Monday 16 January 2006

16Then Samuel said to Saul,“Stay, and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

He said to him, “Say on.”

17Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight,weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel?The Lord anointed you king over Israel;18and the Lord sent you on a journey,and said, ‘Go,and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites,and fight against them until they are consumed.’19Why then didn’t you obey the Lord’s voice,but took the plunder,and did that which was evil in the Lord’s sight?”

20Saul said to Samuel,“But I have obeyed the Lord’s voice,and have gone the way which the Lord sent me,and have brought Agag the king of Amalek,and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.21But the people took of the plunder,sheep and cattle, the best of the devoted things,to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

22Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,as in obeying the Lord’s voice?Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,and to listen than the fat of rams.23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim.Because you have rejected the Lord’s word,he has also rejected you from being king.”

8I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices.Your burnt offerings are continually before me.9I have no need for a bull from your stall,nor male goats from your pens.

16But to the wicked God says,“What right do you have to declare my statutes,that you have taken my covenant on your lips,17since you hate instruction,and throw my words behind you?

21You have done these things, and I kept silent.You thought that I was just like you.I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.23Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

18John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting,and they came and asked him,“Why do John’s disciplesand the disciples of the Pharisees fast,but your disciples don’t fast?”

19Jesus said to them,“Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them?As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.20But the days will comewhen the bridegroom will be taken away from them,and then they will fast in that day.21No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment,or else the patch shrinksand the new tears away from the old,and a worse hole is made.22No one puts new wine into old wineskins;or else the new wine will burst the skins,and the wine pours out,and the skins will be destroyed;but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”