Church: +64 (09) 235 2238 Op Shop: +64 (09) 235 7914
Reading Plan
Day 129 Day 130Day 131

2 Samuel chapter 18

1
King David brought all his men together, divided them into units of a thousand and of a hundred, and placed officers in command of them.
2
Then he sent them out in three groups, with Joab and Joab's brother Abishai and Ittai from Gath, each in command of a group. And the king said to his men, "I will go with you myself."
3
"You mustn't go with us," they answered. "It won't make any difference to the enemy if the rest of us turn and run, or even if half of us are killed; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It will be better if you stay here in the city and send us help."
4
"I will do whatever you think best," the king answered. Then he stood by the side of the gate as his men marched out in units of a thousand and of a hundred.
5
He gave orders to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: "For my sake don't harm the young man Absalom." And all the troops heard David give this command to his officers.
6
David's army went out into the countryside and fought the Israelites in Ephraim Forest.
7
The Israelites were defeated by David's men; it was a terrible defeat, with twenty thousand men killed that day.
8
The fighting spread over the countryside, and more men died in the forest than were killed in battle.
9
Suddenly Absalom met some of David's men. Absalom was riding a mule, and as it went under a large oak tree, Absalom's head got caught in the branches. The mule ran on and Absalom was left hanging in midair.
10
One of David's men saw him and reported to Joab, "Sir, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!"
11
Joab answered, "If you saw him, why didn't you kill him on the spot? I myself would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt."
12
But the man answered, "Even if you gave me a thousand pieces of silver, I wouldn't lift a finger against the king's son. We all heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, 'For my sake don't harm the young man Absalom.'
13
But if I had disobeyed the king and killed Absalom, the king would have heard about it---he hears about everything---and you would not have defended me."
14
"I'm not going to waste any more time with you," Joab said. He took three spears and plunged them into Absalom's chest while he was still alive, hanging in the oak tree.
15
Then ten of Joab's soldiers closed in on Absalom and finished killing him.
16
Joab had the trumpet blown to stop the fighting, and his troops came back from pursuing the Israelites.
17
They took Absalom's body, threw it into a deep pit in the forest, and covered it with a huge pile of stones. All the Israelites fled to their own hometowns.
18
During his lifetime Absalom had built a monument for himself in King's Valley, because he had no son to keep his name alive. So he named it after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom's Monument.
19
Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said to Joab, "Let me run to the king with the good news that the LORD has saved him from his enemies."
20
"No," Joab said, "today you will not take any good news. Some other day you may do so, but not today, for the king's son is dead."
21
Then he said to his Ethiopian slave, "Go and tell the king what you have seen." The slave bowed and ran off.
22
Ahimaaz insisted, "I don't care what happens; please let me take the news also." "Why do you want to do it, my son?" Joab asked. "You will get no reward for it."
23
"Whatever happens," Ahimaaz said again, "I want to go." "Then go," Joab said. So Ahimaaz ran off down the road through the Jordan Valley, and soon he passed the slave.
24
David was sitting in the space between the inner and outer gates of the city. The lookout went up to the top of the wall and stood on the roof of the gateway; he looked out and saw a man running alone.
25
He called down and told the king, and the king said, "If he is alone, he is bringing good news." The runner kept coming closer.
26
Then the lookout saw another man running alone, and he called down to the gatekeeper, "Look! There's another man running!" The king answered, "This one also is bringing good news."
27
The lookout said, "I can see that the first man runs like Ahimaaz." "He's a good man," the king said, "and he is bringing good news."
28
Ahimaaz called out a greeting to the king, threw himself down to the ground before him, and said, "Praise the LORD your God, who has given you victory over the men who rebelled against Your Majesty!"
29
"Is the young man Absalom all right?" the king asked. Ahimaaz answered, "Sir, when your officer Joab sent me, I saw a great commotion, but I couldn't tell what it was."
30
"Stand over there," the king told him; and he went over and stood there.
31
Then the Ethiopian slave arrived and said to the king, "I have good news for Your Majesty! Today the LORD has given you victory over all who rebelled against you!"
32
"Is the young man Absalom all right?" the king asked. The slave answered, "I wish that what has happened to him would happen to all your enemies, sir, and to all who rebel against you."
33
The king was overcome with grief. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he cried, "O my son! My son Absalom! Absalom, my son! If only I had died in your place, my son! Absalom, my son!"

Psalm chapter 56

1
Be merciful to me, O God, because I am under attack; my enemies persecute me all the time.
2
All day long my opponents attack me. There are so many who fight against me.
3
When I am afraid, O LORD Almighty, I put my trust in you.
4
I trust in God and am not afraid; I praise him for what he has promised. What can a mere human being do to me?
5
My enemies make trouble for me all day long; they are always thinking up some way to hurt me!
6
They gather in hiding places and watch everything I do, hoping to kill me.
7
Punish them, O God, for their evil; defeat those people in your anger!
8
You know how troubled I am; you have kept a record of my tears. Aren't they listed in your book?
9
The day I call to you, my enemies will be turned back. I know this: God is on my side---
10
the LORD, whose promises I praise.
11
In him I trust, and I will not be afraid. What can a mere human being do to me?
12
O God, I will offer you what I have promised; I will give you my offering of thanksgiving,
13
because you have rescued me from death and kept me from defeat. And so I walk in the presence of God, in the light that shines on the living.

Matthew chapter 27

1
Early in the morning all the chief priests and the elders made their plans against Jesus to put him to death.
2
They put him in chains, led him off, and handed him over to Pilate, the Roman governor.
3
When Judas, the traitor, learned that Jesus had been condemned, he repented and took back the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.
4
"I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!" he said. "What do we care about that?" they answered. "That is your business!"
5
Judas threw the coins down in the Temple and left; then he went off and hanged himself.
6
The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "This is blood money, and it is against our Law to put it in the Temple treasury."
7
After reaching an agreement about it, they used the money to buy Potter's Field, as a cemetery for foreigners.
8
That is why that field is called "Field of Blood" to this very day.
9
Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true: "They took the thirty silver coins, the amount the people of Israel had agreed to pay for him,
10
and used the money to buy the potter's field, as the Lord had commanded me."
11
Jesus stood before the Roman governor, who questioned him. "Are you the king of the Jews?" he asked. "So you say," answered Jesus.
12
But he said nothing in response to the accusations of the chief priests and elders.
13
So Pilate said to him, "Don't you hear all these things they accuse you of ?"
14
But Jesus refused to answer a single word, with the result that the Governor was greatly surprised.
15
At every Passover Festival the Roman governor was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the crowd asked for.
16
At that time there was a well-known prisoner named Jesus Barabbas.
17
So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?"
18
He knew very well that the Jewish authorities had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.
19
While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: "Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night I suffered much on account of him."
20
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask Pilate to set Barabbas free and have Jesus put to death.
21
But Pilate asked the crowd, "Which one of these two do you want me to set free for you?" "Barabbas!" they answered.
22
"What, then, shall I do with Jesus called the Messiah?" Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!" they all answered.
23
But Pilate asked, "What crime has he committed?" Then they started shouting at the top of their voices: "Crucify him!"
24
When Pilate saw that it was no use to go on, but that a riot might break out, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, "I am not responsible for the death of this man! This is your doing!"
25
The whole crowd answered, "Let the responsibility for his death fall on us and on our children!"
26
Then Pilate set Barabbas free for them; and after he had Jesus whipped, he handed him over to be crucified.
27
Then Pilate's soldiers took Jesus into the governor's palace, and the whole company gathered around him.
28
They stripped off his clothes and put a scarlet robe on him.
29
Then they made a crown out of thorny branches and placed it on his head, and put a stick in his right hand; then they knelt before him and made fun of him. "Long live the King of the Jews!" they said.
30
They spat on him, and took the stick and hit him over the head.
31
When they had finished making fun of him, they took the robe off and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
32
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross.
33
They came to a place called Golgotha, which means, "The Place of the Skull."
34
There they offered Jesus wine mixed with a bitter substance; but after tasting it, he would not drink it.
35
They crucified him and then divided his clothes among them by throwing dice.
36
After that they sat there and watched him.
37
Above his head they put the written notice of the accusation against him: "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."
38
Then they crucified two bandits with Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left.
39
People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus:
40
"You were going to tear down the Temple and build it back up in three days! Save yourself if you are God's Son! Come on down from the cross!"
41
In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and the elders made fun of him:
42
"He saved others, but he cannot save himself ! Isn't he the king of Israel? If he will come down off the cross now, we will believe in him!
43
He trusts in God and claims to be God's Son. Well, then, let us see if God wants to save him now!"
44
Even the bandits who had been crucified with him insulted him in the same way.
45
At noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which lasted for three hours.
46
At about three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?"
47
Some of the people standing there heard him and said, "He is calling for Elijah!"
48
One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make him drink it.
49
But the others said, "Wait, let us see if Elijah is coming to save him!"
50
Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
51
Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart,
52
the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life.
53
They left the graves, and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them.
54
When the army officer and the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, "He really was the Son of God!"
55
There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee and helped him.
56
Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee.
57
When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea arrived; his name was Joseph, and he also was a disciple of Jesus.
58
He went into the presence of Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate gave orders for the body to be given to Joseph.
59
So Joseph took it, wrapped it in a new linen sheet,
60
and placed it in his own tomb, which he had just recently dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.
61
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there, facing the tomb.
62
The next day, which was a Sabbath, the chief priests and the Pharisees met with Pilate
63
and said, "Sir, we remember that while that liar was still alive he said, 'I will be raised to life three days later.'
64
Give orders, then, for his tomb to be carefully guarded until the third day, so that his disciples will not be able to go and steal the body, and then tell the people that he was raised from death. This last lie would be even worse than the first one."
65
"Take a guard," Pilate told them; "go and make the tomb as secure as you can."
66
So they left and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and leaving the guard on watch.

Translate

enzh-CNnlfrdeitjakoptrues

Subscribe To Our Newsletter