Tuesday 16 January 2024

1The Lord said to Samuel,“How long will you mourn for Saul,since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?Fill your horn with oil, and go.I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite,for I have provided a king for myself among his sons.”

2Samuel said, “How can I go?If Saul hears it, he will kill me.”

The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you,and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’3Call Jesse to the sacrifice,and I will show you what you shall do.You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.”

4Samuel did that which the Lord spoke,and came to Bethlehem.The elders of the city came to meet him trembling,and said, “Do you come peaceably?”

5He said, “Peaceably;I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.”He sanctified Jesse and his sons,and called them to the sacrifice.6When they had come,he looked at Eliab,and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”

7But the Lord said to Samuel,“Don’t look on his face,or on the height of his stature,because I have rejected him;for I don’t see as man sees.For man looks at the outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart.”

8Then Jesse called Abinadab,and made him pass before Samuel.He said, “The Lord has not chosen this one, either.”9Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by.He said, “The Lord has not chosen this one, either.”10Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”11Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your children here?”

He said, “There remains yet the youngest.Behold, he is keeping the sheep.”

Samuel said to Jesse,“Send and get him,for we will not sit down until he comes here.”

12He sent, and brought him in.Now he was ruddy, with a handsome faceand good appearance.The Lord said, “Arise!Anoint him, for this is he.”

13Then Samuel took the horn of oiland anointed him in the middle of his brothers.Then the Lord’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward.So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

20Then you spoke in vision to your saints,and said, “I have given strength to the warrior.I have exalted a young man from the people.

21I have found David, my servant.I have anointed him with my holy oil,22with whom my hand shall be established.My arm will also strengthen him.

27He will call to me, ‘You are my Father,my God, and the rock of my salvation!’28I will also appoint him my firstborn,the highest of the kings of the earth.

23He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields;and his disciples began,as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.24The Pharisees said to him,“Behold, why do they do thatwhich is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”

25He said to them, “Did you never read what David didwhen he had need and was hungry—he, and those who were with him?26How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest,and ate the show bread,which is not lawful to eat except for the priests,and gave also to those who were with him?”

27He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man,not man for the Sabbath.28Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”