1 Samuel 27; 1 Samuel 28; 1 Samuel 29; Luke 13:1-22

1 David thought, One day I will be destroyed by Saul's power. The best thing for me to do is to escape to Philistine territory. Then Saul will give up looking for me in Israelite territory, and I will escape his power.

2 So David set out with his six hundred soldiers and went to Achish, Maoch's son and Gath's king.

3 David and his soldiers stayed there at Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal's widow from Carmel.

4 When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he didn't pursue him anymore.

5 Then David said to Achish, "If you approve of me, please give me a place in one of the towns in the country so I can live there. Why should I, your servant, live in the capital city with you?"

6 So Achish gave the town of Ziklag to David at that time. That's why Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until now.

7 David lived in the Philistine countryside for a total of one year and four months.

8 David and his soldiers went out on raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. They were the people who lived in the land from Telam to Shur all the way to the land of Egypt.

9 When David attacked an area, he wouldn't leave anyone alive, man or woman. He would take the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothes and would then go back to Achish.

10 When Achish asked, "Where did you raid today?" David would say, "The southern plain of Judah," or "The southern plain of the Jerahmeelites," or "The southern plain of the Kenites."

11 David never spared a man or woman so they could be brought back alive to Gath. "Otherwise," he said, "they might talk about us, and say, ‘David did this or that.'" So this was David's practice during the entire time he lived in the Philistine countryside.

12 Achish trusted David, thinking, David has alienated himself so badly from his own people in Israel that he'll serve me forever.

1 At that time, the Philistines gathered their troops for war to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, "Count on you and your soldiers marching out with me in the army."

2 "Excellent," David answered Achish. "Now you'll see for yourself what your servant can do." "Excellent," Achish replied. "I will make you my permanent bodyguard."

3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel mourned him and buried him in Ramah, his hometown. And Saul had banned all mediums and diviners from the land.

4 The Philistines gathered their forces and advanced to camp at Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel, and they camped at Gilboa.

5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was so afraid that his heart beat wildly.

6 When Saul questioned the LORD, the LORD didn't answer him—not by dreams, not by the Urim, and not by the prophets.

7 So Saul said to his servants, "Find me a woman who communicates with ghosts! I'll then go to her and ask by using her techniques." "There is such a medium in En-dor," his servants replied.

8 So Saul disguised himself, dressing in different clothes. Then he and two men set out, going to the woman at nighttime. "Please call up a ghost for me! Bring me the one I specify," Saul said.

9 "Listen," the woman said to him, "you know what Saul has done, how he has banned all mediums and diviners from the land. What are you doing? Trying to get me killed?"

10 But Saul promised to her by the LORD, "As surely as the LORD lives, you won't get into trouble for this."

11 So the woman said, "Who do you want me to bring up for you?" "Bring up Samuel," he said.

12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed at Saul, "Why have you tricked me? You are Saul!"

13 "Don't be afraid!" the king said to her. "What do you see?" The woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up from the ground."

14 "What does he look like?" Saul asked her. "An old man is coming up," she said. "He's wrapped in a robe." Then Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed low out of respect, nose to the ground.

15 "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Samuel asked Saul. "I'm in deep trouble!" Saul replied. "The Philistines are at war with me, and God has turned away from me and no longer answers me by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do."

16 "Why do you ask me," Samuel said, "since the LORD has turned away from you and has become your enemy?

17 The LORD has done to you exactly what he spoke through me: The LORD has ripped the kingdom out of your hands and has given it to your friend David.

18 The LORD has done this very thing to you today because you didn't listen to the LORD's voice and didn't carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites.

19 The LORD will now hand over both you and Israel to the Philistines. And come tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me! The LORD will hand Israel's army over to the Philistines."

20 Saul immediately fell full length on the ground, utterly terrified at what Samuel had said. He was weak because he hadn't eaten anything all day or night.

21 The woman approached Saul, and after seeing how scared he was, she said, "Listen, your servant has obeyed you. I risked my life and did what you told me to do.

22 Now it's your turn to listen to me, your servant. Let me give you a bit of food. Eat it, then you'll have the strength to go on your way."

23 But Saul refused. "I can't eat!" he said. But his servants and the woman urged him to do so, and so he did. He got up off the ground and sat on a couch.

24 The woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly butchered it. She took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread.

25 She served this to Saul and his servants, and they ate. They got up and left that very night.

1 The Philistines assembled all their forces at Aphek, and the Israelites camped by the spring in Jezreel.

2 As the Philistine rulers went out marching in units of hundreds and thousands, David and his soldiers were in the rear with Achish.

3 "Who are these Hebrews?" the Philistine commanders asked. "That's David," Achish told them, "the servant of Israel's King Saul. He's been with me a year or so now. I haven't found anything wrong with him from the day he defected until now."

4 But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish. "Send the man home!" they told Achish. "He can go back to the place you gave him, but he won't go with us into battle. Couldn't he turn against us in the middle of the fight? How better to please his former master than by taking the heads of our soldiers?

5 After all, this is the same David people sing about in their dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands!'"

6 So Achish summoned David and told him, "As surely as the LORD lives, you are an upstanding individual. I would very much like you to serve with me in the army because I haven't found anything wrong with you from the day you came to me until now. But the rulers don't approve of you.

7 So go back home now, and go in peace. Don't do anything to upset the Philistine rulers."

8 "But what have I done?" David asked Achish. "What wrong have you found in me, your servant, from the day I came to you until now? Why shouldn't I go and fight the enemies of my master the king?"

9 "I agree," Achish answered David. "I think you're as good as one of God's own messengers. Despite that, the Philistine commanders have ordered, ‘He can't go into battle with us.'

10 So get up early in the morning, both you and your master's servants who came with you, and return to the place I gave you. Don't worry about this negative report, because you've done well before me. Now get up early in the morning and leave as soon as it is light."

11 So David and his soldiers got up early in the morning to go back to Philistine territory, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

1 Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices.

2 He replied, "Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans?

3 No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.

4 What about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem?

5 No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did."

6 Jesus told this parable: "A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none.

7 He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I've never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients?'

8 The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer.

9 Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.'"

10 Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

11 A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn't stand up straight.

12 When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, "Woman, you are set free from your sickness."

13 He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.

14 The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, "There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day."

15 The Lord replied, "Hypocrites! Don't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink?

16 Then isn't it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?"

17 When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.

18 Jesus asked, "What is God's kingdom like? To what can I compare it?

19 It's like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in a garden. It grew and developed into a tree and the birds in the sky nested in its branches."

20 Again he said, "To what can I compare God's kingdom?

21 It's like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through the whole."

22 Jesus traveled through cities and villages, teaching and making his way to Jerusalem.