← Through the ESV Bible in a Year with Jackie Hill Perry
Through the ESV Bible in a Year with Jackie Hill Perry
May 18 (1 Samuel 20–21; Psalm 119:65–72; Galatians 1–2)
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A reading from First Samuel. Then David fled from Naioth and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is my guilt, and what is my sin before your Father, that he seeks my life? And he said to him, far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing, either great or small, without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so. But David vowed again, saying, your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes. And he thinks, do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death. Then Jonathan said to David, whatever you say, I will do for you. David said to Jonathan, behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, david earnestly asks leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan. If he says, good, it will be well with your servant. But if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him. Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father? And Jonathan said, far be it from you. If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you? Then David said to Jonathan, who will tell me if your father answers you roughly? And Jonathan said to David, come, let us go out into the field. So. So they both went out into the field. And Jonathan said to David, the Lord, the God of Israel, be witness when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day. Behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan. And more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die. And do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever. When the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, may The Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. Then Jonathan said to him, tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty on the third day. Go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand and remain beside the stone heap and I will shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a mark. And behold, I will send the boy saying, go find the arrows. If I say to the boy, look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them, then you are to come. For as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the youth, look, the arrows are beyond you, then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever. So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul's side. But David's place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean. But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David's place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan, his son, why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today? Jonathan answered Saul, david earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers. For this reason, he has not come to the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And he said to him, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman. Do I not know that you have chosen the Son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? For as long as the Son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die. Then Jonathan answered, saul, his father, why should he be put to death? What has he done? But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food. The second day of the month. For he was grieved for David because his father had disgraced him. In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy. And he said to his boy, run and find the arrows that I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, is not the arrow beyond you? And Jonathan called after the boy, hurry, be quick. Do not stay. So Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, go and carry them to the city. And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. Then Jonathan said to David, go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, the Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever. And he rose and departed. And Jonathan went into the city. Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, why are you alone and no one with you? And David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king has charged me with a matter and said to me, let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. And the priest answered, david, I have no common bread on hand. But there is holy bread, if the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest, truly women have been kept from us. As always, when I go on an expedition, the vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Then David said to Ahimelech, then have you not here a spear or a Sword at hand. For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me. Because the king's business required haste. And the priests said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah. Behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, there is none like that. Give it to me. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? A reading from the Book of Psalms. You have dealt well with your servant. O Lord, according to your word, teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes. The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts. Their heart is unfeeling, like fat. But I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. A reading from the Book of Galatians. Paul, an apostle. Not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me. Then, after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and and set before them, though privately, before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running, or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery to them, we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the Gospel to the circumcised. For he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me. That we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.