saul, either when his time comes to die a natural death or when he dies in battle.
11
The LORD forbid that I should try to harm the one whom the LORD has made king! Let's take his spear and his water jar, and go."
12
So David took the spear and the water jar from right beside Saul's head, and he and Abishai left. No one saw it or knew what had happened or even woke up---they were all sound asleep, because the LORD had sent a heavy sleep on them all.
13
Then David crossed over to the other side of the valley to the top of the hill, a safe distance away,
14
and shouted to Saul's troops and to Abner, "Abner! Can you hear me?" "Who is that shouting and waking up the king?" Abner asked.
15
David answered, "Abner, aren't you the greatest man in Israel? So why aren't you protecting your master, the king? Just now someone entered the camp to kill your master.
16
You failed in your duty, Abner! I swear by the living LORD that all of you deserve to die, because you have not protected your master, whom the LORD made king. Look! Where is the king's spear? Where is the water jar that was right by his head?"
17
Saul recognized David's voice and asked, "David, is that you, my son?" "Yes, Your Majesty," David answered.
18
And he added, "Why, sir, are you still pursuing me, your servant? What have I done? What crime have I committed?
19
Your Majesty, listen to what I have to say. If it is the LORD who has turned you against me, an offering to him will make him change his mind; but if some people have done it, may the LORD's curse fall on them. For they have driven me out from the LORD's land to a country where I can only worship foreign gods.
20
Don't let me be killed on foreign soil, away from the LORD. Why should the king of Israel come to kill a flea like me? Why should he hunt me down like a wild bird?"
21
Saul answered, "I have done wrong. Come back, David, my son! I will never harm you again, because you have spared my life tonight. I have been a fool! I have done a terrible thing!"
22
David replied, "Here is your spear, Your Majesty. Let one of your men come over and get it.
23
The LORD rewards those who are faithful and righteous. Today he put you in my power, but I did not harm you, whom the LORD made king.
24
Just as I have spared your life today, may the LORD do the same to me and free me from all troubles!"
25
Saul said to David, "God bless you, my son! You will succeed in everything you do!" So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.

Psalm chapter 63

1
O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you.
2
Let me see you in the sanctuary; let me see how mighty and glorious you are.
3
Your constant love is better than life itself, and so I will praise you.
4
I will give you thanks as long as I live; I will raise my hands to you in prayer.
5
My soul will feast and be satisfied, and I will sing glad songs of praise to you.
6
As I lie in bed, I remember you; all night long I think of you,
7
because you have always been my help. In the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
8
I cling to you, and your hand keeps me safe.
9
Those who are trying to kill me will go down into the world of the dead.
10
They will be killed in battle, and their bodies eaten by wolves.
11
Because God gives him victory, the king will rejoice. Those who make promises in God's name will praise him, but the mouths of liars will be shut.

Matthew chapter 9

1
Jesus got into the boat and went back across the lake to his own town,
2
where some people brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a bed. When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the paralyzed man, "Courage, my son! Your sins are forgiven."
3
Then some teachers of the Law said to themselves, "This man is speaking blasphemy!"
4
Jesus perceived what they were thinking, and so he said, "Why are you thinking such evil things?
5
Is it easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?
6
I will prove to you, then, that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the paralyzed man, "Get up, pick up your bed, and go home!"
7
The man got up and went home.
8
When the people saw it, they were afraid, and praised God for giving such authority to people.
9
Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, "Follow me." Matthew got up and followed him.
10
While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew's house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.
11
Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with such people?"
12
Jesus heard them and answered, "People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.
13
Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: 'It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.' I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts."
14
Then the followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus, asking, "Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast at all?"
15
Jesus answered, "Do you expect the guests at a wedding party to be sad as long as the bridegroom is with them? Of course not! But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16
"No one patches up an old coat with a piece of new cloth, for the new patch will shrink and make an even bigger hole in the coat.
17
Nor does anyone pour new wine into used wineskins, for the skins will burst, the wine will pour out, and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins, and both will keep in good condition."
18
While Jesus was saying this, a Jewish official came to him, knelt down before him, and said, "My daughter has just died; but come and place your hands on her, and she will live."
19
So Jesus got up and followed him, and his disciples went along with him.
20
A woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak.
21
She said to herself, "If only I touch his cloak, I will get well."
22
Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, "Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well." At that very moment the woman became well.
23
Then Jesus went into the official's house. When he saw the musicians for the funeral and the people all stirred up,
24
he said, "Get out, everybody! The little girl is not dead---she is only sleeping!" Then they all started making fun of him.
25
But as soon as the people had been put out, Jesus went into the girl's room and took hold of her hand, and she got up.
26
The news about this spread all over that part of the country.
27
Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, two blind men started following him. "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" they shouted.
28
When Jesus had gone indoors, the two blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I can heal you?" "Yes, sir!" they answered.
29
Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, "Let it happen, then, just as you believe!"---
30
and their sight was restored. Jesus spoke sternly to them, "Don't tell this to anyone!"
31
But they left and spread the news about Jesus all over that part of the country.
32
As the men were leaving, some people brought to Jesus a man who could not talk because he had a demon.
33
But as soon as the demon was driven out, the man started talking, and everyone was amazed. "We have never seen anything like this in Israel!" they exclaimed.
34
But the Pharisees said, "It is the chief of the demons who gives Jesus the power to drive out demons."
35
Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness.
36
As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37
So he said to his disciples, "The harvest is large, but there are few workers to gather it in.
38
Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest."

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