Through the Bible – Day 97

₁Samuel told the Israelites:

₄“No,” the Israelites answered. “You've never cheated us in any way!”

₅Samuel said, “The LORD and his chosen king are witnesses to what you have said.”

“That's true,” they replied.

₆Then Samuel told them:

₁₈Samuel prayed, and that same day the LORD sent a thunderstorm. Everyone was afraid of the LORD and of Samuel. ₁₉They told Samuel, “Please, pray to the LORD your God for us! We don't want to die. We have sinned many times in the past, and we were very wrong to ask for a king.”

₂₀Samuel answered:

₁Saul was a young man when he became king, and he ruled Israel for two years. ₂Then he chose three thousand men from Israel to be full-time soldiers and sent everyone else home. Two thousand of these troops stayed with him in the hills around Michmash and Bethel. The other thousand were stationed with Jonathan at Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.

₃Jonathan led an attack on the Philistine army camp at Geba. The Philistine camp was destroyed, but the other Philistines heard what had happened. Then Saul told his messengers, “Go to every village in the country. Give a signal with the trumpet, and when the people come together, tell them what has happened.”

₄The messengers then said to the people of Israel, “Saul has destroyed the Philistine army camp at Geba. Now the Philistines really hate Israel, so every town and village must send men to join Saul's army at Gilgal.”

₅The Philistines called their army together to fight Israel. They had three thousand chariots, six thousand cavalry, and as many foot soldiers as there are grains of sand on the beach. They went to Michmash and set up camp there east of Beth-Aven.

₆The Israelite army realized that they were outnumbered and were going to lose the battle. Some of the Israelite men hid in caves or in clumps of bushes, and some ran to places where they could hide among large rocks. Others hid in tombs or in deep dry pits. ₇Still others went to Gad and Gilead on the other side of the River Jordan.

Saul stayed at Gilgal. His soldiers were shaking with fear, ₈and they were starting to run off and leave him. Saul waited there seven days, just as Samuel had ordered him to do, but Samuel did not come. ₉Finally, Saul commanded, “Bring me some animals, so we can offer sacrifices to please the LORD and ask for his help.”

Saul killed one of the animals, ₁₀and just as he was placing it on the altar, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to welcome him.

₁₁“What have you done?” Samuel asked.

Saul answered, “My soldiers were leaving in all directions, and you didn't come when you were supposed to. The Philistines were gathering at Michmash, ₁₂and I was worried that they would attack me here at Gilgal. I hadn't offered a sacrifice to ask for the LORD's help, so I forced myself to offer a sacrifice on the altar fire.”

₁₃“That was stupid!” Samuel said. “You didn't obey the LORD your God. If you had obeyed him, someone from your family would always have been king of Israel. ₁₄But no, you disobeyed, and so the LORD won't choose anyone else from your family to be king. In fact, he has already chosen the one he wants to be the next leader of his people.” ₁₅Then Samuel left Gilgal.

Part of Saul's army had not deserted him, and he led them to Gibeah in Benjamin to join his other troops. Then he counted them and found that he still had six hundred men. ₁₆Saul, Jonathan, and their army set up camp at Geba in Benjamin.

The Philistine army was camped at Michmash. ₁₇Each day they sent out patrols to attack and rob villages and then destroy them. One patrol would go north along the road to Ophrah in the region of Shual. ₁₈Another patrol would go west along the road to Beth-Horon. A third patrol would go east towards the desert on the road to the ridge that overlooks Zeboim Valley.

₁₉The Philistines would not allow any Israelites to learn how to make iron tools. “If we allowed that,” they said, “those worthless Israelites would make swords and spears.”

_20-21Whenever the Israelites wanted to get an iron point put on a cattle prod, they had to go to the Philistines. Even if they wanted to sharpen plough-blades, picks, axes, sickles, and pitchforks they still had to go to them. And the Philistines charged high prices. ₂₂So, whenever the Israelite soldiers had to go into battle, none of them had a sword or a spear except Saul and his son Jonathan. ₂₃The Philistines moved their camp to the pass at Michmash,

One day, Jonathan told the soldier who carried his weapons that he wanted to attack the Philistine camp on the other side of the valley. So they slipped out of the Israelite camp without anyone knowing it. Jonathan didn't even tell his father he was leaving.

_4-5Jonathan decided to get to the Philistine camp by going through the pass that led between Shiny Cliff and Michmash to the north and Thorn Bush Cliff and Geba to the south.

₆Jonathan and the soldier who carried his weapons talked as they went towards the Philistine camp. “It's just the two of us against all those godless men,” Jonathan said. “But the LORD can help a few soldiers win a battle just as easily as he can help a whole army. Perhaps the LORD will help us win this battle.”

₇“Do whatever you want,” the soldier answered. “I'll be with you.”

₈“This is what we will do,” Jonathan said. “We will go across and let them see us. ₉If they agree to come down the hill and fight where we are, then we won't climb up to their camp. ₁₀But we will go if they tell us to come up the hill and fight. That will mean the LORD is going to help us win.”

_11-12Jonathan and the soldier stood at the bottom of the hill where the Philistines could see them. The Philistines said, “Look! Those worthless Israelites have crawled out of the holes where they've been hiding.” Then they yelled down to Jonathan and the soldier, “Come up here, and we will teach you a thing or two!”

Jonathan turned to the soldier and said, “Follow me! The LORD is going to let us win.”

₁₃Jonathan crawled up the hillside with the soldier following him. When they got to the top, Jonathan killed the Philistines who attacked from the front, and the soldier killed those who attacked from behind. ₁₄Before they had gone thirty metres, they had killed about twenty Philistines.

₁₅The whole Philistine army panicked—those in camp, those on guard duty, those in the fields, and those on raiding patrols. All of them were afraid and confused. Then God sent an earthquake, and the ground began to tremble.

₁₉Jesus' mother and brothers went to see him, but because of the crowd they could not get near him. ₂₀Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see you.”

₂₁Jesus answered, “My mother and my brothers are those people who hear and obey God's message.”

₂₂One day, Jesus and his disciples got into a boat, and he said, “Let's cross the lake.” They started out, ₂₃and while they were sailing across, he went to sleep.

Suddenly a storm struck the lake, and the boat started sinking. They were in danger. ₂₄So they went to Jesus and woke him up, “Master, Master! We are about to drown!”

Jesus got up and ordered the wind and waves to stop. They obeyed, and everything was calm. ₂₅Then Jesus asked the disciples, “Don't you have any faith?”

But they were frightened and amazed. They said to each other, “Who is this? He can give orders to the wind and the waves, and they obey him!”

₂₆Jesus and his disciples sailed across Lake Galilee and came to shore near the town of Gerasa. ₂₇As Jesus was getting out of the boat, he was met by a man from that town. The man had demons in him. He had gone naked for a long time and no longer lived in a house, but in the graveyard.

₂₈The man saw Jesus and screamed. He knelt down in front of him and shouted, “Jesus, Son of God in heaven, what do you want with me? I beg you not to torture me!” ₂₉He said this because Jesus had already told the evil spirit to go out of him.

The man had often been attacked by the demon. And even though he had been bound with chains and leg irons and kept under guard, he smashed whatever bound him. Then the demon would force him out into lonely places.

₃₀Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?”

He answered, “My name is Lots.” He said this because there were ‘lots’ of demons in him. ₃₁They begged Jesus not to send them to the deep pit, where they would be punished.

₃₂A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. So the demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and Jesus let them go. ₃₃Then the demons left the man and went into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

₃₄When the men taking care of the pigs saw this, they ran to spread the news in the town and on the farms. ₃₅The people went out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they also found the man. The demons had gone out of him, and he was sitting there at the feet of Jesus. He had clothes on and was in his right mind. But the people were terrified.

₃₆Then all who had seen the man healed told about it. ₃₇Everyone from around Gerasa begged Jesus to leave, because they were so frightened.

When Jesus got into the boat to start back, ₃₈the man who had been healed begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him off and said, ₃₉“Go back home and tell everyone how much God has done for you.” The man then went all over town, telling everything that Jesus had done for him.