1 Samuel 19; 1 Samuel 20; 1 Samuel 21; Luke 11:29-54

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1 Samuel 19

1 Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David, but Jonathan, Saul's son, liked David very much.

2 So Jonathan warned David, "My father Saul is trying to kill you. Be on guard tomorrow morning. Stay somewhere safe and hide.

3 I'll go out and stand by my father in the field where you'll be. I'll talk to my father about you, and I'll tell you whatever I find out."

4 So Jonathan spoke highly about David to his father Saul, telling him, "The king shouldn't do anything wrong to his servant David, because he hasn't wronged you. In fact, his actions have helped you greatly.

5 He risked his own life when he killed that Philistine, and the LORD won a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and were happy about it. Why then would you do something wrong to an innocent person by killing David for no reason?"

6 Saul listened to Jonathan and then swore, "As surely as the LORD lives, David won't be executed."

7 So Jonathan summoned David and told him everything they had talked about. Then Jonathan brought David back to Saul, and David served Saul as he had previously.

8 War broke out again. When David went out to fight the Philistines, he struck them with such force that they ran from him.

9 Then an evil spirit from the LORD came over Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in hand while David was playing music.

10 Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but David escaped Saul. Saul drove the spear into the wall, but David fled and got away safely. That night

11 Saul sent messengers to David's house to keep watch on it and kill him in the morning. David's wife Michal warned him, "If you don't escape with your life tonight, you are a dead man tomorrow."

12 So Michal lowered David through a window. He took off and ran, and he got away.

13 Then Michal took the household's divine image and laid it in the bed, putting some goat's hair on its head and covering it with clothes.

14 Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, "He's sick."

15 Saul sent the messengers back to check on David for themselves. "Bring him to me on his bed," he ordered, "so he can be executed."

16 When the messengers arrived, they found the idol in the bed with the goat's hair on its head.

17 Saul said to Michal, "Why could you betray me like this, letting my enemy go so that now he has escaped?" Michal said to Saul, "David told me, ‘Help me get away or I'll kill you!'"

18 So David fled and escaped. When he reached Samuel at Ramah, he reported to him everything Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to stay in the camps.

19 When Saul was told that David was in the camps at Ramah,

20 he sent messengers to arrest David. They saw a group of prophets in a prophetic frenzy, with Samuel standing there as their leader. God's spirit came over Saul's messengers, and they also fell into a prophetic frenzy.

21 This was reported to Saul, and he sent different messengers, but they also fell into a prophetic frenzy. So Saul sent a third group of messengers, and they did the very same thing.

22 At that point, Saul went to Ramah himself. He came to the well at the threshing floor that was on the bare hill there and asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" "In the camps at Ramah," he was told.

23 So Saul went to the camps at Ramah, and God's spirit came over him too. So as he traveled, he was in a prophetic frenzy until he reached the camps at Ramah.

24 He even took off all his clothes and fell into a prophetic frenzy in front of Samuel. He lay naked that whole day and night. That's why people say, "Is Saul also one of the prophets?"

1 Samuel 20

1 David fled from the camps at Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, "What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father that he wants me dead?"

2 Jonathan said to him, "No! You are not going to die! Listen: My father doesn't do anything big or small without telling me first. Why would my father hide this from me? It isn't true!"

3 But David solemnly promised in response, "Your father knows full well that you like me. He probably said, ‘Jonathan must not learn about this or he'll be upset.' But I promise you—on the LORD's life and yours!—that I am this close to death!"

4 "What do you want me to do?" Jonathan said to David. "I'll do it."

5 "Okay, listen," David answered Jonathan. "Tomorrow is the new moon, and I'm supposed to sit with the king at the feast. Instead, let me go and I'll hide in the field until nighttime.

6 If your father takes note of my absence, tell him, ‘David begged my permission to run down to his hometown Bethlehem, because there is an annual sacrifice there for his whole family.'

7 If Saul says ‘Fine,' then I, your servant, am safe. But if he loses his temper, then you'll know for certain that he intends to harm me.

8 So be loyal to your servant, because you've brought your servant into a sacred covenant with you. If I'm guilty, then kill me yourself; just don't take me back to your father."

9 "Enough!" Jonathan replied. "If I can determine for certain that my father intends to harm you, of course I'll tell you!"

10 "Who will tell me if your father responds harshly?" David asked Jonathan.

11 "Come on," Jonathan said to David. "Let's go into the field." So both of them went out into the field.

12 Then Jonathan told David, "I pledge by the LORD God of Israel that I will question my father by this time tomorrow or on the third day. If he seems favorable toward David, I will definitely send word and make sure you know.

13 But if my father intends to harm you, then may the LORD deal harshly with me, Jonathan, and worse still if I don't tell you right away so that you can escape safely. May the LORD be with you as he once was with my father.

14 If I remain alive, be loyal to me. But if I die,

15 don't ever stop being loyal to my household. Once the LORD has eliminated all of David's enemies from the earth,

16 if Jonathan's name is also eliminated, then the LORD will seek retribution from David!"

17 So Jonathan again made a pledge to David because he loved David as much as himself.

18 "Tomorrow is the festival of the new moon," Jonathan told David. "You will be missed because your seat will be empty.

19 The day after tomorrow, go all the way to the spot where you hid on the day of the incident, and stay close to that mound.

20 On the third day I will shoot an arrow to the side of the mound as if aiming at a target.

21 Then I'll send the servant boy, saying, ‘Go retrieve the arrow.' If I yell to the boy, ‘Hey! The arrow is on this side of you. Get it!' then you can come out because it will be safe for you. There won't be any trouble—I make a pledge on the LORD's life.

22 But if I yell to the young man, ‘Hey! The arrow is past you,' then run for it, because the LORD has sent you away.

23 Either way, the LORD is witness between us forever regarding the promise we made to each other."

24 So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat at the feast to eat.

25 He took his customary seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite him while Abner sat beside Saul. David's seat was empty.

26 Saul didn't say anything that day because he thought, Perhaps David became unclean somehow. That must be it.

27 But on the next day, the second of the new moon, David's seat was still empty. Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't Jesse's son come to the table, either yesterday or today?"

28 Jonathan answered Saul, "David begged my permission to go to Bethlehem.

29 He said, ‘Please let me go because we have a family sacrifice there in town, and my brother has ordered me to be present. Please do me a favor and let me slip away so I can see my family.' That's why David hasn't been at the king's table."

30 At that, Saul got angry at Jonathan. "You son of a stubborn, rebellious woman!" he said. "Do you think I don't know how you've allied yourself with Jesse's son? Shame on you and on the mother who birthed you!

31 As long as Jesse's son lives on this earth, neither you nor your dynasty will be secure. Now have him brought to me because he's a dead man!"

32 But Jonathan answered his father Saul, "Why should David be executed? What has he done?"

33 At that, Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to strike him, and Jonathan realized that his father intended to kill David.

34 Jonathan got up from the table in a rage. He didn't eat anything on the second day of the new moon because he was worried about David and because his father had humiliated him.

35 In the morning, Jonathan went out to the field for the meeting with David, and a young servant boy went with him.

36 He said to the boy, "Go quickly and retrieve the arrow that I shoot." So the boy ran off, and he shot an arrow beyond him.

37 When the boy got to the spot where Jonathan shot the arrow, Jonathan yelled to him, "Isn't the arrow past you?"

38 Jonathan yelled again to the boy, "Quick! Hurry up! Don't just stand there!" So Jonathan's servant boy gathered up the arrow and came back to his master.

39 The boy had no idea what had happened; only Jonathan and David knew.

40 Jonathan handed his weapons to the boy and told him, "Get going. Take these back to town."

41 As soon as the boy was gone, David came out from behind the mound and fell down, face on the ground, bowing low three times. The friends kissed each other, and cried with each other, but David cried hardest.

42 Then Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace because the two of us made a solemn pledge in the LORD's name when we said, ‘The LORD is witness between us and between our descendants forever.'" Then David got up and left, but Jonathan went back to town.

1 Samuel 21

1 David came to Nob where Ahimelech was priest. Ahimelech was shaking in fear when he met David. "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?" he asked.

2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king has given me orders, but he instructed me, ‘Don't let anyone know anything about the mission I'm sending you on or about your orders.' As for my troops, I told them to meet me at an undisclosed location.

3 Now what do you have here with you? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find."

4 "I don't have any regular bread on hand," the priest answered David, "just holy bread—but only if your troops have abstained from sexual activity."

5 "Definitely," David answered the priest. "Whenever I go out to war, women are off-limits; that's our standard operating procedure. Even on regular missions, the men's gear is kept holy. That's even more true today, with the mission holy along with the gear."

6 So the priest gave David holy bread, because there was no other bread except the bread of the presence, which is removed from the LORD's presence and replaced by warm bread as soon as it is taken away.

7 Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained in the LORD's presence. His name was Doeg. He was an Edomite and Saul's head shepherd.

8 David asked Ahimelech, "Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn't bring my sword or gear with me because the king's mission was urgent."

9 The priest said, "The sword of Goliath, the Philistine you killed in the Elah Valley, is here wrapped in a cloth behind a priestly vest. If you want it, take it, because there are no other swords here." David said, "No sword is as good as that one! Give it to me!"

10 So David got up and continued running from Saul. He went to Achish, Gath's king.

11 Achish's servants said to him, "Isn't that David, king of the land? He's the one people sing about in their dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands!'"

12 David took these words very seriously and became very frightened of Achish, Gath's king.

13 So he changed the way he acted with them, pretending to be insane while he was with them. He scratched marks on the doors of the city gates and let spit run down his chin.

14 "Can't you see he's crazy?" Achish asked his servants. "Why bring him to me?

15 Am I short on insane people that you've brought this person to go crazy right in front of me? Do you really think I'm going to let this man enter my house?"

Luke 11:29-54

29 When the crowds grew, Jesus said, “This generation is an evil generation. It looks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except Jonah's sign.

30 Just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Human One will be a sign to this generation.

31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from a distant land to hear Solomon's wisdom. And look, someone greater than Solomon is here.

32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they changed their hearts and lives in response to Jonah's preaching—and one greater than Jonah is here.

33 "People don't light a lamp and then put it in a closet or under a basket. Rather, they place the lamp on a lampstand so that those who enter the house can see the light.

34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is full of darkness.

35 Therefore, see to it that the light in you isn't darkness.

36 If your whole body is full of light—with no part darkened—then it will be as full of light as when a lamp shines brightly on you."

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to share a meal with him, so Jesus went and took his place at the table.

38 When the Pharisee saw that Jesus didn't ritually purify his hands by washing before the meal, he was astonished.

39 The Lord said to him, “Now, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your insides are stuffed with greed and wickedness.

40 Foolish people! Didn't the one who made the outside also make the inside?

41 Therefore, give to those in need from the core of who you are and you will be clean all over.

42 “How terrible for you Pharisees! You give a tenth of your mint, rue, and garden herbs of all kinds, while neglecting justice and love for God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

43 “How terrible for you Pharisees! You love the most prominent seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

44 "How terrible for you! You are like unmarked graves, and people walk on them without recognizing it."

45 One of the legal experts responded, "Teacher, when you say these things, you are insulting us too."

46 Jesus said, “How terrible for you legal experts too! You load people down with impossible burdens and you refuse to lift a single finger to help them.

47 “How terrible for you! You built memorials to the prophets, whom your ancestors killed.

48 In this way, you testify that you approve of your ancestors' deeds. They killed the prophets, and you build memorials!

49 Therefore, God's wisdom has said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them and they will harass and kill some of them.'

50 As a result, this generation will be charged with the murder of all the prophets since the beginning of time.

51 This includes the murder of every prophet—from Abel to Zechariah—who was killed between the altar and the holy place. Yes, I'm telling you, this generation will be charged with it.

52 "How terrible for you legal experts! You snatched away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter yourselves, and you stood in the way of those who were entering."

53 As he left there, the legal experts and Pharisees began to resent him deeply and to ask him pointed questions about many things.

54 They plotted against him, trying to trap him in his words.