Podcasts about so gideon

Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.” So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.” Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. Judges 6:11‭-‬27 NKJV --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pastor-lucy-paynter/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pastor-lucy-paynter/support

The story of Gideon Jgs 6:11-24a The angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites, the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, O champion!” Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers told us when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' For now the LORD has abandoned us and has delivered us into the power of Midian.” The LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have and save Israel from the power of Midian. It is I who send you.” But Gideon answered him, “Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the lowliest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's house.” “I shall be with you,” the LORD said to him, “and you will cut down Midian to the last man.” Gideon answered him, “If I find favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me. Do not depart from here, I pray you, until I come back to you and bring out my offering and set it before you.” He answered, “I will await your return.” So Gideon went off and prepared a kid and a measure of flour in the form of unleavened cakes. Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out to him under the terebinth and presented them. The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock; then pour out the broth.” When he had done so, the angel of the LORD stretched out the tip of the staff he held, and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Thereupon a fire came up from the rock that consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the angel of the LORD disappeared from sight. Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the LORD, said, “Alas, Lord GOD, that I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” The LORD answered him, “Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die.” So Gideon built there an altar to the LORD and called it Yahweh-shalom.Psalm 85:9, 11-12, 13-14 R. (see 9b) The Lord speaks of peace to his people. I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD–for he proclaims peace To his people, and to his faithful ones, and to those who put in him their hope. Mt 19:23-30 Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sofia-fonseca7/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sofia-fonseca7/support

Psalms and Wisdom: Song of Solomon 6:4–12 Song of Solomon 6:4–12 (Listen) Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other He 4   You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,    lovely as Jerusalem,    awesome as an army with banners.5   Turn away your eyes from me,    for they overwhelm me—  Your hair is like a flock of goats    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.6   Your teeth are like a flock of ewes    that have come up from the washing;  all of them bear twins;    not one among them has lost its young.7   Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate    behind your veil.8   There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,    and virgins without number.9   My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,    the only one of her mother,    pure to her who bore her.  The young women saw her and called her blessed;    the queens and concubines also, and they praised her. 10   “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,    beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,    awesome as an army with banners?” She 11   I went down to the nut orchard    to look at the blossoms of the valley,  to see whether the vines had budded,    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.12   Before I was aware, my desire set me    among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.1 Footnotes [1] 6:12 Or chariots of Ammi-Nadib (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Judges 8 Judges 8 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?'” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon's Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Jeremiah 24 Jeremiah 24 (Listen) The Good Figs and the Bad Figs 24 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. 2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” 4 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. 8 “But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them a horror1 to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” Footnotes [1] 24:9 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Hebrews 7 Hebrews 7 (Listen) The Priestly Order of Melchizedek 7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. 4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers,1 though these also are descended from Abraham. 6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. Jesus Compared to Melchizedek 11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him,   “You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. 20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:   “The Lord has sworn    and will not change his mind,  ‘You are a priest forever.'” 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost2 those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. Footnotes [1] 7:5 Or brothers and sisters [2] 7:25 That is, completely; or at all times (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Song of Solomon 5:10–6:3 Song of Solomon 5:10–6:3 (Listen) The Bride Praises Her Beloved She 10   My beloved is radiant and ruddy,    distinguished among ten thousand.11   His head is the finest gold;    his locks are wavy,    black as a raven.12   His eyes are like doves    beside streams of water,  bathed in milk,    sitting beside a full pool.113   His cheeks are like beds of spices,    mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.  His lips are lilies,    dripping liquid myrrh.14   His arms are rods of gold,    set with jewels.  His body is polished ivory,2    bedecked with sapphires.315   His legs are alabaster columns,    set on bases of gold.  His appearance is like Lebanon,    choice as the cedars.16   His mouth4 is most sweet,    and he is altogether desirable.  This is my beloved and this is my friend,    O daughters of Jerusalem. Others 6   Where has your beloved gone,    O most beautiful among women?  Where has your beloved turned,    that we may seek him with you? Together in the Garden of Love She 2   My beloved has gone down to his garden    to the beds of spices,  to graze5 in the gardens    and to gather lilies.3   I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine;    he grazes among the lilies. Footnotes [1] 5:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [2] 5:14 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [3] 5:14 Hebrew lapis lazuli [4] 5:16 Hebrew palate [5] 6:2 Or to pasture his flock; also verse 3 (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Judges 7 Judges 7 (Listen) Gideon's Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.' 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,' shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,' shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.'” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,1 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Jeremiah 23:9–40 Jeremiah 23:9–40 (Listen) Lying Prophets 9 Concerning the prophets:   My heart is broken within me;    all my bones shake;  I am like a drunken man,    like a man overcome by wine,  because of the LORD    and because of his holy words.10   For the land is full of adulterers;    because of the curse the land mourns,    and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.  Their course is evil,    and their might is not right.11   “Both prophet and priest are ungodly;    even in my house I have found their evil,      declares the LORD.12   Therefore their way shall be to them    like slippery paths in the darkness,    into which they shall be driven and fall,  for I will bring disaster upon them    in the year of their punishment,      declares the LORD.13   In the prophets of Samaria    I saw an unsavory thing:  they prophesied by Baal    and led my people Israel astray.14   But in the prophets of Jerusalem    I have seen a horrible thing:  they commit adultery and walk in lies;    they strengthen the hands of evildoers,    so that no one turns from his evil;  all of them have become like Sodom to me,    and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”15   Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets:  “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food    and give them poisoned water to drink,  for from the prophets of Jerusalem    ungodliness has gone out into all the land.” 16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.'” 18   For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD    to see and to hear his word,    or who has paid attention to his word and listened?19   Behold, the storm of the LORD!    Wrath has gone forth,  a whirling tempest;    it will burst upon the head of the wicked.20   The anger of the LORD will not turn back    until he has executed and accomplished    the intents of his heart.  In the latter days you will understand it clearly. 21   “I did not send the prophets,    yet they ran;  I did not speak to them,    yet they prophesied.22   But if they had stood in my council,    then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,  and they would have turned them from their evil way,    and from the evil of their deeds. 23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.' 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD. 33 “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?' you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,1 and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.' 34 And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household. 35 Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?' or ‘What has the LORD spoken?' 36 But ‘the burden of the LORD' you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?' or ‘What has the LORD spoken?' 38 But if you say, ‘The burden of the LORD,' thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the LORD,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the LORD,'” 39 therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up2 and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.'” Footnotes [1] 23:33 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew What burden? [2] 23:39 Or surely forget you (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Hebrews 5:11–6:20 Hebrews 5:11–6:20 (Listen) Warning Against Apostasy 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 6 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings,1 the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The Certainty of God's Promise 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham,2 having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Footnotes [1] 6:2 Or baptisms (that is, cleansing rites) [2] 6:15 Greek he (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Song of Solomon 5:2–9 Song of Solomon 5:2–9 (Listen) The Bride Searches for Her Beloved She 2   I slept, but my heart was awake.  A sound! My beloved is knocking.  “Open to me, my sister, my love,    my dove, my perfect one,  for my head is wet with dew,    my locks with the drops of the night.”3   I had put off my garment;    how could I put it on?  I had bathed my feet;    how could I soil them?4   My beloved put his hand to the latch,    and my heart was thrilled within me.5   I arose to open to my beloved,    and my hands dripped with myrrh,  my fingers with liquid myrrh,    on the handles of the bolt.6   I opened to my beloved,    but my beloved had turned and gone.  My soul failed me when he spoke.  I sought him, but found him not;    I called him, but he gave no answer.7   The watchmen found me    as they went about in the city;  they beat me, they bruised me,    they took away my veil,    those watchmen of the walls.8   I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,    if you find my beloved,  that you tell him    I am sick with love. Others 9   What is your beloved more than another beloved,    O most beautiful among women?  What is your beloved more than another beloved,    that you thus adjure us? (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Judges 6 Judges 6 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Jeremiah 22–23:8 Jeremiah 22–23:8 (Listen) 22 Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:   “‘You are like Gilead to me,    like the summit of Lebanon,  yet surely I will make you a desert,    an uninhabited city.17   I will prepare destroyers against you,    each with his weapons,  and they shall cut down your choicest cedars    and cast them into the fire. 8 “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” 9 And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”'” 10   Weep not for him who is dead,    nor grieve for him,  but weep bitterly for him who goes away,    for he shall return no more    to see his native land. Message to the Sons of Josiah 11 For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12 but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.” 13   “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,    and his upper rooms by injustice,  who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing    and does not give him his wages,14   who says, ‘I will build myself a great house    with spacious upper rooms,'  who cuts out windows for it,    paneling it with cedar    and painting it with vermilion.15   Do you think you are a king    because you compete in cedar?  Did not your father eat and drink    and do justice and righteousness?    Then it was well with him.16   He judged the cause of the poor and needy;    then it was well.  Is not this to know me?    declares the LORD.17   But you have eyes and heart    only for your dishonest gain,  for shedding innocent blood,    and for practicing oppression and violence.” 18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:   “They shall not lament for him, saying,    ‘Ah, my brother!' or ‘Ah, sister!'  They shall not lament for him, saying,    ‘Ah, lord!' or ‘Ah, his majesty!'19   With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried,    dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” 20   “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,    and lift up your voice in Bashan;  cry out from Abarim,    for all your lovers are destroyed.21   I spoke to you in your prosperity,    but you said, ‘I will not listen.'  This has been your way from your youth,    that you have not obeyed my voice.22   The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,    and your lovers shall go into captivity;  then you will be ashamed and confounded    because of all your evil.23   O inhabitant of Lebanon,    nested among the cedars,  how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,    pain as of a woman in labor!” 24 “As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.” 28   Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,    a vessel no one cares for?  Why are he and his children hurled and cast    into a land that they do not know?29   O land, land, land,    hear the word of the LORD!30   Thus says the LORD:  “Write this man down as childless,    a man who shall not succeed in his days,  for none of his offspring shall succeed    in sitting on the throne of David    and ruling again in Judah.” The Righteous Branch 23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. 5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.' 7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' 8 but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he2 had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land.” Footnotes [1] 22:6 Hebrew cities [2] 23:8 Septuagint; Hebrew I (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Hebrews 4:14–5:10 Hebrews 4:14–5:10 (Listen) Jesus the Great High Priest 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 5 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,   “You are my Son,    today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place,   “You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus1 offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Footnotes [1] 5:7 Greek he (ESV)

With family: Judges 8; Acts 12 Judges 8 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?'” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon's Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins (ESV) Acts 12 (Listen) James Killed and Peter Imprisoned 12 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Peter Is Rescued 6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.”1 Then he departed and went to another place. 18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. The Death of Herod 20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain,2 they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. 24 But the word of God increased and multiplied. 25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from3 Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Footnotes [1] 12:17 Or brothers and sisters [2] 12:20 That is, trusted personal attendant [3] 12:25 Some manuscripts to (ESV) In private: Jeremiah 21; Mark 7 Jeremiah 21 (Listen) Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar 21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar1 king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.” 3 Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. 5 I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. 6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. 7 Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.' 8 “And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. 10 For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.' Message to the House of David 11 “And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David! Thus says the LORD:   “‘Execute justice in the morning,    and deliver from the hand of the oppressor    him who has been robbed,  lest my wrath go forth like fire,    and burn with none to quench it,    because of your evil deeds.'” 13   “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,    O rock of the plain,      declares the LORD;  you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us,    or who shall enter our habitations?'14   I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,      declares the LORD;    I will kindle a fire in her forest,    and it shall devour all that is around her.” Footnotes [1] 21:2 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, an alternate spelling of Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) occurring frequently from Jeremiah 21–52; this latter spelling is used throughout Jeremiah for consistency (ESV) Mark 7 (Listen) Traditions and Commandments 7 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,1 holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.2 And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.3) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,   “‘This people honors me with their lips,    but their heart is far from me;7   in vain do they worship me,    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother'; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”' (that is, given to God)4—12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” What Defiles a Person 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”5 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”6 (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith 24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.7 And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Jesus Heals a Deaf Man 31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And Jesus8 charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Footnotes [1] 7:3 Greek unless they wash the hands with a fist, probably indicating a kind of ceremonial washing [2] 7:4 Greek unless they baptize; some manuscripts unless they purify themselves [3] 7:4 Some manuscripts omit and dining couches [4] 7:11 Or an offering [5] 7:15 Some manuscripts add verse 16: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear [6] 7:19 Greek goes out into the latrine [7] 7:24 Some manuscripts omit and Sidon [8] 7:36 Greek he (ESV)

With family: Judges 7; Acts 11 Judges 7 (Listen) Gideon's Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.' 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,' shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,' shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.'” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,1 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV) Acts 11 (Listen) Peter Reports to the Church 11 Now the apostles and the brothers1 who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party2 criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.' 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.' 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” The Church in Antioch 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists3 also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. 27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers4 living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Footnotes [1] 11:1 Or brothers and sisters [2] 11:2 Or Jerusalem, those of the circumcision [3] 11:20 Or Greeks (that is, Greek-speaking non-Jews) [4] 11:29 Or brothers and sisters (ESV) In private: Jeremiah 20; Mark 6 Jeremiah 20 (Listen) Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur 20 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.” 7   O LORD, you have deceived me,    and I was deceived;  you are stronger than I,    and you have prevailed.  I have become a laughingstock all the day;    everyone mocks me.8   For whenever I speak, I cry out,    I shout, “Violence and destruction!”  For the word of the LORD has become for me    a reproach and derision all day long.9   If I say, “I will not mention him,    or speak any more in his name,”  there is in my heart as it were a burning fire    shut up in my bones,  and I am weary with holding it in,    and I cannot.10   For I hear many whispering.    Terror is on every side!  “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”    say all my close friends,    watching for my fall.  “Perhaps he will be deceived;    then we can overcome him    and take our revenge on him.”11   But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;    therefore my persecutors will stumble;    they will not overcome me.  They will be greatly shamed,    for they will not succeed.  Their eternal dishonor    will never be forgotten.12   O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,    who sees the heart and the mind,1  let me see your vengeance upon them,    for to you have I committed my cause. 13   Sing to the LORD;    praise the LORD!  For he has delivered the life of the needy    from the hand of evildoers. 14   Cursed be the day    on which I was born!  The day when my mother bore me,    let it not be blessed!15   Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,  “A son is born to you,”    making him very glad.16   Let that man be like the cities    that the LORD overthrew without pity;  let him hear a cry in the morning    and an alarm at noon,17   because he did not kill me in the womb;    so my mother would have been my grave,    and her womb forever great.18   Why did I come out from the womb    to see toil and sorrow,    and spend my days in shame? Footnotes [1] 20:12 Hebrew kidneys (ESV) Mark 6 (Listen) Jesus Rejected at Nazareth 6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles 7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.1 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. The Death of John the Baptist 14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus'2 name had become known. Some3 said, “John the Baptist4 has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. 21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” 24 And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's5 head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28 and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand 30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii6 worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. Jesus Walks on the Water 45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night7 he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. Footnotes [1] 6:9 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin [2] 6:14 Greek his [3] 6:14 Some manuscripts He [4] 6:14 Greek baptizer; also verse 24 [5] 6:27 Greek his [6] 6:37 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [7] 6:48 That is, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. (ESV)

With family: Judges 6; Acts 10 Judges 6 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he (ESV) Acts 10 (Listen) Peter and Cornelius 10 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day1 he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. Peter's Vision 9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour2 to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. 17 Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate 18 and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. 19 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation,3 for I have sent them.” 21 And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” 22 And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” 23 So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. 24 And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.” 30 And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour,4 and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing 31 and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.' 33 So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.” Gentiles Hear the Good News 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles 44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. Footnotes [1] 10:3 That is, 3 p.m. [2] 10:9 That is, noon [3] 10:20 Or accompany them, making no distinction [4] 10:30 That is, 3 p.m. (ESV) In private: Jeremiah 19; Mark 5 Jeremiah 19 (Listen) The Broken Flask 19 Thus says the LORD, “Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.' 10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.'” 14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.” (ESV) Mark 5 (Listen) Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon 5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.1 2 And when Jesus2 had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. 14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed3 man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus4 to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus's Daughter 21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?'” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing5 what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus6 saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. Footnotes [1] 5:1 Some manuscripts Gergesenes; some Gadarenes [2] 5:2 Greek he; also verse 9 [3] 5:15 Greek daimonizomai (demonized); also verses 16, 18; elsewhere rendered oppressed by demons [4] 5:17 Greek him [5] 5:36 Or ignoring; some manuscripts hearing [6] 5:38 Greek he (ESV)

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the...

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the...

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the...

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the...

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 140 Lessons from their lives Talk 6: Gideon (Part 3) - Raising up an army Welcome to talk 6 in our series Lessons from their lives. Today we've reached the final section of our talks on Gideon. So far we've seen how when God's people were in defeat because they had disobeyed the Lord, when they turned back to him God raised up a leader. Last time we saw three things that were essential in preparing for victory: Destroying your idols The power of the Spirit Finding the will of God. Today we're in Judges 7. Our subject is Raising up an army and we'll be considering the men and methods God uses in bringing his people into victory. To save time, rather than reading the whole chapter, here's a quick summary:   God tells Gideon that he has too many people in his army. He doesn't want Israel to boast that her own strength has saved her. He tells Gideon to send away everyone who is fearful and 22,000 leave, reducing the army to 10,000.   But God says it's still too many! The men are to be taken down to the water and selected according to the way they drink - more of this later. As a result Gideon is left with just 300 men.   During the night God tells Gideon, if he's afraid, to go down to the Midianite camp and listen to what they're saying. Gideon arrives just as a man is telling his friend his dream in which a round loaf tumbled into the Midianite camp and overturned it. His friend interprets the dream as meaning that God has given Gideon victory over the Midianites.   This encourages Gideon and he prepares to attack. He divides his men into three companies of 100 men. Each man is given a trumpet and an empty jar with a torch inside. Following Gideon's lead they go to the edge of the enemy's camp and simultaneously smash the jars and shout, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon'. The Midianites flee and the Israelites are victorious.   So, what can we learn from this story about the men and methods God uses in bringing his people into victory? It's very clear that doing things God's way is the only guarantee of success.   The Men God chooses   Those who are courageous   3 Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back   It's not surprising that people were afraid. The enemy was very powerful:   12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.   But there's a difference between being afraid and trembling with fear. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is acting despite your fear. It's clear from verse 10 that even Gideon was fearful but the assurance of God's presence is the antidote to fear 6:11 The Lord is with you mighty warrior.   How often does God remind us of what he has told us many times? Cf. Hebrews 13:5-6 5 ... be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 6 So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"   Fear can be incapacitating! But we don't have to let it. The Lord is with us.   Now let's look at vv 5-7.   5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." 6 Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 7 The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place."   To be honest, the precise details are not quite clear here, but the NLT summarises as follows: When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, “Divide the men into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.”   So the men are separated into two groups:   those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream   Now this may have just been God's way of reducing the army to the size he wanted, but it's also possible that the way they drank revealed something about their character. One way of interpreting this is as follows:   GROUP A Why did God choose these? Have you ever noticed how a dog drinks? With its eyes always open for the enemy. This suggests to me that God uses those who are disciplined.   GROUP B Why did God reject these? Drinking water is a legitimate exercise. Indeed, it's essential! But it's not something we should bow down to. There are many legitimate things in our lives, less essential than water, that can, if we're not careful, become a barrier to our service for the Lord if we let them become the controlling motivation for our actions. This suggests to me that God uses those who do not bow down to the legitimate. They are totally dedicated to the task.   So God uses those who are courageous and disciplined and totally dedicated.   The methods God uses   He wants us to rely totally on him   2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her   He continually encourages and guides us   9 During that night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp."   He even uses the enemy to bring about his purposes   13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed." 14 His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands."   He has a unique solution for every situation   16 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.   He has a right moment for everything   17 "Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. 18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.'" 19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!"   He expects us to know our place and to follow the leaders he has appointed   17 "Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.   21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.   He works with us   22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled...     He guarantees us victory 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders (AV princes), Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.   The princes were taken Satan will be destroyed Jesus has already won the victory!          

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 139 Lessons from their lives Talk 5: Gideon (Part 2) - Preparing for Victory   Welcome to talk 5 in our series Lessons from their lives. Today we're continuing with Gideon. Looking at Judges 6, we saw last time that God's people were:   On the defensive In hiding Engaged in unproductive activity Sowing much and reaping little Impoverished Experiencing no miracles   We saw that the apparent cause of the problem was the Midianites but that the real cause was that they had done evil in the eyes of the Lord. They had not listened to him. However, when they cried to the Lord, he raised up a leader. We noted that Gideon: Was just like the rest – in hiding Had very little faith Was aware of his own inadequacy Needed lots of reassurance   In response to this, God: revealed himself to Gideon reassured him of his presence told him to go and promised him success confirmed his word supernaturally   We now turn to verses 25-40 which I have called:   Preparing for Victory In this passage we discover three keys to preparing for victory: Destroying your idols The power of the Spirit Finding the will of God   Destroying your idols (vv25-31)   In this section God tells Gideon to tear down his father's altar to Baal and build a proper kind of altar to the Lord. Gideon does so secretly by night as he's afraid of what his family and men of the town might do to him. Indeed when they discover what's happened, the men of the town want to put him to death, but his father speaks up for him and says:   Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? ...If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar (v31). An idol may be defined as anything that takes the place of God in our lives. Please bear this in mind as we consider:   The extent of their idolatry How to overcome idolatry   The extent of their idolatry (25-30)   25 That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.   They had built an altar to their idol. An altar is a place of sacrifice.   27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.   They were devoted to it. Gideon was afraid of them.   31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him?   They were prepared to defend their idol.   How to overcome idolatry (25-26)   Count the cost of destroying it - Gideon was afraid, but he did it! In doing so he risked his life. Make a clean break with it - tear it down! (v25). But you may need to work at it. It would have taken Gideon some time to cut it down. If you need to, get other people to help you. Gideon took 10 men (v27). Make a fresh start working for God. Build a proper kind of altar to the Lord (v26)   This implies work and sacrifice! The Power of the Spirit (vv33-35) 33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.   The enemy regroups – he always will when we start destroying idols   But the Spirit comes upon Gideon (Heb: clothed). Cf. Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8 And Gideon blows a trumpet There is an audible evidence when the Spirit comes upon us (cf. tongues – testimony – praise – proclamation)     Finding the Will of God (vv36-40) 36 Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew--a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.   Gideon's doubt (36) Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised... (Was it doubt or was it fear?! Fear often causes doubt).   God's patience (38, 40)   A word about ‘fleeces' The Spirit came upon Gideon. He indwells us as Christians. Should we need ‘fleeces'?   The will of God is revealed: In his Word Through circumstances By peace in our hearts (Col.3:15) By direct revelation (Philip, Cornelius etc.) By our total surrender (Romans 12:1-2)

Morning: Exodus 25:21–22; Matthew 27:50–51; Romans 3:24–25; Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 9:8; Hebrews 10:19–20; Hebrews 10:22 “And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark…. There I will meet with you.” The way into the holy places is not yet opened.—And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.—Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. . . . Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.—Through him we… have access in one Spirit to the Father. Exodus 25:21–22 (Listen) 21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. (ESV) Matthew 27:50–51 (Listen) 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. (ESV) Romans 3:24–25 (Listen) 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (ESV) Ephesians 2:18 (Listen) 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (ESV) Hebrews 4:16 (Listen) 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (ESV) Hebrews 9:8 (Listen) 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (ESV) Hebrews 10:19–20 (Listen) The Full Assurance of Faith 19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, Footnotes [1] 10:19 Or brothers and sisters (ESV) Hebrews 10:22 (Listen) 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (ESV) Evening: Judges 4:8; Judges 4:23; Judges 6:27; Judges 6:36; Judges 6:39–40; Hosea 14:5–6; Zechariah 4:10; Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; Revelation 3:8 “Faith like a grain of mustard seed.” Barak said to [Deborah], “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel.—Gideon… was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night…. Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said,… Please let me test… with the fleece…” And God did so. “I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”—Whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly.—“Increase our faith!”—I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. Judges 4:8 (Listen) 8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” (ESV) Judges 4:23 (Listen) 23 So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. (ESV) Judges 6:27 (Listen) 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. (ESV) Judges 6:36 (Listen) The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, (ESV) Judges 6:39–40 (Listen) 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. (ESV) Hosea 14:5–6 (Listen) 5   I will be like the dew to Israel;    he shall blossom like the lily;    he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;6   his shoots shall spread out;    his beauty shall be like the olive,    and his fragrance like Lebanon. (ESV) Zechariah 4:10 (Listen) 10 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.” (ESV) Matthew 17:20 (Listen) 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”1 Footnotes [1] 17:20 Some manuscripts insert verse 21: But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting (ESV) Luke 17:5 (Listen) Increase Our Faith 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (ESV) 2 Thessalonians 1:3 (Listen) Thanksgiving 3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers,1 as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Footnotes [1] 1:3 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters (ESV) Revelation 3:8 (Listen) 8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. (ESV)

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 138 Lessons from their lives talk 4: Gideon   Welcome to Talk 4 in our series Lessons from their lives. Today we're talking about Gideon. In fact I have so much material on Gideon that it will take three talks to cover the subject. But it's an important one. God used Gideon to lead his people from a place of defeat to a place of victory, and there are so many lessons we can learn from his story that are very relevant to our situation today.   There are times in our Christian experience when it seems that everything is against us. Nothing seems to go right. Such occasions are opportunities for us to rise up in faith. But if we're not careful, instead of doing so, we slide into defeat. The Book of Judges tells us of one such occasion. We'll be looking at chapters 6-7. We will see how God uses a most unlikely person to lead his people into victory. Although our enemy is spiritual rather than physical, there are many lessons we can learn from the story of Gideon. We'll take two talks to cover the subject which I've divided into four sections:   God's people in defeat God raises up a leader Preparing for victory Raising up an army   We'll deal with the first two headings today and then take two further talks to deal with #3 and #4. So today we'll start with God's people in defeat and we'll begin by reading Judges 6:1-6 which give us a graphic picture of the symptoms of defeat.     God's People in Defeat (6:1-10)   The symptoms of defeat (1-6)   1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.   In this passage we see that God's people were:   On the defensive (v2) - prepared shelters for themselves In hiding (v2) - mountain clefts, caves and strongholds Engaged in unproductive activity (v3-4) Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites...ruined the crops Sowing much and reaping little (cf. Haggai 1:6) Impoverished (v6) Midian so impoverished the Israelites What a tragedy in the light of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 where God promises his people victory over their enemies and prosperity if only they will obey him Experiencing no miracles happening (v13) Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about?   b) The cause of their defeat   The Apparent Cause – the Midianites v.2 the power of Midian was so oppressive v.6 Midian... impoverished the Israelites   The Real Cause – themselves v.1 the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD v.10 you have not listened to me   It's easy to blame the enemy, or other people, but God doesn't want us to be in bondage to anyone. If we are, it's our fault!   c) The remedy for defeat   They cried to the Lord (vv 6-8) 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.   God sends a prophet 7 When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet   The prophet reminded them of what God had done for them in the past and told them what they were doing wrong (8-10) But he did not only send a prophet. He raised up a leader.               God raises up a leader (6:11-24)    a) The Leader God chose   Just like the rest – in hiding   v.11 Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.   Had very little faith   12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." 13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."   Aware of his own inadequacy   v.15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."   Humility is appropriate, but we mustn't limit God.   Needed lots of reassurance   v.17 If now I have found favour in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me Cf. v.36 – if you will save Israel by my hand    b) God's Answer   He revealed himself to Gideon   v.12 - the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon the angel was the Lord himself Cf. vv. 14 & 16   He reassured him of his presence   v.12 - "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." Both apparently untrue! The Lord did not appear to be with Israel. Gideon did not feel like a mighty warrior! But God sees us as we are IN HIM Note the plurals in v.13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."   But note the singular in v. 12 and v. 16. "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together (AV as one man) To be a leader it must be enough to know that God is with ME   He told him to go and promised him success (vv.14+16)   14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" 16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."   He confirmed his word In v.17 Gideon asks for a sign. He hadn't seen any miracles (13) So God grants him the sign he asks for:   17 Gideon replied, "If now I have found favour in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return."   When Gideon comes back and presents his offering to the angel, the angel touches it with the tip of his staff and fire flares up and consumes the offering. Then the angel disappears (21).   22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" 23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." 24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.   Note: The sign followed a sacrifice (17-21) The supernatural manifestation of God's presence had departed (21) but God was still with him (23) How foolish Gideon's fear was (22-23)

GIDEON GETTING FAITH Hebrews 11:32 And what more do I need to say? It would take a long time for me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, ruled the people well, obtained promises, kept from harm in dens of lions, and in a furnace of fire, escaped death by the sword, and out of weakness were made strong ‘Out of weakness and being made strong' was how Gideon learned how to respond to God in faith. He thought ‘I'm not worthy so God would not bother with me'. He had to learn and to understand the partnership arrangement that God desired to have with him. This message of Gideon getting faith is also God's message to each one of us, where life and power can be released into any situation through our faith partnership with Jesus, which is simply trusting that God is at work for good in the situation.  We learn to focus upon the fact that God invites us into that partnership with him.  Gideon's response to God's invitation. Judges 6:11 Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress Not where wheat was usually threshed!, in order to hide it from the Midianites (which were an oppressive nation that God had used to punish Israel for seven years because of their continual disobedience). And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” There is a lot of ‘O, if, but, why, where,' in there. That is because Gideon had a very low estimation of himself and he also underestimates God's desire to have us work with him. God has to remind Gideon that salvation is his idea and that he will accomplish what he sets out to do and we will have the privilege to be part of what he is doing. So God overrides the ‘O, if, but, why, where,' and tells him to get on with it. Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” Gideon makes one more attempt to wriggle out of the assignment and explains his lack of status and qualifications to God and outlines his CV that identifies him as unemployable. Judges 6:15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” But God shuts down Gideon's resistance by assuring Gideon that all he needs to know is that God will be with him and that the project will succeed.  And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” Then Gideon does certain sacrificial offerings as directed by the Angel of The Lord.  Judges 6:24 And Gideon built an altar there and named it ‘The Altar of Peace with Jehovah' (peace speaks of oneness with God) and he burned down the altars of Baal (burning the  idols was the signal to all of Israel about trusting only in God).  Vs.33 Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and other neighboring nations united in one vast alliance against Israel. They crossed the Jordan and camped in the valley of Jezreel.  Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet as a call to arms, and the men of Abiezer came to him. He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their fighting forces, and all these tribes responded. So Gideon has amassed a vast army of 32,000 men and The Lord said ‘Sorry Gideon, that's too many'. Judges 7:3 If you win, Israel will boast that it was because of their massive army – so tell any of them that are scared to go back home, and 22,000 went home, and there were 10,000 left. But the Lord told Gideon, ‘There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring and I'll show you which ones shall go with you and which ones shall not.' So Gideon assembled them at the water. There the Lord told him, ‘Divide them into two groups decided by the way they drink. In Group 1 will be all the men who cup the water in their hands to get it to their mouths and lap it up. In Group 2 will be those who kneel, with their mouths in the stream.' Only three hundred of the men drank from their cupped hands; all the others drank with their mouths to the stream. So God said ‘I'll conquer the Midianites with these three hundred! Send all the others home!' God then instructed Gideon to take his servant down into the vast valley and creep into the enemy camp where many thousands of them had swarmed within the entire countryside like the sand upon the seashore, and the camels were too many to count. When they got close enough they heard one soldier telling his friend that he had had a dream that they would all be defeated by Gideon and massacred. Judges 7:24 When Gideon heard the man talking about the dream all he could do was just stand there worshiping God! Then he returned to his men and shouted," Get up! For the Lord is going to use you to conquer all the vast armies of Midian!" He divided the three hundred men into three groups and gave each man a trumpet and a clay jar with a torch in it. Then he explained his plan. 'When we arrive at the outer guardposts of the camp (on high ground) do just as I do. As soon as I and the men in my group blow our trumpets, you blow yours on all sides of the camp and shout, ‘We fight for God and for Gideon!' Suddenly they blew their trumpets and broke their clay jars so that their torches blazed into the night. Then the other two hundred of his men did the same, blowing the trumpets in their right hands, and holding the flaming torches in their left hands, all shouting, "For the Lord and for Gideon!" Then they just stood and watched as the whole vast enemy army began rushing around in a panic, shouting and running away. For in the confusion the Lord caused the enemy troops to begin fighting and killing each other from one end of the camp to the other, and they fled into the night to places far far away…  It is amazing to see the intervention of God as he works in partnership with Gideon. He is told to do some simple things that whittle down Gideon's chances of seeing the victory as anything else but God's strategic wisdom and God's supernatural power. He will do the same with us as we accept that God wishes to break through our everyday routine lives and manifest the riches of his wisdom and power through us.   We are not going to be told to do anything as mad as what Gideon had to do but we can expect God to put us into everyday situations where God puts it into our hearts to do simple and often little surprising things that express his heart of love and peace and blessing, and his wisdom will be seen to act. Those promptings are signs of the intervention of Jesus in his vision for our lives of partnership and friendship with him. The amazing interventions of God for Gideon were made for the express purpose of showing Gideon that the work was of God and not of him. We saw this with the peace offering he had to offer on the altar, which spoke of his oneness with God, and burning the  idols - the signal for all Israel about trusting only in God. That was the starting point. All the other signs were framed within situations where the conditions were turned from one extreme to the other, to show Gideon that it was not in his strength but in God's; He went from 32,000 troops to 300; the battle became one of the enemy fighting against one another instead of fighting against Israel; the reason for the confusion of the enemy was that one man had a dream that Gideon's army would annihilate them and they had better flee, and his panic threw panic into all of them - and that was all God's work, not some smart strategic negotiation from General Gideon, who blew a trumpet and ran down a hill with  300 men all shouting and carrying vessels full of fire that they smashed to pieces as they ran.  All of these signs were tests of faith set up for Gideon by God. However there was one test that was set up by Gideon for God, very early in the story; and that was the riddle of the sign of the fleece. This happened before he sent out the messages to gather all the tribes of Israel together. It was when God said that Gideon would have an army that would defeat the Midianites as one man. Judges 6:36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. This test was also framed within a situation where the conditions were turned from one extreme to the other; the fleece had to be either wet or dry according to Gideon's request. The Bible makes no comment about why this was the request or even about what Gideon thought or said afterwards, or what God said. It just happened - and Gideon got faith – God' s faith.  In simple terms, a fleece of wool can only exist if a lamb has been slain/sacrificed. This is prophetic for us of Jesus, who gives us HIS faith for every situation  Galatians 2:20 … the life I now live, I live by the faith OF the Son of God…. No matter what the extremes are of our circumstances, or how little faith we have that things will work out for good, the reality of our faith is our trust in the faith of Jesus who asks the Father on our behalf for his good will to be done.  The fleece was going to be there for Gideon no matter how implausible the test was for God to show that he was there for him. Jesus was going to turn up for Gideon – wet or dry - and he will turn up for us OUR FAITH, in a way that assures us by his Spirit that it is really him who is doing the supernatural for us and through us as his vessel.  2Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us… When this rest of faith has been entered into and we know that the power of God is at work it becomes clear that it is not about our estimation of ourselves anymore (in our weakness he becomes our strength). When we activate this kind of faith we will be in partnership with God, being guided along the way forward by the Holy Spirit and not by our own drivenness, and being prompted by him about what to do. Our battle is against our unbelief that God is with us in everything that is happening and even if we do not understand why it is happening we trust that God is bringing about the best for us right now – it is a present moment experience. As earthen vessels we battle against; The unbelief that there is an excellence of power within us. Not understanding why what is happening to us is happening. Trusting that God is bringing about the best for us right now. When we know by faith that the earthen vessel and the treasure always act together; It is no longer about our wrong estimation of ourselves as an empty earthen vessel. It is about God being with us in everything that is happening. It is about God bringing about the best for us in the situation right now. Thank you Lord for being our faith, and our strength in our weakness. Amen        

Today, I want to focus on God’s Name Jehovah-Shalom which is found only once in the Old Testament. Judges 6:23-24 “Then the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-Lord-Shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.” Are you anxious, worried, troubled, distressed, afraid? This next week, set aside a time to cry out to Jehovah Shalom, the God who is Peace. Pursue the peace that comes only from God. Get away from all distractions. Put down the phone, pray, meditate on God’s Word, run after God’s peace, the peace that surpasses all human understanding. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/deanna-fullerton/message

Old Testament: Judges 8 Judges 8 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon’s Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 109 Psalm 109 (Listen) Help Me, O Lord My God To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 109   Be not silent, O God of my praise!2   For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,    speaking against me with lying tongues.3   They encircle me with words of hate,    and attack me without cause.4   In return for my love they accuse me,    but I give myself to prayer.15   So they reward me evil for good,    and hatred for my love. 6   Appoint a wicked man against him;    let an accuser stand at his right hand.7   When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;    let his prayer be counted as sin!8   May his days be few;    may another take his office!9   May his children be fatherless    and his wife a widow!10   May his children wander about and beg,    seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!11   May the creditor seize all that he has;    may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!12   Let there be none to extend kindness to him,    nor any to pity his fatherless children!13   May his posterity be cut off;    may his name be blotted out in the second generation!14   May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,    and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!15   Let them be before the LORD continually,    that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth! 16   For he did not remember to show kindness,    but pursued the poor and needy    and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.17   He loved to curse; let curses come2 upon him!    He did not delight in blessing; may it be far3 from him!18   He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;    may it soak4 into his body like water,    like oil into his bones!19   May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,    like a belt that he puts on every day!20   May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,    of those who speak evil against my life! 21   But you, O GOD my Lord,    deal on my behalf for your name’s sake;    because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!22   For I am poor and needy,    and my heart is stricken within me.23   I am gone like a shadow at evening;    I am shaken off like a locust.24   My knees are weak through fasting;    my body has become gaunt, with no fat.25   I am an object of scorn to my accusers;    when they see me, they wag their heads. 26   Help me, O LORD my God!    Save me according to your steadfast love!27   Let them know that this is your hand;    you, O LORD, have done it!28   Let them curse, but you will bless!    They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!29   May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;    may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak! 30   With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD;    I will praise him in the midst of the throng.31   For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,    to save him from those who condemn his soul to death. Footnotes [1] 109:4 Hebrew but I am prayer [2] 109:17 Revocalization; Masoretic Text curses have come [3] 109:17 Revocalization; Masoretic Text it is far [4] 109:18 Revocalization; Masoretic Text it has soaked (ESV) New Testament: Romans 14–15 Romans 14–15 (Listen) Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another 14 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master1 that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,   “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,    and every tongue shall confess2 to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Do Not Cause Another to Stumble 13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.3 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.4 The Example of Christ 15 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Christ the Hope of Jews and Gentiles 8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,   “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,    and sing to your name.” 10 And again it is said,   “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again,   “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,    and let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again Isaiah says,   “The root of Jesse will come,    even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;  in him will the Gentiles hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Paul the Minister to the Gentiles 14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers,5 that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written,   “Those who have never been told of him will see,    and those who have never heard will understand.” Paul’s Plan to Visit Rome 22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected,6 I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing7 of Christ. 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Footnotes [1] 14:4 Or lord [2] 14:11 Or shall give praise [3] 14:21 Some manuscripts add or be hindered or be weakened [4] 14:23 Some manuscripts insert here 16:25–27 [5] 15:14 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 30 [6] 15:28 Greek sealed to them this fruit [7] 15:29 Some manuscripts insert of the gospel (ESV)

Old Testament: Judges 8 Judges 8 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon’s Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins (ESV) New Testament: John 15:1–17 John 15:1–17 (Listen) I Am the True Vine 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,1 for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. Footnotes [1] 15:15 Or bondservants, or slaves (for the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface); likewise for servant later in this verse and in verse 20 (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 109 Psalm 109 (Listen) Help Me, O Lord My God To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 109   Be not silent, O God of my praise!2   For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,    speaking against me with lying tongues.3   They encircle me with words of hate,    and attack me without cause.4   In return for my love they accuse me,    but I give myself to prayer.15   So they reward me evil for good,    and hatred for my love. 6   Appoint a wicked man against him;    let an accuser stand at his right hand.7   When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;    let his prayer be counted as sin!8   May his days be few;    may another take his office!9   May his children be fatherless    and his wife a widow!10   May his children wander about and beg,    seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!11   May the creditor seize all that he has;    may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!12   Let there be none to extend kindness to him,    nor any to pity his fatherless children!13   May his posterity be cut off;    may his name be blotted out in the second generation!14   May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,    and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!15   Let them be before the LORD continually,    that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth! 16   For he did not remember to show kindness,    but pursued the poor and needy    and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.17   He loved to curse; let curses come2 upon him!    He did not delight in blessing; may it be far3 from him!18   He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;    may it soak4 into his body like water,    like oil into his bones!19   May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,    like a belt that he puts on every day!20   May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,    of those who speak evil against my life! 21   But you, O GOD my Lord,    deal on my behalf for your name’s sake;    because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!22   For I am poor and needy,    and my heart is stricken within me.23   I am gone like a shadow at evening;    I am shaken off like a locust.24   My knees are weak through fasting;    my body has become gaunt, with no fat.25   I am an object of scorn to my accusers;    when they see me, they wag their heads. 26   Help me, O LORD my God!    Save me according to your steadfast love!27   Let them know that this is your hand;    you, O LORD, have done it!28   Let them curse, but you will bless!    They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!29   May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;    may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak! 30   With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD;    I will praise him in the midst of the throng.31   For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,    to save him from those who condemn his soul to death. Footnotes [1] 109:4 Hebrew but I am prayer [2] 109:17 Revocalization; Masoretic Text curses have come [3] 109:17 Revocalization; Masoretic Text it is far [4] 109:18 Revocalization; Masoretic Text it has soaked (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 15:1–3 Proverbs 15:1–3 (Listen) 15   A soft answer turns away wrath,    but a harsh word stirs up anger.2   The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,    but the mouths of fools pour out folly.3   The eyes of the LORD are in every place,    keeping watch on the evil and the good. (ESV)

Old Testament: Judges 6–7 Judges 6–7 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Gideon’s Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,4 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he [4] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 108 Psalm 108 (Listen) With God We Shall Do Valiantly A Song. A Psalm of David. 108   My heart is steadfast, O God!    I will sing and make melody with all my being!12   Awake, O harp and lyre!    I will awake the dawn!3   I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;    I will sing praises to you among the nations.4   For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 5   Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!    Let your glory be over all the earth!6   That your beloved ones may be delivered,    give salvation by your right hand and answer me! 7   God has promised in his holiness:2    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem    and portion out the Valley of Succoth.8   Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;    Ephraim is my helmet,    Judah my scepter.9   Moab is my washbasin;    upon Edom I cast my shoe;    over Philistia I shout in triumph.” 10   Who will bring me to the fortified city?    Who will lead me to Edom?11   Have you not rejected us, O God?    You do not go out, O God, with our armies.12   Oh grant us help against the foe,    for vain is the salvation of man!13   With God we shall do valiantly;    it is he who will tread down our foes. Footnotes [1] 108:1 Hebrew with my glory [2] 108:7 Or sanctuary (ESV) New Testament: Romans 12–13 Romans 12–13 (Listen) A Living Sacrifice 12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,1 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 2 Do not be conformed to this world,3 but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.4 Gifts of Grace 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members,5 and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,6 with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Marks of the True Christian 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,7 serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.8 Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it9 to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Submission to the Authorities 13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Fulfilling the Law Through Love 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Footnotes [1] 12:1 Or brothers and sisters [2] 12:1 Or your rational service [3] 12:2 Greek age [4] 12:2 Or what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God [5] 12:4 Greek parts; also verse 5 [6] 12:8 Or gives aid [7] 12:11 Or fervent in the Spirit [8] 12:16 Or give yourselves to humble tasks [9] 12:19 Greek give place (ESV)

Old Testament: Judges 6–7 Judges 6–7 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Gideon’s Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,4 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he [4] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV) New Testament: John 14 John 14 (Listen) I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life 14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;1 believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?2 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”3 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.4 From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me5 anything in my name, I will do it. Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,6 to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be7 in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Footnotes [1] 14:1 Or You believe in God [2] 14:2 Or In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you [3] 14:4 Some manuscripts Where I am going you know, and the way you know [4] 14:7 Or If you know me, you will know my Father also, or If you have known me, you will know my Father also [5] 14:14 Some manuscripts omit me [6] 14:16 Or Advocate, or Counselor; also 14:26; 15:26; 16:7 [7] 14:17 Some manuscripts and is (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 108 Psalm 108 (Listen) With God We Shall Do Valiantly A Song. A Psalm of David. 108   My heart is steadfast, O God!    I will sing and make melody with all my being!12   Awake, O harp and lyre!    I will awake the dawn!3   I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;    I will sing praises to you among the nations.4   For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 5   Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!    Let your glory be over all the earth!6   That your beloved ones may be delivered,    give salvation by your right hand and answer me! 7   God has promised in his holiness:2    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem    and portion out the Valley of Succoth.8   Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;    Ephraim is my helmet,    Judah my scepter.9   Moab is my washbasin;    upon Edom I cast my shoe;    over Philistia I shout in triumph.” 10   Who will bring me to the fortified city?    Who will lead me to Edom?11   Have you not rejected us, O God?    You do not go out, O God, with our armies.12   Oh grant us help against the foe,    for vain is the salvation of man!13   With God we shall do valiantly;    it is he who will tread down our foes. Footnotes [1] 108:1 Hebrew with my glory [2] 108:7 Or sanctuary (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 14:34–35 Proverbs 14:34–35 (Listen) 34   Righteousness exalts a nation,    but sin is a reproach to any people.35   A servant who deals wisely has the king’s favor,    but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully. (ESV)

Morning: Judges 8–9 Judges 8–9 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon’s Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Abimelech’s Conspiracy 9 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, 2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3 And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. 7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’ 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’ 16 “Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved—17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian, 18 and you have risen up against my father’s house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative—19 if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother. The Downfall of Abimelech 22 Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. 23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25 And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told to Abimelech. 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. 27 And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. 28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? 29 Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say4 to Abimelech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’” 30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly,5 saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up6 the city against you. 32 Now therefore, go by night, you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field. 33 Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do.” 34 So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies. 35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush. 36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops!” And Zebul said to him, “You mistake7 the shadow of the mountains for men.” 37 Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.” 38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them.” 39 And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. 40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate. 41 And Abimelech lived at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives, so that they could not dwell at Shechem. 42 On the following day, the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told. 43 He took his people and divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. And he looked and saw the people coming out of the city. So he rose against them and killed them. 44 Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them. 45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. 46 When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith. 47 Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, “What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done.” 49 So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. 50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. 56 Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins [4] 9:29 Septuagint; Hebrew and he said [5] 9:31 Or at Tormah [6] 9:31 Hebrew besieging, or closing up [7] 9:36 Hebrew You see (ESV) Evening: Luke 8:22–56 Luke 8:22–56 (Listen) Jesus Calms a Storm 22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon 26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,1 which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus2 had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed3 man had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus’s Daughter 40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians,4 she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter5 said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” 49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” 53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. 56 And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Footnotes [1] 8:26 Some manuscripts Gadarenes; others Gergesenes; also verse 37 [2] 8:27 Greek he; also verses 38, 42 [3] 8:36 Greek daimonizomai (demonized); elsewhere rendered oppressed by demons [4] 8:43 Some manuscripts omit and though she had spent all her living on physicians [5] 8:45 Some manuscripts add and those who were with him (ESV)

Morning: Judges 6–7 Judges 6–7 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Gideon’s Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,4 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he [4] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV) Evening: Luke 8:1–21 Luke 8:1–21 (Listen) Women Accompanying Jesus 8 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them1 out of their means. The Parable of the Sower 4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The Purpose of the Parables 9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. A Lamp Under a Jar 16 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. 18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” Jesus’ Mother and Brothers 19 Then his mother and his brothers2 came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” 21 But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Footnotes [1] 8:3 Some manuscripts him [2] 8:19 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verses 20, 21 (ESV)

Judges 8–9 Judges 8–9 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon’s Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Abimelech’s Conspiracy 9 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, 2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3 And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. 7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’ 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’ 16 “Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved—17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian, 18 and you have risen up against my father’s house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative—19 if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother. The Downfall of Abimelech 22 Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. 23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25 And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told to Abimelech. 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. 27 And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. 28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? 29 Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say4 to Abimelech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’” 30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly,5 saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up6 the city against you. 32 Now therefore, go by night, you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field. 33 Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do.” 34 So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies. 35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush. 36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops!” And Zebul said to him, “You mistake7 the shadow of the mountains for men.” 37 Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.” 38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them.” 39 And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. 40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate. 41 And Abimelech lived at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives, so that they could not dwell at Shechem. 42 On the following day, the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told. 43 He took his people and divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. And he looked and saw the people coming out of the city. So he rose against them and killed them. 44 Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them. 45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. 46 When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith. 47 Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, “What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done.” 49 So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. 50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. 56 Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins [4] 9:29 Septuagint; Hebrew and he said [5] 9:31 Or at Tormah [6] 9:31 Hebrew besieging, or closing up [7] 9:36 Hebrew You see (ESV)

Judges 8–9 Judges 8–9 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon’s Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Abimelech’s Conspiracy 9 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, 2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3 And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. 7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’ 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’ 16 “Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved—17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian, 18 and you have risen up against my father’s house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative—19 if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother. The Downfall of Abimelech 22 Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. 23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25 And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told to Abimelech. 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. 27 And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. 28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? 29 Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say4 to Abimelech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’” 30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly,5 saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up6 the city against you. 32 Now therefore, go by night, you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field. 33 Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do.” 34 So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies. 35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush. 36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops!” And Zebul said to him, “You mistake7 the shadow of the mountains for men.” 37 Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.” 38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them.” 39 And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. 40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate. 41 And Abimelech lived at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives, so that they could not dwell at Shechem. 42 On the following day, the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told. 43 He took his people and divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. And he looked and saw the people coming out of the city. So he rose against them and killed them. 44 Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them. 45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. 46 When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith. 47 Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, “What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done.” 49 So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. 50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. 56 Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins [4] 9:29 Septuagint; Hebrew and he said [5] 9:31 Or at Tormah [6] 9:31 Hebrew besieging, or closing up [7] 9:36 Hebrew You see (ESV)

Judges 6–7 Judges 6–7 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Gideon’s Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,4 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he [4] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV)

Judges 6–7 Judges 6–7 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Gideon’s Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,4 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he [4] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV)

56 In this episode, I finish talking about Gideon and use the example in Judges 7:16-22 to make a case for humbling yourselfGo to our website to hear all the episodes in this series.Spiritual Warfare The Armor of GodJudges 7:16-22Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. And he said to them, "Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" So Gideon and one hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and they cried,  "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp;Matthew 3:11I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.With the picture of Gideon and the broken pitchers in your mind, think about how God can use you and flow through you if your "vessel" is broken.satan is not afraid of you or me, but he is deathly afraid of the fire of God. (The Holy Spirit)

HEBREWS 12 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. WE HAVE TOUCHED ON SOME KEY CORRECTIONAL POINTS THAT IS CRITICAL TO OUR READINESS AS THE LORD CONTINUE TO REBUILD HIS CHURCH IN THIS NEW DAY. THE PATTERN OF ENTERING THE CONFLUENCE OF THE UPPER ROOM REALITY IS CRITICAL TO STEPPING OUT INTO THE CITY LIFE OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION. HEAVEN HAS GIVEN TO US ANOTHER LAYER IN THE PRINCIPLE OF RECOVERY AND REISCOVERYING THE PROPHETIC INTENTION FOR THE LORD IN THIS HOUR. THE WELLS OF INSTRUCTION, GUIDELINES, AND VALUES WE MUST ADJUST TO IN ORDER TO ENTER THAT CONFLUENCE OF THE ASCENDED ONE. AS WE CONTINUE TO EXAMINE THE LEADERSHIP PATTERN HEAVEN INTRODUCED TO GEDEON ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF JUDGES, WE SAW THAT HEAVEN'S STANDARD IS CRITICAL TO THE POSITION OF THE VICTORY OF THE THIRD DAY'S CHURCH. JUDGES 7 1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. 4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/isaiah-phillips-akintola/message

RECEIVING THE SPIRIT OF STRENGTH AND COURAGE. PART 2. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Judges 7:7-8 We are at a crucial point in our engagement regarding the nature of the days that we have been ushered into. If we are going to continually abide and walk in that which the Spirit of the Lord is requiring and demanding of us for this new day, we then, have to deal with this important principle of developing the spirit of courage amidst the present state of fear that seems to be controlling many today. We saw how spiritual strength and courage became the prerequisite for Joshua to effectively lead a generation of people who have been bondage and impoverished by the realities of their past. To bring this generation of Post Covid19 into Heaven’s designed objective, we must update our leadership competence. We must learn to go beyond the devastations, death, fear, and needs of the day. We need to take our stand in faith, hope, and love as we match the people to a new frontier of heaven’s prophetic intention. Joshua chapter 1:6 Joshua 1 5 No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall give these people the inheritance of the land that I swore to their fathers I would give them. Learning to be strong and courageous is a must for new generational leadership to become a reality. We cannot allow ourselves to be demoralized by the powerful Satanic attack against our soul and that of the nations. We need to be strong and courageous as a people rising from the ashes of the burnt gates and broken walls of our cities. if we look at what the enemy is doing in this season, we clearly see that his plan is to weaken us by discouraging us through anxiety, perplexity, and confusion. A lot of people today have been infected through the aftermath of the covid-19 attack. So many people are disillusioned, discouraged when they look at the devastation of a shattered dream. We are now beginning to see the after-effects of the attack of the Covid virus, but we must be ready not to give in but rather attack as we move according to heaven’s intention for the day. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/isaiah-phillips-akintola/message

We are into advent season and our theme is Love What Has Changed. Each week of advent we are going to talk about something significant that has changed because of the advent (the coming) of Jesus Christ. When Christ came into the world what changed? What was once this way and then after he came it became this way?Well, this week we want to focus on a change that happened to Christ himself. In becoming a man, Jesus went from strength to weakness. He went from being almighty God to an all-depenedent child, an infant that any one of us could have physically overpowered in an instant. Isaiah’s prophesy begins, “Unto us a child is born.” This just rolls off our tongues so easily, but it ought to stick in our throats and cause us to choke. And so the goal of today is to make you choke. That really is the goal. God would truly be honored if we just choked at the absurdity that God became a man.So today we are going to talk about the gift of weakness. Christmas is marked, perhaps more than anything else, by the giving of gifts. Everybody gives gifts at Christmas. Now what makes a good gift? Maybe it’s easier to approach this question from the opposite direction. What makes a bad gift?Often times, half the fun for a kid is imagining what’s in the package. There’s all this suspense. They shake it to see if it makes noise or to see how heavy it is. It takes a lot of the fun away if you already know what the gift is. The older you get the fewer surprises you receive because you’re always giving guidance. Something that’s not a surprise. A bad gift is something you don’t need (you already have six flashlights and you are given another). Or maybe something cheap or something that doesn’t have much value. A bad gift could even be something thoughtless. Maybe someone would like a smelly bar of soap but not me. Clearly you don’t know me.Now it is absolutely correct to say that Jesus was the gift of all gifts. If you think about it, it ticks all the boxes of a good gift. It’s a total surprise. Nobody was expecting God to come in the flesh! It’s something we absolutely need. It’s extremely valuable. It could not be more thoughtful. But if you distill the gift down to its essence, what is it? It’s the gift of weakness. It’s God becoming weak. Let’s take the infinite God and wrap him up in rags of flesh and deliver that as the greatest gift mankind has ever received.Nobody says, “You know what I really want for Christmas? Weakness. Give me weakness in spades.” And yet that is exactly what Christmas is all about. So we are going to talk today about why it is that strength made weak is the greatest gift we could have ever received.Now here’s the thing about God. He’s always doing things inverted from the way we would do it. He’s always inverting our normal intuitions. He’s always flipping things around on its head. His values are often times the exact opposite of ours. For example, if you were given a choice of any job in the United States, what would you pick? You would instantly start thinking through various factors that are important to you. Maybe you think of a job that makes a lot of money, where you are respected and appreciated, that gives you security, and has significant power where your decisions affect a lot of people. So maybe a CEO of a large tech company, a lead research scientist, or maybe a senator, president, or executive.Think about it. Jesus was in that position to choose and he chose to work for Wright Brothers Construction as a framer. Really? Of any job in the world you picked carpenter. Why carpenter? Why would you possibly want that? There are reasons but here’s one of them: the more disadvantage you begin with the greater the glory of your future ascension. It’s about stripping away the alternate explanations for your ascension to power. You weren’t given any privilege and so there can’t be alternate explanations for your rise.Is it any surprise that the son of a millionaire himself becomes a millionare? Of course not. He had all the advantages. He went to the best schools which connected him with the best people, which launched him into the best career which catapulted him into the best investment opportunities. It’s obvious. You’d almost have to be a fool to not end up successful. But if you rise out of the slums of Calcutta well, that’s impressive. Every force on earth was keeping you right where you are. You were denied an education. You had the worst nutrition and highest exposure to disease. You interacted with nobody of influence and all your time was just spent surviving so you had no chance of advancing. If you did somehow make it out, the only explanation is that you made that happen. You get a movie made after your rags to riches ascent. It’s on a totally different level.The principle we are observing is that God prefers the weak. He just prefers it because it’s better material to work from for his purposes. And we find this all through the Bible. Do you remember in the Scriptures where God speaks to the nation of Israel about her calling?Now that kind of makes you feel special doesn’t it. Out of all the people on earth, I’ve been chosen. Ha! Look at that folks, God chose me. And you can kind of start feeling proud about that. There were millions of people on earth. Why did God choose to work with the nation of Israel? What did he see in them? God says, “Hey, you want to know why I chose you?”God loves to make something out of nothing. And who did he choose to lead these people? God used an inarticulate Moses. Why? So that nobody could say it was the greatness of Moses’ speech that persuaded Pharaoh. And he led them out into a dead end in the desert. Why? So that they might be in a serious position of need so that God could save them. God prefers to work with the weak, marginalized, and insignificant.One of my favorite stories in this regard is the story of Gideon. Do you remember this? It’s such a great story. God chose Gideon and this guy is full of fear. I’m telling you, he’s just a total milk-toast pushover. He’s ruled by fear. And God says, “I’m going to use you to conquer the Midianites, some of the most vicious, merciless warriors in the Ancient Near East.” Gideon says to God, “No God you don’t understand, I’ve got a shallow frame. I’ve got the heart of a mouse, not a lion. I’m no warrior.” Gideon says, “That can’t be. You’ve got the wrong guy! God, I’m weak. I’m nothing.” And God says, “Really? Put me to the test. I dare you.”So remember the story. Gideon takes out his wool jacket and says, “God, if you want me to lead up your army, then let the wool be soaking wet with dew and the ground around it be dry as a bone.” And sure enough, in the morning it was so. Now Gideon set up the test. He could have asked for anything. He determined the rules. And God met every one of them and he still doubted. That’s weakness upon weakness. So he sets up a second test this time in reverse. Let the ground be soaked but let the wool be dry as a bone and it was so. Finally, Gideon begrudgingly concedes and gathers the entire army. You can imagine him shaking in his boots, going “What the heck am I doing here? Are you kidding me?” And so he tries to stack the deck in his favor. You can imagine him setting up a draft and getting every single warrior he can find. He’s got 15-year-old kids armed with picks and shovels.They start out with 32,000 soldiers strong and God looks that and wags his head. Way too strong. Way too powerful. We need to weed those guys out. So God says, “Everyone who is scared, go home.” And 22,000 people flee. That leaves 10,000. Now that tells you something! The fact that 22,000 people fled because they were too scared tells you something about what they were up against. Apparently, they were about to face an enemy impressive enough to cause a 32,000 person army to shake in their boots. Now you have 10,000 left. These remaining 10,000 had to just be gluttons for punishment. They were the military die-hards whose entire identity was wrapped up in combat. They had to fight. It was what defined them.You can imagine Gideon saying to God, “Are you kidding me? What on earth are you doing? How do you expect me to win by cutting away 2/3 of my army?” God looks at that army and wags his head again, “Man, I hate to break it to you Gideon. But that still way too strong of an army. Sorry friend. We are going to have to chip away just a little bit more. Just a little. How many do you have again? 10,000? Okay, yeah, we are going to have to take away 97% of that.” God says, “Everyone who laps water like a dog, those are the warriors I want.” So Gideon goes from 32,000, to 10,000 to 300. Can you believe that? 300 men! When the army was 32,000 strong, 2/3 of them, fled in fear because of the strength of the Midianite army? And you are going to take them on with 300, with one one-thousandth of your former strength? Why in the world would you do that?God says, “Ah yes. Now this is perfect, I’ve got the weakest general and I’ve paired him with the weakest possible army. Perfect.” God loves to work with weakness. God straight up tells Gideon, “Listen, you are too strong for me to use.”You see, the reason God loves to start with weak material is so that there is no question what the source of strength really is. When you have an army of 300 men destroy an army that causes 30,000 people to pee their pants in fear, there’s only one explanation. God. That’s it. God. God loves to be in a position of disadvantage. He loves to start with weak material. He salivates at the impossible situations. Do you see what God values? Are you starting to get a taste for God’s delicacies? Do you see the currency in which God trades?He Prefers Weakness.Here’s the great thing about God preferring weakness. That means he prefers us! Do you remember what Paul said to the Corinthians back in 1 Corinthians 3?God can choose anything he wants and this is what he chooses! Do you see it? Do you know how encouraging this is friends? God values the weak. God values the broken. If you are especially broken this morning and extra weak, if you are destroyed and your life is ruined, then you have the perfect qualities for God. God is going to bypass the more privileged and find the destitute, the destroyed, the powerless. It’s so different than the way we normally work.I’ll go to Lowes to buy lumber and I’m like the most demanding customer in the world. I’m always trying to pick through the pile to find something worth using. Not the one that has a knot in it, or is warped, or bent, or has a crack. The worst is when you go there and the entire pile is picked through and all that’s left is the junk wood. It just looks like a plate of spaghetti. And I always laugh thinking about someone actually buying that wood. It’s garbage. When I look at some of the lumber, man, what idiot would intentionally choose some of these boards. God does. He’s salivating. That’s the perfect material. The more warped and twisted a person is, the more bent and cracked and broken, the better. “Oh there’s a splintered edge, perfect. Full of knots and twists. I can’t believe I’m so lucky to find this one that is stained and damaged and abused!”Why is he so excited? Anyone can build amazing furniture out of perfect lumber but only a master carpenter can build jaw dropping furniture out of garbage wood that everyone else would bypass and say, “That’s junk. That’s garbage. Throw that in the trash, it’s useless.” It demonstrates the glory of the craftsman. Who did Jesus choose to be his disciples? Fishermen. Tax Collectors. Really? God chooses the weak. Paul prays to God, “Remove this weakness from me.” God says, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.”When I was in grade school, we used to play tackle football and we’d always pick teams by having two team captains go back and forth and choose teams. I choose Matt. I choose Joe. I choose Tyler. And back and forth you go. And you couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy who was picked last. Because being picked last always meant you were the worst. You were just being ranked, flat-out. Your order of being picked said something about how desirable you were as an athlete.Do you know that God works the same way but totally in reverse? If God picks you, if you get chosen by God, that’s not a compliment. God is looking to build his kingdom with broken materials. He’s looking to build his kingdom with stuff others would throw away and say there’s no point in trying to restore that. It’s too far gone. That’s junk. Now it’s all at once an insult and a blessing. It’s an insult because it says something about your condition. Being chosen by God means one thing and one thing only: you ain’t pretty. It really does confront your brokenness. But here’s the blessing. Being picked up by God is a sure guarantee that you won’t stay junk. Once the master craftsman gets through with you, you are going to be amazing. The way you are going to be redeemed will one day blow your mind.Let me finish with a sharp point. When God shows up to speak to Gideon in the book of Judges and tells him that he is the one who is commissioned to single-handedly take out the Midianites where do we find Gideon? Gideon is at the bottom of his class. Gideon is timid. He is weak. He is a wimpy coward. When God shows up, he says to Gideon, “Greetings, mighty man of valor.” He is certainly not describing Gideon here. He is describing what he will one be one day. This is how God works all through the Bible. When God comes and calls you in love, he makes you into what he calls you. We are weak but we are called saints. We are failures but God calls us righteous. We are faithless but God calls us stewards of the manifold grace of God. It is a gift to know that God is redeeming our brokeness.We live in a polarized world. Everyone is so divided. Isn’t there something we can all agree on? Here’s something. All of us can agree that this world is full of problems. Nobody argues with that! The arguments always come when you try to identify what the problem is. In politics, if you are liberal then the problem is the conservative party. If you are conservative the problem is the liberals. If you are a non-religious the problem is the religious people. If you are religious the problem is the non-religious. If you have money the problem is the poor who don’t. If you don’t have money the problem is those who do. If you are black the problem is the whites. If you are white, the problem is the blacks. If you are a parent the problem is your children. If you are a child the problem is your parents. If you are a wife, the problem is your husband. If you are a husband, the problem is your wife.Nobody agrees on the problem. And this is why we experience turmoil in our world today. Everybody wants power so they can use that power to knock down the problem they perceive. They work hard to get into positions of power to destroy what they perceive as the problem. And so everyone is trying to destroy everyone else. But you want to know what the gift of weakness does? It conditions our perspective. It unites our perspective on what the problem actually is. The New York Times solicited feedback from its readers during WWII by asking the question, “What is wrong with the world?” G.K. Chesterton famously replied with perhaps the shortest letter to the editor ever published.Or to say it in the words of Shakespeare, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars; but in ourselves…” The problem is not out there. It’s in here. The problem is not that other people are making you miserable, but primarily, you’re a sinner, proud and self-centered.Here’s what Christmas helps us understand. We all want a Messiah don’t we? We all want a rescuer with great power to come swooping in and solve all the problems. But be careful what you ask for. Here’s what you certainly don’t want. You don’t need a Messiah to come along and destroy all the evildoers, because we would all be destroyed. If God had sent that kind of gift, where would you be? Instead, what you want and what you need is someone who will come and deal with your sin, who will show you your sin, who will die for your sin, who will cleanse you of your sin. And in order to do that, you need someone who will take your place. You need someone who is perfect and powerful to become weak and absorb the sin you deserve. Then there’s hope, and guess what? That’s the gift of weakness.How Weakness Softens Us.Do you see how this gift of weakness softens us? It causes us to stop blaming one another and instead just receive grace and opens us to forgive one another because after all, I’m just like you. We are all like each other. None of us is any better than the other. It softens us.One of my favorite Aesop’s fables is the showdown between the North Wind and the Sun. The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak. “Let us agree,” said the Sun, “that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak.” “Very well,” growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler. With the first gust of wind, the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler’s body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain. Then the Sun came out and warmed the Traveler. Just a little at first, but then the heat became stronger and stronger. At last, he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.We could adapt this for our purposes. The jacket here represents all our defenses and insecurities. When someone yells at us and says, “You’ve hurt me. You are the problem!” We pull our jacket tighter. We refuse to admit. We hurl back insults. But when Christ descends out of love, he does it not because he wants to blame us for the problem but because he wants to fix the problem. His initiation is humbling and that movement of love warms us. It creates security so we can lower our defenses and confess that yes, really it is true that all along, I am the problem. I do need fixing. Would you please heal me? Would you please take this sin that has so damaged me and others? We warm from the inside and pretty soon we lower our defenses. We take off the coat. And he takes it. It conditions our perspective.For Christ to become weak, that represents incredible sacrifice. To voluntarily choose to become a man represents, to say it lightly, incredible inconvenience. You’d have to have a reason. It perks interest in those watching as to what the motivation could be. Why would God give up his throne as sovereign and voluntarily limit himself in such significant ways? Because behind the weakness is a motive. It’s love.Now I want you to think about just how significant this initiation is. This commands a response from us. Consider this. We all have people in our life we really respect and admire. We all have people in our life we’d love to get to know but we know they are in such high demand, there’s not a chance. Maybe it’s a well-known author, a musician, an artist, an athlete, a person in the marketplace, a well-known pastor, or an academic.They would have so much to offer because they have been so successful in their area of excellence we just aren’t on the same plane. Our orbits never intersect. Now in my case, I would have loved to know C.S. Lewis. Now imagine, I write him an email and just ask for some advice on a particular aspect of being a pastor. And then I get a package in the mail. It’s a book that he’s written and there is a four-page hand-written letter from him engaging me on the topic. And he asks me a bunch of personal questions about my life and is expecting me to respond. He’s taking an interest. He’s not only answering my email. He’s engaging me. He wants to know me. And then I answer that letter and another comes and this time there’s an envelope with an airline ticket and an offer that says, “Hey, why don’t you come out and visit? We have an extra room at our house. I can’t wait to get to know you more.”You think, “Man, I feel so thankful for him to respond to me like that. At the cost of his time and money, he wants to know me.” Well, you see where this is going. Jesus, not at the cost of his time, but at the cost of his life, is bent on saving you. At the cost of tremendous power, at the cost of tremendous pain, at the cost of tremendous suffering, he bent over to know you. He leaned in. He took an interest.Let me explain a sticking point for many of us. If you ask the question, “Why would God save me?” The question is a difficult one to answer. Did he save us because we were valuable? It’s a dangerous question to answer. You can get in all sorts of theological trouble in milliseconds. If you answer, “God saved us because we are valuable.” That is a problem. How again is it that we have value? We spurned him. We crucified him. What is the deal with that? If you answer, “God did not save us because of value.” Well, we were made in the image of God. Why would God save me? How do we answer?I have a super resourceful wife, and while we’re at a garage sale I’ll be walking along and she’ll say, “Oh my goodness!!! Look at that windowpane.” And I’ll say, “What? Where? Oh, that old piece of junk? Why would you want that?” And then she transforms that piece of garbage into a work of art. It’s amazing.Now let me ask you, if you see a pile of garbage and the artist turns it into art, what do you say? Did the garbage change state? Did it suddenly transform into something materially different? No, but it was redeemed. It was destined for the trash pile but it was washed, reshaped, and utilized in a new way. Do you praise the garbage or do you praise the artist? You praise the artist! The garbage has become valuable because of what the artist has done. And what does that cause us to do? It causes us to praise. It causes us to worship the artist. To worship the redeemer. To praise him.You see Jesus is a gift. He’s the ultimate gift. He became weak for us. That weakness was the greatest gift we could ever receive. When we first saw the gift it was a bit disappointing. At first, you don’t really see it as a gift. You want power so you can knock over what you perceive to be wrong with the world. We really didn’t expect the gift to be this way, but now we see it’s what we needed. I never would’ve looked for this kind of gift. I thought I needed power. That’s the gift I thought, but now what you gave me I see is what I needed all along, and I never would’ve asked for it otherwise.This is what Christmas is all about. We didn’t expect this gift but it’s what we needed. I thought my real problem was I didn’t have enough money, connections, or the right relationships in my life. I thought I would be happy if my situation was changed. But now I see the real problem is I am not so much a sufferer who needs to be rescued from my situation, I’m a sinner who needs to be rescued by my Savior. I’m not somebody who just needs someone to deal with the problems out there. I’m someone who needs to deal with the problems in my heart. I need to lay down the melancholy burden of myself. I need to be freed from my self-centeredness and the guilt that goes with it. I need to have my sins dealt with.That is the message of Christmas. It’s a message where our weakness is confronted by the weakness of Christ. It softens us. It breaks us. It changes us. It reduces us. It saves us. And then we praise him for it!

Thank God that the Lord is with Us1. Thank the Lord that He is with Us Guaranteeing Victory & Success2 Cor 2:14 (cev) I am grateful that God always makes it possible for Christ to lead us to victoryJoshua 1:8-9 (nlt) Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command to be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.``Deut 31:6 Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you."Rom 8:31 (nlt) If God is for us, who can ever be against us?Ps 20:7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.Is 41:10,13 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness. 13 For I hold you by your right hand  I, the Lord your God. And I say to you,  ‘Don't be afraid. I am here to help When the Lord is with us, He will strengthen and help us Strengthen - To make stout, to make strong, bold, and alertHelp - To surround, to protect, to give aid toPs 124:2-3,8 (nlt) What if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us? 3 They would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger 8 Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earthHeb 13:5-6 (nlt) Be happy with what you have. God has said, “I will never leave you or let you be alone.” 6 So we can say for sure, “The Lord is my Helper. I am not afraid of anything man can do to me”Jud 6:12,14,16 "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!" 14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the enemy. Have I not sent you?" 16 And the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat them”2. Thank the Lord that He is with Us Bringing Us His Peace  Judg 6:23-24 "Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die." 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace.Peace (Shalom), safe, well, happy, welfare, health, prosperityPs 85:8 (niv) He promises peace to his people, his faithful servantsPs 29:11 The Lord blesses His people with peaceJn 14:1,27 (nlt) Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God 27 Peace I leave (offer you) with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraidTroubled - To disturb, agitated, stirred up or troubledAfraid, to shrink, be fearful, cowardly, and to be timidJn 16:33 (tpt) And everything I've taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!Col 3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankfulMatt 1:23 Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us'WebsiteFreedom FacebookFreedom InstagramFreedom SoundcloudP. Jason Lozano FacebookP. Jason Lozano Instagram

Judges 8:4-35 English Standard Version (ESV) 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon's Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

Judges 6:1-6 English Standard Version (ESV) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. Judges 6:11-18 English Standard Version (ESV) The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” Judges 6:25-27 English Standard Version (ESV) 25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Judges 6:36-7:11 English Standard Version (ESV) The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

Wednesday 30th September,2020. Hello and a wonderful Wednesday morning to you in the name of Jesus. Today is the last day of the month of September. We thank God for how he has kept us. We thank God for His mercy and grace and we declare in the name of Jesus. We are finishing strong; we are finishing well and we are entering the month of October in grand style in Jesus name. Judges 7:9-11 (NLT) 9.That night the Lord said, “Get up! Go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them! 10.But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. 11.Listen to what the Midianites are saying, and you will be greatly encouraged. Then you will be eager to attack. “So Gideon took Purah and went down to the edge of the enemy camp. God had told Gideon that he was going to defeat the midianites. As he and his soldiers were getting ready. He was getting a bit discouraged and God said, "I want to encourage you. I want to help you boost your conviction". I know I have spoken to you but just in case you are scared, go down to the camp of the midianites and hear what they are saying about you. So, when Gideon and his servants went in there, he heard one of the midianite soldiers talk about a dream he had. He said " Listen; I had this dream, there was a loaf of barley bread that rolled within our camp and was knocking off our tents. The other said "That means, God has given victory to Gideon. He is going to decimate us; he is going to win this war and we are going to be at his mercy. When Gideon heard that he was encouraged and went back to his camp. Sometimes the place of external confirmation to those things God has spoken to us can help us build and cultivate our faith. God had spoken to Gideon about the fact that he was going to battle with the midianites and was going to win but He gave him some external confirmation. It is important from time to time we understand that God's supernatural power is there, signs and wonders, the manifestation of the gift of the Spirit etc. All these things are there to help us boost our faith. Paul was writing to the Corinthian Christians and he was talking in 1 Cor 14 he said "we should not just speak in tongues but we should pray that we can interpret or prophesy". He said because in so doing we can speak mysteries and talk about the mysteries in people's heart and when the see such a supernatural manifestation. It makes them fear and it makes them know that the power of God is real. When we demonstrate the power of God, when we demonstrate the supernatural, when we experience the supernatural. It heals our faith; it cultivates our faith. I want us to believe God, have faith in God. Expect and look out for the supernatural manifestation of God in your life. Yes it is important to know what He has said, yes it is important to have a confirmation in His word, yes it is important to have a witness in our spirit but it also helps from time to time when we see the demonstration of the supernatural. I pray in the name of Jesus as we begin to go into another month of October and towards the end of year. We will begin to see increased manifestation of the supernatural in our life and it will boost our faith in Jesus name. May God's hand rest upon you mightily. May His grace be with you in Jesus name. God bless you! Have a great day.

So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Judges 6:24 NKJV

Proper 13 First Psalm: Psalm 119:97–120 Psalm 119:97–120 (Listen) Mem 97   Oh how I love your law!    It is my meditation all the day.98   Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,    for it is ever with me.99   I have more understanding than all my teachers,    for your testimonies are my meditation.100   I understand more than the aged,1    for I keep your precepts.101   I hold back my feet from every evil way,    in order to keep your word.102   I do not turn aside from your rules,    for you have taught me.103   How sweet are your words to my taste,    sweeter than honey to my mouth!104   Through your precepts I get understanding;    therefore I hate every false way. Nun 105   Your word is a lamp to my feet    and a light to my path.106   I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,    to keep your righteous rules.107   I am severely afflicted;    give me life, O LORD, according to your word!108   Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O LORD,    and teach me your rules.109   I hold my life in my hand continually,    but I do not forget your law.110   The wicked have laid a snare for me,    but I do not stray from your precepts.111   Your testimonies are my heritage forever,    for they are the joy of my heart.112   I incline my heart to perform your statutes    forever, to the end.2 Samekh 113   I hate the double-minded,    but I love your law.114   You are my hiding place and my shield;    I hope in your word.115   Depart from me, you evildoers,    that I may keep the commandments of my God.116   Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,    and let me not be put to shame in my hope!117   Hold me up, that I may be safe    and have regard for your statutes continually!118   You spurn all who go astray from your statutes,    for their cunning is in vain.119   All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,    therefore I love your testimonies.120   My flesh trembles for fear of you,    and I am afraid of your judgments. Footnotes [1] 119:100 Or the elders [2] 119:112 Or statutes; the reward is eternal (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalms 81–82 Psalms 81–82 (Listen) Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.1 Of Asaph. 81   Sing aloud to God our strength;    shout for joy to the God of Jacob!2   Raise a song; sound the tambourine,    the sweet lyre with the harp.3   Blow the trumpet at the new moon,    at the full moon, on our feast day. 4   For it is a statute for Israel,    a rule2 of the God of Jacob.5   He made it a decree in Joseph    when he went out over3 the land of Egypt.  I hear a language I had not known:6   “I relieved your4 shoulder of the burden;    your hands were freed from the basket.7   In distress you called, and I delivered you;    I answered you in the secret place of thunder;    I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah8   Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!9   There shall be no strange god among you;    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.10   I am the LORD your God,    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11   “But my people did not listen to my voice;    Israel would not submit to me.12   So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,    to follow their own counsels.13   Oh, that my people would listen to me,    that Israel would walk in my ways!14   I would soon subdue their enemies    and turn my hand against their foes.15   Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,    and their fate would last forever.16   But he would feed you5 with the finest of the wheat,    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Rescue the Weak and Needy A Psalm of Asaph. 82   God has taken his place in the divine council;    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:2   “How long will you judge unjustly    and show partiality to the wicked? Selah3   Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;    maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.4   Rescue the weak and the needy;    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 5   They have neither knowledge nor understanding,    they walk about in darkness;    all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6   I said, “You are gods,    sons of the Most High, all of you;7   nevertheless, like men you shall die,    and fall like any prince.”6 8   Arise, O God, judge the earth;    for you shall inherit all the nations! Footnotes [1] 81:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [2] 81:4 Or just decree [3] 81:5 Or against [4] 81:6 Hebrew his; also next line [5] 81:16 That is, Israel; Hebrew him [6] 82:7 Or fall as one man, O princes (ESV) Old Testament: Judges 7:19–8:12 Judges 7:19–8:12 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,1 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger2 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. Footnotes [1] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah [2] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit (ESV) New Testament: Acts 3:12–26 Acts 3:12–26 (Listen) 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant1 Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus2 has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. 17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” Footnotes [1] 3:13 Or child; also verse 26 [2] 3:16 Greek him (ESV) Gospel: John 1:29–42 John 1:29–42 (Listen) Behold, the Lamb of God 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son1 of God.” Jesus Calls the First Disciples 35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.2 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus3 was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter4). Footnotes [1] 1:34 Some manuscripts the Chosen One [2] 1:39 That is, about 4 p.m. [3] 1:40 Greek him [4] 1:42 Cephas and Peter are from the word for rock in Aramaic and Greek, respectively (ESV)

Proper 13 First Psalm: Psalm 80 Psalm 80 (Listen) Restore Us, O God To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm. 80   Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,    you who lead Joseph like a flock.  You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.2     Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,  stir up your might    and come to save us! 3   Restore us,1 O God;    let your face shine, that we may be saved! 4   O LORD God of hosts,    how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?5   You have fed them with the bread of tears    and given them tears to drink in full measure.6   You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,    and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7   Restore us, O God of hosts;    let your face shine, that we may be saved! 8   You brought a vine out of Egypt;    you drove out the nations and planted it.9   You cleared the ground for it;    it took deep root and filled the land.10   The mountains were covered with its shade,    the mighty cedars with its branches.11   It sent out its branches to the sea    and its shoots to the River.212   Why then have you broken down its walls,    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?13   The boar from the forest ravages it,    and all that move in the field feed on it. 14   Turn again, O God of hosts!    Look down from heaven, and see;  have regard for this vine,15     the stock that your right hand planted,    and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.16   They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;    may they perish at the rebuke of your face!17   But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,    the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!18   Then we shall not turn back from you;    give us life, and we will call upon your name! 19   Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!    Let your face shine, that we may be saved! Footnotes [1] 80:3 Or Turn us again; also verses 7, 19 [2] 80:11 That is, the Euphrates (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalm 77; Psalm 79 Psalm 77 (Listen) In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. 77   I cry aloud to God,    aloud to God, and he will hear me.2   In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;    in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;    my soul refuses to be comforted.3   When I remember God, I moan;    when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah 4   You hold my eyelids open;    I am so troubled that I cannot speak.5   I consider the days of old,    the years long ago.6   I said,1 “Let me remember my song in the night;    let me meditate in my heart.”    Then my spirit made a diligent search:7   “Will the Lord spurn forever,    and never again be favorable?8   Has his steadfast love forever ceased?    Are his promises at an end for all time?9   Has God forgotten to be gracious?    Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah 10   Then I said, “I will appeal to this,    to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”2 11   I will remember the deeds of the LORD;    yes, I will remember your wonders of old.12   I will ponder all your work,    and meditate on your mighty deeds.13   Your way, O God, is holy.    What god is great like our God?14   You are the God who works wonders;    you have made known your might among the peoples.15   You with your arm redeemed your people,    the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah 16   When the waters saw you, O God,    when the waters saw you, they were afraid;    indeed, the deep trembled.17   The clouds poured out water;    the skies gave forth thunder;    your arrows flashed on every side.18   The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;    your lightnings lighted up the world;    the earth trembled and shook.19   Your way was through the sea,    your path through the great waters;    yet your footprints were unseen.320   You led your people like a flock    by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Footnotes [1] 77:6 Hebrew lacks I said [2] 77:10 Or This is my grief: that the right hand of the Most High has changed [3] 77:19 Hebrew unknown (ESV) Psalm 79 (Listen) How Long, O Lord? A Psalm of Asaph. 79   O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;    they have defiled your holy temple;    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.2   They have given the bodies of your servants    to the birds of the heavens for food,    the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.3   They have poured out their blood like water    all around Jerusalem,    and there was no one to bury them.4   We have become a taunt to our neighbors,    mocked and derided by those around us. 5   How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?    Will your jealousy burn like fire?6   Pour out your anger on the nations    that do not know you,  and on the kingdoms    that do not call upon your name!7   For they have devoured Jacob    and laid waste his habitation. 8   Do not remember against us our former iniquities;1    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,    for we are brought very low.9   Help us, O God of our salvation,    for the glory of your name;  deliver us, and atone for our sins,    for your name’s sake!10   Why should the nations say,    “Where is their God?”  Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants    be known among the nations before our eyes! 11   Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;    according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!12   Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors    the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!13   But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,    will give thanks to you forever;    from generation to generation we will recount your praise. Footnotes [1] 79:8 Or the iniquities of former generations (ESV) Old Testament: Judges 6:25–40 Judges 6:25–40 (Listen) 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon1 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Footnotes [1] 6:32 Hebrew he (ESV) New Testament: Acts 2:37–47 Acts 2:37–47 (Listen) 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. The Fellowship of the Believers 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe1 came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Footnotes [1] 2:43 Or fear (ESV) Gospel: John 1:1–18 John 1:1–18 (Listen) The Word Became Flesh 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,1 and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own,2 and his own people3 did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son4 from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.5 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,6 who is at the Father’s side,7 he has made him known. Footnotes [1] 1:4 Or was not any thing made. That which has been made was life in him [2] 1:11 Greek to his own things; that is, to his own domain, or to his own people [3] 1:11 People is implied in Greek [4] 1:14 Or only One, or unique One [5] 1:16 Or grace in place of grace [6] 1:18 Or the only One, who is God; some manuscripts the only Son [7] 1:18 Greek in the bosom of the Father (ESV)

Proper 13 First Psalm: Psalm 93; Psalm 96 Psalm 93 (Listen) The Lord Reigns 93   The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;    the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.  Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.2   Your throne is established from of old;    you are from everlasting. 3   The floods have lifted up, O LORD,    the floods have lifted up their voice;    the floods lift up their roaring.4   Mightier than the thunders of many waters,    mightier than the waves of the sea,    the LORD on high is mighty! 5   Your decrees are very trustworthy;    holiness befits your house,    O LORD, forevermore. (ESV) Psalm 96 (Listen) Worship in the Splendor of Holiness 96   Oh sing to the LORD a new song;    sing to the LORD, all the earth!2   Sing to the LORD, bless his name;    tell of his salvation from day to day.3   Declare his glory among the nations,    his marvelous works among all the peoples!4   For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;    he is to be feared above all gods.5   For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,    but the LORD made the heavens.6   Splendor and majesty are before him;    strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7   Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,    ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!8   Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;    bring an offering, and come into his courts!9   Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;1    tremble before him, all the earth! 10   Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!    Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;    he will judge the peoples with equity.” 11   Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;    let the sea roar, and all that fills it;12     let the field exult, and everything in it!  Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy13     before the LORD, for he comes,    for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness,    and the peoples in his faithfulness. Footnotes [1] 96:9 Or in holy attire (ESV) Second Psalm: Psalm 34 Psalm 34 (Listen) Taste and See That the Lord Is Good 1 Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. 34   I will bless the LORD at all times;    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.2   My soul makes its boast in the LORD;    let the humble hear and be glad.3   Oh, magnify the LORD with me,    and let us exalt his name together! 4   I sought the LORD, and he answered me    and delivered me from all my fears.5   Those who look to him are radiant,    and their faces shall never be ashamed.6   This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him    and saved him out of all his troubles.7   The angel of the LORD encamps    around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8   Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!9   Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,    for those who fear him have no lack!10   The young lions suffer want and hunger;    but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. 11   Come, O children, listen to me;    I will teach you the fear of the LORD.12   What man is there who desires life    and loves many days, that he may see good?13   Keep your tongue from evil    and your lips from speaking deceit.14   Turn away from evil and do good;    seek peace and pursue it. 15   The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous    and his ears toward their cry.16   The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,    to cut off the memory of them from the earth.17   When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears    and delivers them out of all their troubles.18   The LORD is near to the brokenhearted    and saves the crushed in spirit. 19   Many are the afflictions of the righteous,    but the LORD delivers him out of them all.20   He keeps all his bones;    not one of them is broken.21   Affliction will slay the wicked,    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.22   The LORD redeems the life of his servants;    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Footnotes [1] 34:1 This psalm is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet (ESV) Old Testament: Judges 6:1–24 Judges 6:1–24 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters (ESV) New Testament: 2 Corinthians 9:6–15 2 Corinthians 9:6–15 (Listen) The Cheerful Giver 6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully1 will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency2 in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,   “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;    his righteousness endures forever.” 10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they3 will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! Footnotes [1] 9:6 Greek with blessings; twice in this verse [2] 9:8 Or all contentment [3] 9:13 Or you (ESV) Gospel: Mark 3:20–30 Mark 3:20–30 (Listen) 20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Song of Solomon 6:4–12 Song of Solomon 6:4–12 (Listen) Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other He 4   You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,    lovely as Jerusalem,    awesome as an army with banners.5   Turn away your eyes from me,    for they overwhelm me—  Your hair is like a flock of goats    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.6   Your teeth are like a flock of ewes    that have come up from the washing;  all of them bear twins;    not one among them has lost its young.7   Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate    behind your veil.8   There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,    and virgins without number.9   My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,    the only one of her mother,    pure to her who bore her.  The young women saw her and called her blessed;    the queens and concubines also, and they praised her. 10   “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,    beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,    awesome as an army with banners?” She 11   I went down to the nut orchard    to look at the blossoms of the valley,  to see whether the vines had budded,    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.12   Before I was aware, my desire set me    among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.1 Footnotes [1] 6:12 Or chariots of Ammi-Nadib (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Judges 8 Judges 8 (Listen) Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna 8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger1 against him subsided when he said this. 4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.” 10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. 13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14 And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’” 16 And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. 18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.” 19 And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.” 20 So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise and kill them!” But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.” And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Gideon’s Ephod 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” 24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels2 of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. The Death of Gideon 29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring,3 for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Footnotes [1] 8:3 Hebrew their spirit [2] 8:26 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams [3] 8:30 Hebrew who came from his own loins (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Jeremiah 24 Jeremiah 24 (Listen) The Good Figs and the Bad Figs 24 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. 2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” 4 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. 8 “But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them a horror1 to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” Footnotes [1] 24:9 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Hebrews 7 Hebrews 7 (Listen) The Priestly Order of Melchizedek 7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. 4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers,1 though these also are descended from Abraham. 6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. Jesus Compared to Melchizedek 11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him,   “You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. 20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:   “The Lord has sworn    and will not change his mind,  ‘You are a priest forever.’” 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost2 those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. Footnotes [1] 7:5 Or brothers and sisters [2] 7:25 That is, completely; or at all times (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Song of Solomon 5:10–6:3 Song of Solomon 5:10–6:3 (Listen) The Bride Praises Her Beloved She 10   My beloved is radiant and ruddy,    distinguished among ten thousand.11   His head is the finest gold;    his locks are wavy,    black as a raven.12   His eyes are like doves    beside streams of water,  bathed in milk,    sitting beside a full pool.113   His cheeks are like beds of spices,    mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.  His lips are lilies,    dripping liquid myrrh.14   His arms are rods of gold,    set with jewels.  His body is polished ivory,2    bedecked with sapphires.315   His legs are alabaster columns,    set on bases of gold.  His appearance is like Lebanon,    choice as the cedars.16   His mouth4 is most sweet,    and he is altogether desirable.  This is my beloved and this is my friend,    O daughters of Jerusalem. Others 6   Where has your beloved gone,    O most beautiful among women?  Where has your beloved turned,    that we may seek him with you? Together in the Garden of Love She 2   My beloved has gone down to his garden    to the beds of spices,  to graze5 in the gardens    and to gather lilies.3   I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;    he grazes among the lilies. Footnotes [1] 5:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [2] 5:14 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [3] 5:14 Hebrew lapis lazuli [4] 5:16 Hebrew palate [5] 6:2 Or to pasture his flock; also verse 3 (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Judges 7 Judges 7 (Listen) Gideon’s Three Hundred Men 7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Gideon Defeats Midian 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,1 as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Footnotes [1] 7:22 Some Hebrew manuscripts Zeredah (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Jeremiah 23:9–40 Jeremiah 23:9–40 (Listen) Lying Prophets 9 Concerning the prophets:   My heart is broken within me;    all my bones shake;  I am like a drunken man,    like a man overcome by wine,  because of the LORD    and because of his holy words.10   For the land is full of adulterers;    because of the curse the land mourns,    and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.  Their course is evil,    and their might is not right.11   “Both prophet and priest are ungodly;    even in my house I have found their evil,      declares the LORD.12   Therefore their way shall be to them    like slippery paths in the darkness,    into which they shall be driven and fall,  for I will bring disaster upon them    in the year of their punishment,      declares the LORD.13   In the prophets of Samaria    I saw an unsavory thing:  they prophesied by Baal    and led my people Israel astray.14   But in the prophets of Jerusalem    I have seen a horrible thing:  they commit adultery and walk in lies;    they strengthen the hands of evildoers,    so that no one turns from his evil;  all of them have become like Sodom to me,    and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”15   Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets:  “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food    and give them poisoned water to drink,  for from the prophets of Jerusalem    ungodliness has gone out into all the land.” 16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” 18   For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD    to see and to hear his word,    or who has paid attention to his word and listened?19   Behold, the storm of the LORD!    Wrath has gone forth,  a whirling tempest;    it will burst upon the head of the wicked.20   The anger of the LORD will not turn back    until he has executed and accomplished    the intents of his heart.  In the latter days you will understand it clearly. 21   “I did not send the prophets,    yet they ran;  I did not speak to them,    yet they prophesied.22   But if they had stood in my council,    then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,  and they would have turned them from their evil way,    and from the evil of their deeds. 23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.’ 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD. 33 “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,1 and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.’ 34 And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. 35 Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 36 But ‘the burden of the LORD’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 38 But if you say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the LORD,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’” 39 therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up2 and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’” Footnotes [1] 23:33 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew What burden? [2] 23:39 Or surely forget you (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Hebrews 5:11–6:20 Hebrews 5:11–6:20 (Listen) Warning Against Apostasy 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 6 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings,1 the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The Certainty of God’s Promise 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham,2 having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Footnotes [1] 6:2 Or baptisms (that is, cleansing rites) [2] 6:15 Greek he (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Song of Solomon 5:2–9 Song of Solomon 5:2–9 (Listen) The Bride Searches for Her Beloved She 2   I slept, but my heart was awake.  A sound! My beloved is knocking.  “Open to me, my sister, my love,    my dove, my perfect one,  for my head is wet with dew,    my locks with the drops of the night.”3   I had put off my garment;    how could I put it on?  I had bathed my feet;    how could I soil them?4   My beloved put his hand to the latch,    and my heart was thrilled within me.5   I arose to open to my beloved,    and my hands dripped with myrrh,  my fingers with liquid myrrh,    on the handles of the bolt.6   I opened to my beloved,    but my beloved had turned and gone.  My soul failed me when he spoke.  I sought him, but found him not;    I called him, but he gave no answer.7   The watchmen found me    as they went about in the city;  they beat me, they bruised me,    they took away my veil,    those watchmen of the walls.8   I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,    if you find my beloved,  that you tell him    I am sick with love. Others 9   What is your beloved more than another beloved,    O most beautiful among women?  What is your beloved more than another beloved,    that you thus adjure us? (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Judges 6 Judges 6 (Listen) Midian Oppresses Israel 6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” The Call of Gideon 11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon3 was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. The Sign of the Fleece 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Footnotes [1] 6:14 Septuagint the angel of the Lord; also verse 16 [2] 6:19 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [3] 6:32 Hebrew he (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Jeremiah 22–23:8 Jeremiah 22–23:8 (Listen) 22 Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:   “‘You are like Gilead to me,    like the summit of Lebanon,  yet surely I will make you a desert,    an uninhabited city.17   I will prepare destroyers against you,    each with his weapons,  and they shall cut down your choicest cedars    and cast them into the fire. 8 “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” 9 And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’” 10   Weep not for him who is dead,    nor grieve for him,  but weep bitterly for him who goes away,    for he shall return no more    to see his native land. Message to the Sons of Josiah 11 For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12 but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.” 13   “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,    and his upper rooms by injustice,  who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing    and does not give him his wages,14   who says, ‘I will build myself a great house    with spacious upper rooms,’  who cuts out windows for it,    paneling it with cedar    and painting it with vermilion.15   Do you think you are a king    because you compete in cedar?  Did not your father eat and drink    and do justice and righteousness?    Then it was well with him.16   He judged the cause of the poor and needy;    then it was well.  Is not this to know me?    declares the LORD.17   But you have eyes and heart    only for your dishonest gain,  for shedding innocent blood,    and for practicing oppression and violence.” 18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:   “They shall not lament for him, saying,    ‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’  They shall not lament for him, saying,    ‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’19   With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried,    dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” 20   “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,    and lift up your voice in Bashan;  cry out from Abarim,    for all your lovers are destroyed.21   I spoke to you in your prosperity,    but you said, ‘I will not listen.’  This has been your way from your youth,    that you have not obeyed my voice.22   The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,    and your lovers shall go into captivity;  then you will be ashamed and confounded    because of all your evil.23   O inhabitant of Lebanon,    nested among the cedars,  how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,    pain as of a woman in labor!” 24 “As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.” 28   Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,    a vessel no one cares for?  Why are he and his children hurled and cast    into a land that they do not know?29   O land, land, land,    hear the word of the LORD!30   Thus says the LORD:  “Write this man down as childless,    a man who shall not succeed in his days,  for none of his offspring shall succeed    in sitting on the throne of David    and ruling again in Judah.” The Righteous Branch 23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. 5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ 7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he2 had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.” Footnotes [1] 22:6 Hebrew cities [2] 23:8 Septuagint; Hebrew I (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Hebrews 4:14–5:10 Hebrews 4:14–5:10 (Listen) Jesus the Great High Priest 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 5 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,   “You are my Son,    today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place,   “You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus1 offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Footnotes [1] 5:7 Greek he (ESV)

Judges 6:25-2725 That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one sevenyears old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Thenbuild a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of theAsherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.” 27 So Gideon took ten ofhis servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and thetownspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

Judges 7:2-82 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, orIsrael would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army,‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousandmen left, while ten thousand remained. 4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too manymen. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall gowith you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So Gideontook the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water withtheir tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drankfrom cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 7 The LORDsaid to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianitesinto your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home butkept the three hundred.

WEEK 2 - YHVH (LORD), Revive Our Land April 16th - 22nd Day 12 - Yahweh Shalom April 20, 2020Today, is the 4 month, the 20th day in the year 2020. The number 4 relates to the earth. In Hebrew it’s the letter ‘dalet’ which is symbolized by a ‘door’. The number 20 symbolizes redemption and expectancy. It is connected to a perfect period of waiting, labor or suffering anticipating the breakthrough. In Hebrew 20 is the letter ‘kaph’ which represents the ‘palm of the hand’. It signifies giving freely with the palm up, or covering sin with the palm down.2020 / 2 Chronicles 20:20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD (Yahweh) your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall you prosper. (NKJV)I say, a door is opening before you, those things that you have longed and waited for are right at hand. Stay expectant this year! For your redemption from a hard season is coming to an end. I say, breath, O Breath of God, breath upon the four corners of the Earth - bring new life of out the death structures that have had us captive. I release the Ruach Ha’kodseh to brood over the waters and the face of the earth bringing life out of chaos and disease.Names of God: A Way to Understand His Nature and CharacterThe Names of God used in the Bible act as a roadmap for learning about the character of God. Since the Bible is God's Word to us, the names He chooses in scripture are meant to reveal His true nature to us. Along with revealing God’s nature His names covey His character, promises, authority and power over all.Yahweh ShalomIn the book The God Behind The Names is says; “In order to understand the importance of this covenantal attribute of YHWH Shalom, we must consider the historical setting in which it was given. As a result of Israel’s idolatrous rebellion against YHWH, He sent the Midianites against them. For several years, they severely oppressed Israel, ruining their crops and destroying their land and livestock. When Israel cried out to YHWH to save them, the Angel of the LORD appeared to an unlikely deliverer, Gideon, who was threshing wheat in a secret place for fear of the Midianites.Prior to this, the LORD had sent a prophet to teach and exhort Israel (Judges 6:8-10). Now, the Angel of the LORD had come to confirm the word of the prophet, to commission Gideon as Israel’s deliverer, and to inspire him through various miracles. Most Bible scholars believe that the Angel of the LORD was a preincarnate self-manifestation of YHWH—or Jesus Himself, as Jesus is YHWH incarnate. This, of course, is borne out by Gideon’s own testimony after the Angel suddenly disappeared.” http://www.myredeemerlives.com/namesofgod/namesofgod.html God is Calling Modern Day Gideon’s Judges 6:11-15, 20-2711 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah…Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” 13 Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."14 The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” 15 He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.” 16 But the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man….(Giedon prepares an offering meal) 21 Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the LORD, he said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 The LORD said to him, "Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace. 25 Now on the same night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.” 27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father's household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.I will bless you with…Visitation - Glory - Fire! KEY SCRIPTURE: Numbers 6:22-27 22 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 May Yahweh bless you and protect you; 25 may Yahweh make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 may Yahweh look with favor on you and give you peace. 27 In this way they will pronounce My name over the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (HCSB) Pronounce: declare or announce, to declare (a person or thing) to be as specified.I Will Keep You… Shamar: A close watching of something for guarding or protecting.Psalms 12:5-8 5”Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs.” 6 The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. 7 You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. 8 The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.I Will Bless You!NAME OF GODYahweh-ShalomHebrew words go beyond their spoken pronunciation. Each word conveys feeling, intent, and emotion. Shalom is much more than simple ‘peace’ ‘free from war or strife’ - shalom is complete peace. I’ve heard it said that shalom conveys ‘Nothing broken, nothing missing’ in your life.“Peace (07965) (shalom from salam/salem/shalam = to be safe, sound, healthy, perfect, complete [1Ki 7:51, Neh 6:18]) signifies a sense of well-being and harmony both within and without - Completeness, wholeness, peace, health, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, fullness, rest, harmony; the absence of agitation or discord, a state of calm without anxiety or stress…Shalom also includes the idea of vigour and vitality in all dimensions of life. In short, shalom speaks of holistic ("holy") health for our souls and spirits.” https://www.preceptaustin.org/shalom_-_definition “Although the compound name appears only once in the Old Testament, the word "shalom" by itself appears ±326 times. Transliterated "peace" in our English Bibles, the word appears ±120 times as a greeting or blessing and ±157 times in its various contexts meaning "well", "peace", "good health", "whole", "perfect", or “fulfilled".Based on the many uses of the word throughout the Old Testament, we can conclude that "shalom" means much more than the English word "peace", which means generally "harmonious relations" and the "absence of strife". While "shalom" certainly means that, it goes so much further. to that kind of peace that results from being a whole person in right relationship with God and with others.” http://www.myredeemerlives.com/namesofgod/namesofgod.htmlShalom is a blessing, a manifestation of divine grace.Guzik - The Hebrew word shalom, is more than the cessation of hostility - it is God’s word for wholeness and goodness and total satisfaction in life. This is the abundant life Jesus promised! (John 10:10) Jesus Gives His Peace "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. (John 14:27) And the peace of God (YHWH Shalom), which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. [Ephesians 2:14-22 New King James Version (NKJV)] Scripture: Judges 6:24 So Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh. He called it Yahweh Shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah, which belongs to Abiezer’s family. (NOG) Blessing / Declaration of the Name:I bless you with Yahweh Shalom! Peace that surpasses ALL understanding is yours - this Peace is a person Jesus Christ / Yahweh Shalom. As I called Gideon I am calling you in this hour, Arise mighty men and women of valor. It’s time to cleanse the land of defilement. It’s time to tear down the false gods you have worship (mammon, entertainment, your denominations and church structures, your education and health structures, etc.) These things have often led My People away for the purest form of worship - face to face - with Yahweh! I have come as a jealous God in this season, removing all those things that have gotten your eyes off of Me. Yahweh Shalom has come to bring wholeness to every aspect of your life whatever you have need of ask of Me. For I AM is present - I Will Be to You Whatever You Need Be to BE! Call out, for I hear your every cry. I collect your every tear and I AM here to bring you into the place of Destiny, into the place Victory. Not just for you Beloved but so the people of the earth can be blessed by you through ME!Yahweh Shalom!

Judges 7:1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. 4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore. 13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.” 14 His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.” 15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands.”

View the Bulletin for Wednesday July 10, 2019Service Time: 7:00 p.m.Bible Study: 7:35 p.m.Judges 6:1-24The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD.When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.Acts 14:19—15:5But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples.But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:00] Hi this is Carolyn Springer. Welcome to the next session. I'm calling you with Beatty Carmichael Beatty is the CEO of Master grabber. He created agent dominator and he's one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Today we're going to be having one of our radical things call they'll welcome me. I'm excited to get started.   [00:00:21] Well thank you Caroline and I am excited as well and for just as a note for those who are joining in from the real estate side of things. If you're looking for marketing this call is not going to be doing any real estate marketing. We're going to be talking entirely about living a life as a Christian and how to step out in faith. So if you're not interested in that topic just fair warning. That's what this entire call is going to be about so you can move on if you don't have interest but. Oh yeah. So what I wanted to do today Caroline is kind of pick up where we left off the last time we're talking about getting out of the boat and what that means in our spiritual life I saw a plane off not playing off the title but the title of guy's book if you want to walk on water you've got to step out of the boat. So just out of curiosity without putting you on the spot there's no right answer. Does anything come to mind that stood out from our last call that you thought was really interesting or something you really picked up on.   [00:01:36] Well I do remember being just really challenged. I love the way that you explain a lot of you know almost what God expects of us in faith because I think a lot of times we kind of weather it just day to day. We don't really think about being there. You know and just you know the way that faith pleases God really is such a good challenge to be reminded of it's just the way that you explain things in the way that you take scripture. It feels more like conviction than just something that kind of warm and this conviction you know and like a charge and challenge I guess if that makes sense. So that's that's the feeling I remember leaving the last call with. So I don't know if that's something specific but I do always appreciate the way that you explain Scripture with a lot of you know fire and passion and tenacity. I love it.   [00:02:34] I appreciate that. You know it's interesting. If we truly live our life for Christ then there should be that fire and passion just like if you are truly in a marriage where you love your spouse there's gonna be that fire and passion as well because in our life with Christ is a relationship.   [00:02:56] And it's not a list of it's not a set of techniques. It's not a set of do's and don'ts. It's a relationship. And the more you know the person you're in love with the more you know how their heart beats the more you know how they respond and how much they love you then you just flourish in that environment. Does that make sense.   [00:03:22] Absolutely. I mean I think you know that's part of that's a good illustration with a marriage. I mean that's what our relationship with the word should be. It should be the most important relationship in our lives. Then you know to know him that's how we can begin to understand and serve him and so knowing him and loving him and what makes his heart be and I love that that's a great description.   [00:03:44] Yeah. So my goal with these calls is to try to open up what causes that heart to be. And there are laws okay. At the end of Romans 7 Paul talks about the law and how with the law comes recognition of the sin in fact without the law there is no sin but he starts to talk about God's laws are spiritual laws okay. We don't grasp them in our physical body our physical body is unable to do the spiritual laws and that's why our flesh is always at war in conflict worth God's laws and can never please God as it says later in Roman say but in when we have these spiritual laws the more we understand the spiritual laws that's the heart of the father because the father created these laws for us and and so my goal is to try to you know open up what these laws are so we understand more of God's heart and we understand more of how we live in relationship with that.   [00:04:57] Let me do a quick review on just a couple of key things we talked about last time. So this thing we're calling radical faith OK. Which is probably it's a term I started many years back and I'm not sure I will use it today only because I have to re-explain it in Christendom. There is no radical faith here either a yes or no you have faith or you don't have faith there is no degrees of faith that says that.   [00:05:27] What is it. I think it's Romans 12. God has given all a measure of faith. And you don't get more faith or of less faith you either have it or you don't. And in a technical term in what's called programming languages a Boolean. A Boolean is either true or false. OK. That's kind of what faces. But we in our fleshly minds tend to categorize things and degrees and we think that someone has faith because oh look at them there they're walking with the Lord.   [00:06:02] They must have faith or they pray or light. So they have faith but then we see someone that does something more dramatic and they go. That's really a lot of faith that's radical. OK. So using the term strictly from that point radical faith is really what God says this is faith. And what we talked about last time is that this concept this understanding of faith is really choosing to step out on God clearly defined will. And when we step out on. Clearly defined will we see God act when we step out at great personal risk or sacrifice. OK that's a little nutshell definition and this is the point I wanted to kind of underscore from last time. We talked about some things now I want to go into a little bit more application that we see from Scripture and maybe from other people's lives today. But the understanding is this is not simply stepping out trusting God to take care of us. What faith is it stepping out trusting God when we step out on what he directed us to do. Because a lot of times will presume upon God's goodness and when we presume upon God's goodness. God doesn't always act does that make sense.   [00:07:31] Absolutely I think you know the faith has to be placed in his word. And you know in his nature so that makes sense and that's a great explanation.   [00:07:42] Yeah. Let me give you an actual example real life story from to kind of talk about this. The. Let's see. I'm just shooting you a quick text.   [00:07:59] So on this story this is a bypass or over in Korea named Dr. Paul younger Cho. He wrote a book called The fourth dimension. Really fascinating book. It was written back in the 80s I think. And at that time his church was much smaller than it is today. At that time his church was only 500000 members. Okay. Today it numbers into the millions. But he was sharing this. He was talking about this this idea this understanding of faith and what it is and how we apply it. And he was sharing an example. That kind of I'm trying to lead into and that is it's not presumption. Faith is when we act on God's clearly defined well enough when we act on what we think his desires. And so there has been there was a lot of discussion during this timeframe about stepping out on God's will and stepping up by faith God's going to move and do frequently do the miraculous. So these teenagers were headed to a remote village to go share the gospel. That's God's will to go share the gospel with these people. They came to an impasse. There was a raging river. Much like the Jordan was a raging river at the time Joshua crossed the Jordan to go to Jericho. When God finally led them into the promised land and these teenagers there was a group of three or four girls out of this group of teenagers that said hey guys wait hold on. We're doing God's will. We need a step out by faith just like the priest did when they crossed the Jordan says they put their foot in the Jordan. The Jordan River dried up so they could cross on dry line dry land. So we need to trust God to do the same thing here. When we walk into that raging creek raging river god will dry it up and we're gonna walk across on dry land. So they stepped out and guess what happened.   [00:10:10] Did not part. That's right. They're not art.   [00:10:14] They found their bodies three or four days later. Okay so that's presumption. That's not faith. And this is the key. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ and that hearing the word that word is Raymer. And in a very simplistic I was corrected by my pastor.   [00:10:36] One of my pastors a couple of years ago said you know the word Ramo actually has like you know multiple different definitions and stuff. So I'm not being real technical I'm being very general on this. The general idea with Reema is it's a specific message to you and those girls do not have a specific message to go step out in the creek in the river. So when we have the specific message then when we step out by faith then that's when God moves. Fun fun interesting story years back Smith Wigglesworth is praying for this guy who has no feet.   [00:11:17] And he said tomorrow when you wake up you will have feet. So you need to go buy some shoes today. So the man goes into the shoe store and says I need to get some shoes and the shoe man shoe salesman said what size. He said I don't know just pick any size. Therefore a guy looked as though you don't have any fees said not today but I will tomorrow. So he bought the shoes and he woke up in the morning in the Etsy. So now you could wear the shoes and they happen to be. I'm sure the exact same size as the shoes that he bought.   [00:11:56] So that's stamping out by God's direction. OK.   [00:12:02] But if you're not stepping out by God's clearly defined well then you're not standing up by faith. So just be cautious on that. So when we do step out this is the thing that's interesting when we act on quote God has clearly directed us even though what God has directed us may seem contrary to all natural laws. It doesn't matter because I think we talked about this earlier Thy word is truth remember. God's Word is truth.   [00:12:34] Truth is always true. What we have in N on the earth is simply reality and God's truth trumps reality all the time. So when God tells us to do something and it doesn't line up into what we think it should or could. That's where faith comes in because faith is is walking not by sight but by faith. So we find that God shows up when we step out sometimes God shows up providential and sometimes he shows up miraculously. We're having this challenge right now. I'll just share a personal story. It's not a challenge. There's this constant conflict. My wife and I and my son who goes by my name Beatty Junior and the Lord's been directing Beatty Junior to fast too fast for extended periods of time. Okay so you see a lot of people when they seek the Lord in the Bible they fast for 40 days and 40 nights. Now if you know anything about fasting the body usually can go about two or three weeks without food and then it goes into extreme stages of starvation. So 40 days and 40 nights and still have energy is miraculous.   [00:13:55] Well my wife is our concern because Beatty Junior is losing weight. I keep going but he's following guy's direction. Don't worry about it. So there's this natural conflict because she sees it in the natural but you got to have nutrition. And I keep saying. But if you feast on God's Word and God's word provides the sustenance your body needs. This is what it says back in in Rome and say that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies. Okay. Sustaining life. And so you have this conflict that it doesn't seem natural but because it's not. So are you going to trust the natural or are you going to trust God's word. And and so this kind of brings us back to one key element. You can't put God in a box based on what you see and experience. You can't put him in a box that it can't be true because. OK that's it. You know if you have a limit to what you're willing to trust God on then that means you've got God in a box and God doesn't fit in a box because he's infinite. And what he chooses to do goes beyond anything that the human mind can can dream up something and comprehend.   [00:15:24] Thank you. And so this is where. And so that's kind of the review I want to do one last thing that we talked about last week and then move on from there in two days visit. So last week we also talked about or last time we talked about Peter walking on the water and I just want to go back to that passage. So this is Matthew 14 versus 28 331. And it says this. So Peter said to him meanings to Jesus Lord if it's you.   [00:15:54] Command me to come to you on the water and Jesus said Come. Okay. So Peter's saying Lord if it's you give me a Raymer. Right. If we want to use these terms and so Jesus gave Peter a Raymer he commanded Peter come. And with that come in is the intrinsic promise of sustenance. Come walk on the water and you will walk. So so Peter now has this Rama. And so Peter with this quote unquote radical faith he steps out. He chooses to step out to do God's clearly defined will at great personal risk. OK. So there is our definition. And here's how Peter does it. And Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water and he came toward Jesus. It makes no sense in the natural. But truth overcomes reality. And so he starts to walk on the water. And now God provides not profit initially but provides miraculously and then it continues and he says. But seeing the wind. He became frightened. So now we have the problem. Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus with his which is the truth and puts his eyes onto the natural which is reality. And something happens. But seeing the wind he became frightened and beginning to sink. He cries out. Lord save me. So as soon as he changes where he places his focus living life in the spirit versus life in the flesh if we go back to that Roman terminology kind of loosely okay then as soon as he does that the miracle stops and a natural consequence occurs. Until at that point he prays. He says Lord save me. And at that moment God answers his prayer immediately. Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and saved him. Right. And so we think sometimes that because God answers our prayer we're doing great.   [00:18:18] But that's not the case all the time because here God answers his prayer because he failed to do God's highest and best because he got his eyes off of Jesus and he got them on to reality. He shifted perspective and then Jesus rebuked him. There's only a few things that Jesus rebukes his disciples for the one he rebukes them the most often is this one you have little faith. Why did you doubt. And so now we have little faith and doubt. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Faith is seen from God's perspective. Doubt is seeing the opposite of God's perspective. And we could say that fairly simply and mostly accurately that doubt is seen from the natural perspective faith is from God's perspective. Doubt is from the natural perspective. And so here's the cool part that we start to pull out of this passage.   [00:19:22] Is that when we act in faith. God acts on our behalf. Either miraculously or providential both when we act by sight. Then what happens is those miracles or gods acting on our behalf stopped and we start to get the natural consequence.   [00:19:44] Did I share. I think I did last time about that period of time in my business like fears back where we were losing money losing money and I came to the law and said When are you going to let up and he said well if you believe my word to be true how would you act differently. Did we talk about that.   [00:20:02] We did. Yes and how you had cut back on salaries and then even though the numbers didn't add up. You kind of changed it around according to faith.   [00:20:12] Yeah yeah.   [00:20:13] So you know the cool thing is nothing changed except we now spent more money because we put everyone back at full pay and immediately without any any comprehension of how we did it. We started making money again.   [00:20:32] Okay. And this is what what happens when you step out by guys clearly defined well. So when he said you know if you really believe my word to be true how would you act differently than you're acting right now. When I acted differently then that was me acting on his. Okay. And so that kind of brings us in to where we are. And here's the here's why I want to kind of take off from here as we walk through our lives our life of walking by faith with the Lord. Nothing is set in stone in terms of what's going to occur in a kind of in a natural sense. Okay. In every situation there are two possible outcomes the outcome if we step out by faith and follow God's word or the outcome if we step out by sight. And follow our eyes. OK. And and as violence we follow God's word. We're gonna have his promises but if we fight if we if we resist his word because it doesn't make sense and therefore we're believing in our logic and in believing in our intellect and believing in what we see then at that point we don't get his promises we get the consequences of our actions and and both of those are true outcomes which is dependent on you.   [00:22:03] So I wanted to walk you through a couple of examples scripturally on how this works. Just to try to build out this picture a little bit more because what what I've learned is God starts to take what ever it is that we have. And then he usually multiplies that in some form or fashion to accomplish what we need. It's not that he does a creative miracle by itself is that he either does it create a miracle starting with what we have or he does a providential supply starting with what we have. But it seems like he usually starts with what little we have. And I want to I want Have you read a passage and then we'll kind of talk through this.   [00:22:48] So this is coming from second King's second Kings chapter 4 and the first six verses. So as you're getting there. Let me just kind of give the background. So this is a story about Eliza and a widow and not Elijah but this is Elijah successor Alicia. And let me know if you've got it pulled up and then I'll let you read it.   [00:23:16] Yes.   [00:23:17] Taking kings for starting first six verses OK here's how we read it.   [00:23:25] Ok so the wife of the man from a company of prophets cried out to Elijah your servant my husband is dead and you know that he revered the Lord but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elijah replied to her How can I help you. Tell me what you what do you have in your house.   [00:23:46] It has four walls also just kind of give you the framework here. So at this time you have what's called debtors prison and debtor slavery. If you owe money and you can't pay it you then come either thrown in prison until you or somebody brings the money on your behalf or you go into slavery to work it off. That's what's happened here. Her deceased husband had borrowed money. They have nothing. And so now she's about to lose her sons to become slaves. So da situation you pick up from there again.   [00:24:26] Ok so this is her replying to a license. She says your servant has nothing here at all she said except a small jar of olive oil like you said go round and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your son. Pour oil into all the jars and as it's filled. Put it to one side. She left him and shut the door behind her and her son. They they brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the doors were closed he said to her son bring me another one. But he replied There is not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing.   [00:25:03] Okay great. So here's we start to see the same pattern that we're going to see throughout. And that pattern is that.   [00:25:14] We come into a dire situation in fact I was reading in Psalms this morning and it says and it said that God takes pleasure and is honored when we cry out to him in times of trouble. He loves rescuing us. And so here we have a situation bad situation. The widow has nothing to lose her sons. And then she hears God's word God's Rama spoken through a life of the prophet. And first off God asks her What do you have. And she says I don't have much. All I have is a jar of oil. So then there's the Rama.   [00:26:05] We'll go grab all the jars not little ones and not just a few as many big ones as many jars as possible throughout everywhere in the village.   [00:26:15] Go on and bring them all. And so they act by faith. They can't see. They don't understand. If they were to try to understand in the natural they would completely doubt. But they acted on God's word. And then when they acted on God's word God starts to do a miracle. He starts to take the little that she has and produce the abundance that she needs. But he starts with what she has which is the little that she has and her faith. And then we see one other thing. Okay as long as she acts by faith and there's more jars to pour the oil into what happens to the oil.   [00:27:06] It stops flowing once the giant.   [00:27:08] Yeah. Once they're out of charge. But as long as they continue to have jars and continue to act by faith God continue to produce a miracle.   [00:27:18] But then my second question was going to be what happened when they ran out of jars when they ran out. They stopped acting by faith and the oil stopped. It's the same pattern that happened with Peter walking on the water isn't it.   [00:27:37] Peter walked on the water as long as he acts by faith. As soon as he starts acting the miracle starts. But we see that guy there with a light show. Let's pull up another one. Pull this up. So then let's shift over to Mark and I'll read this. This comes from Mark Six. This is Jesus feeding the 5000 people. We see a very similar pattern. OK so this is starting in verse 35. It says when it was already quite late His disciples came to him to Jesus and said This place is desolate so just set the background okay.   [00:28:21] Jesus has come over here to a large area on the side of the lake. The Sea of Galilee. Crowds of people are there. He's been teaching them okay. They've been there apparently for several days and now we we pick up on this and it is already quite late His disciples came to him and said This place is desolate and is already quite late send them away so that they may go by themselves something to eat but Jesus answered You give them something to eat.   [00:28:54] How much have you have. How much do you have. How many loaves. We have some kind of skipping around. And Jesus says go look. Tell me how many loaves you have so same thing that happened with Aisha. He asked the widow first. What do you have. That's now what Jesus is doing. What do you have. And when they found out they said five and two fish. So they don't have much. And their need is very great. So then Jesus commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass.   [00:29:27] And it says that they all eight and were satisfied and they picked up twelve baskets of the broken pieces and also the fish fish. And there were 5000 men who ate the loves. So we know obviously that there's 10 to 15000 total people by the time you add women and children. So here we see the same thing happening. God takes the little that we have and produces the abundance that we need. Because he takes the little that we have and produces the abundance that we need when we are following him. When we act in faith by faith on his direction when we serve him because he always takes a little that we have and produces the abundance we need there should never be any time of fear in our lives because we don't have enough of one ever because I know one of the things that most of us struggle with is oh my gosh we don't have enough money to pay the bills or we don't have enough of this or when it comes to health or anything like that we're always start to get our eyes on the natural but God says follow me when I give you a direction step out in faith and I'll always provide for you I'll always give you what you need I won't share one other story from biblical account and this is the story of getting in Do you remember getting in the Bible.   [00:31:02] I do. I don't remember much about him. OK.   [00:31:07] Yes. So. So Gideon is one of one of the judges. OK so to give you a historical perspective the Israelites have moved into the Promised Land. Joshua has now died. And when Joshua died the leadership who trusted the Lord and believed in the Lord and follow the Lord went away. And then people kind of went and did their own things. Okay. So you lost the unity you lost the leadership and therefore you lost the. The receiving of the full promise. So there was a period of judges where God used different people. He called judges. There were basically rulers of the people that would come up and provide protection for the people and guidance and Gideon is one of them. So the way it happens with Gideon is the Lord speaks to Gideon says Gideon. So at this time many knights were coming and raiding the Israelites and they would read them during harvest time. So you'd go out there you'd work all the time you know get a crop in get your olives in get your grapes in and then these bands of warriors would come and attack you and take all your food. So people were living in caves.   [00:32:35] They were storing their food in secret trying to do everything they could to protect themselves. And that's the time that we find Gideon and God comes up to Gideon and says I think I've got this turn right. Oh mighty warrior. OK. And getting in says who me and God tells getting that I want you to go defeat your enemies for Israel. And getting in says I'm not sure this is real. I'm the least of the least of all the tribes and the youngest of my family my family is the least of the tribe. Okay. And so from a hierarchy he has no ruler in ruling or leadership opportunity. It's sort of a caste system there and he's at the bottom of the barrel. But God says no it is you. You know I've chosen you right. And we're gonna want you to do it. So if you remember the story the fleece getting put out of fleece. This is really you and this is your word then cause the police to be wet but the ground to be dry. God does and then he does it again but just it cause the fleece to be dry. But the ground to be wet guy does. And so God has patience with Gideon as Gideon wrestles with what he sees in the natural versus gods clearly defined well for him.   [00:33:58] So now we fast forward just a little bit. Gideon steps out by faith he takes away the altar that his father had made to an idol and and then we fast forward to the point that I want to talk about at this point the MITI knights are now invading the land they're coming against the land. And God tells Gideon you know go and defend Israel against the media nice So Gideon goes out any recruits about 30000 soldiers you call them soldiers. These are peasants for the most part they're farmers. They don't have any swords. I think out of the whole group there may be like three or four swords at that. Okay but come out with Ploughshares with slings whatever they have. And and they're up against thirty one hundred and thirty five thousand Medhi Knight soldiers armed for war. Okay so. But Gideon acts by faith and then God says getting this too many people tell those who are scared to go home. So he tells those who are scared you can go home. So 10000 leave. And now he's left with twenty thousand and now getting into getting a little nervous. Would you agree.   [00:35:23] Yes.   [00:35:25] Twenty thousand force a third of my troops. And we're going to get one hundred thirty five thousand armed warriors all right.   [00:35:32] Those numbers don't add up. Those numbers don't add. So what do you. So what does God say.   [00:35:38] Oh remember. I mean it's been so long.   [00:35:41] Yeah. God says getting you still have too many.   [00:35:44] Yeah. Yeah. But you still have to man.   [00:35:48] So he says Tell everyone to go to the creek go to this river and drink. And based on how they drink there are two ways to drink water you kneel and you cut it in your hand and you bring it up to your mouth and the other way to drink is you kneel and you stick your mouth down to the creek and actually drink out of the creek.   [00:36:08] And he says tell I won't go down and drink. And based on how they drink and I think it's the ones who kneel and stick their mouth into the creek to slurp it up just tell all of them to go home. And so now median is down. Gideon is down to 300 men from thirty thousand three hundred. And guess what God says at that point.   [00:36:35] He says more. Oh no. He says that's perfect. That's all you need.   [00:36:41] Three hundred men against a hundred and thirty five thousand meeting tonight. Okay but then God tells get in to do something strange again. He says now what I want you to do is I want each of you to carry a torch underneath a jar and carry a trumpet. Or a bugle. So if you think about it these days. Okay. You'd have to carry the torch with a jar in one hand and the bugle on the other hand. There is nothing else for you to carry. So he's sending these guys out there without any weapons of warfare. Against one hundred thirty five thousand million AIDS. And here's the plan. All of you get straight down the line marks out there. You take off the jars or break your jars all at the same time. So now there's a flame of torches across one into the other. And then everyone blows the trumpet and says for Gideon and for the Lord. But before he since getting out there God says one more thing. Gideon if you're scared go down into the camp and listen. So Gideon takes his armor bearer. They go into this camp and they hear a story of a dream Being related by one to midnight soldiers to the other.   [00:38:05] I had this dream and this this song this loaf of bread roll down and fell on the tent and crushed it and the other person is now interpreting the dream. By God's direction thing. Well that's nothing but the sort of Gideon he's going to destroy us all. Okay so now Gideon is hearing this go okay. We got this. So now I want you to picture the situation. Gideon goes back and tells these 300 men hey here's what God has told us to do. Here's what we just heard in the camp. Guys we got this. Let's go forward. So they stepped out and they start to march in the middle of the night to do what God has told them.   [00:38:48] Here's the question I have for you. Do you think their heart was beating fast. Do you think they were nervous and maybe a little apprehensive as they went out there or do you think they were cocky confident.   [00:39:06] I would think their hearts would be beating fast even though they heard that you had that word I would think would be.   [00:39:14] I would think so too. OK so firming up by faith is it a lack of concern.   [00:39:22] But it's your choice to step out on God's Will overruling and overpowering any concern you have in the flesh. Okay so it's not like people talk about oh you're so brave. Talking about you know battle warriors. So I wasn't I was scared to death. I just did what I had to do. Okay so the same thing faces. It's not that you have no concern is simply that your commitment to do what the Lord said overrides any concerns that you have.   [00:39:54] And so that's where we find Gideon and the rest the story is they go down there they break their jars so no one holds out their torch. They all blow the trumpet. So you know the trumpet in that time the bugle is a call to war.   [00:40:08] And so three hundred men with trumpets our bugle start blowing their bugles and yelling for Gideon and for the Lord and they round the media night army and from that little bit. The entire hundred thirty five thousand Mitty nights were completely cool. They not only start killing themselves but then during this battle the other Israelites that were the 30000 that did not come with them they muster arms and they come out and they start pursuing them until they're all destroyed. And so we see the same pattern the pattern is that God takes the little resources we have. And frequently he puts us in a position to have only a little bit of resource so that we don't rely on ourselves but we rely on God. And then he tells us very clearly what we should do when he tells us clearly what we talked about in one of the other sessions he highlights scripture for you and he speaks it to your heart or in some way he makes it very clear you know Caroline or Beatty or sue. This is my word for you. I want you to do this. And he makes it very clear to us. And then we step out by faith to do what he has said and we have no comprehension really of how he's going to accomplish protecting us. We're scared we're nervous but we do it anyway because it's God's word to us. And then when we do that God shows up. That's how this whole radical faith concept starts to play out. Is this making sense.   [00:42:01] Oh yes it is. I mean I think even just your description using that story with Gideon is you know encouraging too because I think a lot of times in our mind you know when we think of radical faith or you know what kind of basis we think that pleases God you know maybe we pop ourselves out a thing because you know it's okay to still have you know maybe a question or our heart beating back and you know I think that's encouraging to know. No I mean that's okay. It's about obedience. It's about taking that step even in the midst of you know that kind of question. So I think that was really encouraging for me.   [00:42:44] Let me let me share just kind of personally a time in my business where we weren't doing all that well financially business was hard. Revenues were down. Customers were not very prevalent. Trying to get new customers was tough. And we were on the verge of you know in the natural going out of business. And and the Lord told me focus on my temple not your business. Okay so this message is Hagai one in two. So let me give you the quick synopsis of Hagai Hagai one.   [00:43:26] Okay so this is during the time of Zachariah and Azra it's at the end of the dispersion of the Israelites as God destroy Jerusalem destroyed the temple and shift and sent all of his people Israel and Judah into exile and then God calls them back and they start to rebuild the wall and rebuild the temple. So Hagai is in that timeframe. And during this timeframe they were told to start to rebuild. So they they built the wall up OK. And they were also supposed to build a temple but they stopped building the temple the place of worship. OK. In the Old Testament the temple is a physical structure in the new temple in the New Testament.   [00:44:17] And now the temple is the body of Christ. We're all living stones that we build out the temple of the Lord because the temple is where the Lord dwells and that's us. Okay. So so the correlation into two days time is building the temple is is is sharing the Gospel nurturing people deciphering them being gods hands and feet and building up to the body of Christ. So in Hagai one it says you know you work hard and you get nothing in return.   [00:44:53] He says you put money in your pocket and it goes out in the holes in your pocket. God says I blow it all away.   [00:44:59] And why do I blow away all of your work and all your labors because your focus on your house by my house lies in ruins. And then in Hagai 2 he tells him something really interesting. And it's one of these things that makes no sense. He says. Stop focusing on your own house.   [00:45:21] Stop focusing on your fields. Stop focusing on your provision. Stop focusing on trying to harvest in the grapes and the olives and the figs and all your crops because I just keep blowing them away. You have nothing because I choose for you to have nothing because you've been disobeying me. He says instead focus on building my temple. And if you do then I will bless all of your crops and all your fields and all your heart I'll bless all of that and you'll have an abundance.   [00:45:55] So in this timeframe in my business it was one of those situations where I was working really hard because everything was going south. Figuratively speaking and it required all of my focus just to keep the business going and God kept telling me this is your problem. I told you earlier to build my temple but you keep focusing on your house and Sir my house take me at my word. Focus on my house first and then see what happens. So you know what I did.   [00:46:35] Thanks direction. You have that kind of vision be back in the place. I don't know.   [00:46:42] Yeah I started to focus on saying Okay I'm going to take my time my mental energies my efforts that I would normally put in the business to try to work the business and get it jumpstarted and I'm instead going to abandon that direction and focus on building the Lord's house. Now I still have some business responsibilities I had to do during that time okay. And so I maintain them but my focus shifted to not be concerned about my house but to be concerned about his house.   [00:47:15] And guess what happened with my business.   [00:47:20] Yeah I worked less in the business I had less stress in the business because I turned it over to him and I was now focusing on building his house and also my business starts to grow. It makes no sense in the natural. But it makes all kinds of sense in the spiritual because it's the truth. The truth is when you act on God's direction his clearly defined well for you and you step out at great personal risk or sacrifice because what I was risking is I could lose everything if if I'm wrong.   [00:47:54] But yet even though I was nervous about it I chose to take God at His word and God provided the same thing that we see throughout all these scriptures.   [00:48:07] So that's pretty cool I can tell you some other stories On My Mind in just a moment but I want to kind of go through a couple of what I call truths in all this. So this and the truths of radical faith. Ok first truth is that God is going to use the little that we have to produce the abundance that we need. When we step out on his word he always provides enough. So he's going to always take a little that we have and always provide. The abundance we need. That's the law. That's one of his spiritual laws. Gosh I love to tell you some more stories. Let me move on. The second truth is we must act in faith without any doubt. OK. Once we doubt. The miracle stops or the providential supply stops. Basically when we act by faith which is on God's clearly defined will then God always produces as he's promised. But when we stop acting by faith and we start looking in the natural we get our eyes off of the Lord and on to our circumstances. Then we stop receiving the Lord's providential blessings and we start to receive circumstantial consequences. And the third truth that we can pull out of all this is we have to be willing to accept risk. You cannot live a Christian life without risk because by definition faith is all about risk. With what we see because by definition faith is seeing things from God's perspective which is not the world's perspective. College is kind of making sense.   [00:50:13] Those are great. I hope they will. Let's rewind. Write this down. Those are some great principles. The premise is even more laid on a little longer. What a great way to kill this thing.   [00:50:28] Yeah. So I love what so one of the guys that I learned learned is the wrong word one the guys I studied and that helped me a lot and going on and praying for healing and seeing God heal as a guy named Robbie Dawkins and.   [00:50:52] He says faith is spelled out. I ask. It's risk.   [00:50:59] And here's the way that I think I may have shared this in one of the other visits. Here's the way he expresses it in healing terms. His son one of his son's name is Judah and his son is at a McDonald's. And did I tell the story last time. If I did not tell it again.   [00:51:21] Remember McDonald. Okay Green. I don't know but I'm all for the now.   [00:51:29] Okay folks I'll let them know we finish the story basically redundant then totally a. So. So Judah is at a McDonald's a bunch of high schoolers are in there and one the high school kids is on crutches with a bum food. So what happened is that I broke my foot. So does it hurt his head hurts a lot. So would you like God to heal it.   [00:51:52] Well sure. First off do you think that that high schooler had any expectation that God was going to heal that foot right then. No probably not.   [00:52:01] Probably not. You just said Sure I love regarding yoga but he had no expectation. So here's the question. Did Judah take him off into a corner by himself or no one could see to pray for that foot for God to heal it instantly. Or do you think Judah called everyone in the restaurant to come watch it happen.   [00:52:27] I mean I'm sure. Which way would you do it. I don't know that I would.   [00:52:33] Call everybody to come see it. Whenever we pray for people we do whatever the natural circumstances are we wouldn't necessarily take them away or sue people away but I don't know that we would also sometimes think that they are. But you know I'm thinking wait a minute. Let me tell stories before where he's caught people that won't be my words.   [00:53:01] That's what happened here. So keep in mind Judah is Robby's son and Robby spells faith. Ah I ask. So far Judah did and this is kind of where am.   [00:53:11] This is one of the truisms okay to a degree of radical faith. Is all about risk. You have to be willing to accept risk of what Judah did.   [00:53:20] If he yells out to the entire restaurant Hey guys you want to see a miracle. God is about to heal this broken foot right now.   [00:53:27] Come over and watch that stepping out at great personal risk right. Because you could be greatly embarrassed if God doesn't show up. And then one of the guys said I'm an atheist. I don't believe in that. And so Judas said well then you come up front because you're going to wipe something happened. And so he prays for the foot instantly Hill. The guy throws away his crutches jumping up and down everyone's amazed. God gets the glory. Okay so stepping up in faith always requires risk.   [00:54:06] And I would even say that to the degree of risk you take by acting on God's word is the degree of amazement you're gonna have in watching God work in your life. Let me share just a couple of stories and then we'll wrap up because we're getting close to the time so provision. OK. I want to tell the story of how I got started in business because it's really interesting but it has it ties all this together and shows how much God takes care of us. So nineteen ninety seven is the starting of the story. My wife and I are young married. We have one child just coming out of diapers or maybe still in diapers. We have another Beatty that comes that year. And I find myself first off she's a stay at home mom. So she has no income. We have a house with a mortgage. We have a car with a mortgage. If you ever had one of those and I was unemployed we had 5000 dollars in savings and I gave that five thousand dollars to a missionary couple. So by the first of the year we had nothing in savings. That's where we found ourselves. I did 13 different things that year to make money.   [00:55:40] None of them were very brilliant and none of them did a whole lot because by the end of the year my total adjusted gross income. What you what you actually pay taxes on before you have any giving deductions or maybe after I forget but my total just adjusted gross income was eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars. That's after giving. And during that time what we did is we were giving at that time 20 percent of our income. So every time we earn some money first thing we did is we honor the Lord with it. We gave 20 percent first to the Lord and then we lived off the rest. And I'm a firm believer in Malachi 3. And second Corinthians 9 both of which talk about you cannot out give God financially if you trust him and and give generously that he'll always take care of your needs. So. So here's the cool thing. Not only did we have both mortgages. Not only did we have a Beatty come that year. My wife also had a root canal which cost eleven hundred dollars cash. Not only words are adjusted gross income eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars and not only did we have nothing in savings but here's the cool part.   [00:57:04] We never once miss a payment on anything.   [00:57:08] Well we never once were even late on a payment. We always had an abundance for all of our needs. How does that happen. It doesn't just happen but God moved providential me throughout that entire time and took care of our needs but we stepped out in faith giving the little that we had to him first because we gave by his clearly defined will that he wants us to give and he promises to take care of us when we do. And so that's just you know just another example of not bringing sorry to me but bringing story to how good God is. And we've never once have gone through a period of time where we did not have enough. We've gone through a period of time where we almost went bankrupt. But God always provided and we always had an abundance. And there was never even any great fear because we knew God would always take care of us. And that's kind of what I'm talking about with this radical faith that's trusting at that level that that God is gonna move. Let me wrap up the last couple of thoughts on this because I've got to we've got to start wrapping it up. Last couple of thoughts on this faith is the absolute trust that God will do what he says he will do. And that's where on the last call at the end of the last call I was told you know God asked me what you really believe my word to be true. How would you act differently than you're acting right now.   [00:58:49] If you're acting differently then you would act if you really believed God's word to be true.   [00:58:56] Then you really don't have faith because faith is that absolute trust that God will do what he says he will. And therefore you're going to do exactly what he tells you to do. Faith ultimately can be kind of wrapped up in a simple question Do you trust me. Do you trust my word to be true. Do you trust me to be faithful and true. Do you trust that I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do. And it's not so much about our ability to handle things. Our ability to fix our problems. The thing faith is all about trusting God to act on his promise. Now if we don't have this promise if we don't have his word then we cannot act by faith. It starts first. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. So we have to do that. And then the last thing I want to share is how much faith does it take. I mentioned earlier at the first the call that faith is you either have it or you don't. It's either true or false. Everyone's been given a measure of faith. When the disciples said to Jesus increase our faith Jesus doesn't say how to increase faith he says well if you have faith of grain the size of a grain of mustard seed you could tell this mountain to be taken up and thrown into the mountain into the ocean. That is not how much faith you have it's simply that you have faith. So I want to show you something. So this comes from Mark Martin 9 versus 23 and 24. To set the stage Jesus has just come down from the mount of transfiguration.   [01:00:36] So this is where Moses and Elijah you know the Prophet the law and the prophet and now Christ's grace and the new covenant all appear the law and the prophets disappear.   [01:00:49] All you have left is the new covenant of grace and Peter blurts out before the law and the prophets disappear. It says Shall I make you a tent for all three of them. Okay. So then they come down the mountain they find a commotion and a commotion is there's a man there with a boy with epilepsy who brought the his son to Jesus his disciples to cast out the demon to heal a son and they could not. And so that's now where we start to find this passage and then he says Lord help me help. Help me if you can.   [01:01:31] And then Jesus says starting in Mark 923 and Jesus said to him if you can. All things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the boy's father cried out and said I do believe help my unbelief. So here's the question. Caroline how much faith did that father have.   [01:01:58] Very little. I mean I guess you could say the size of a mustard seed that Al Gore would need to work with what we have.   [01:02:06] That's right. He had very little in fact the only faith he had. He brought his son there. But even by his own admission. I do believe help my unbelief and all it takes is a little bit of belief. God takes the little that we have.   [01:02:26] And then he miraculously produces the abundance that we need to accomplish what he said is gonna happen. And so it's not a lot of faith is simply acting by what we do have. And last couple of statements on this is that you cannot receive God's promises without faith office promises or promises. From the spiritual realm they emanate into quite frequently into the physical realm. But just like his laws are spiritual so are his promises and you cannot receive those promises except by faith. The other final thing is faith and doubt cannot coexist. If you doubt you don't have faith.   [01:03:18] This is what James says but not the one who doubts expect to receive anything from the Lord. It's okay to be a little bit afraid. It's okay to be a little anxious just like Gideon going down there. I'm sure his heart was beating and they're probably perspiring and they're going oh lord I'm doing what you said but please show up. Okay. And we did the same thing. But the fact is that you act by faith just like the guy that I was selling about Smith Wigglesworth. If he did not go and buy those shoes would he have woken up with his feet. I don't know but my guess is probably not because it was that little act of faith. Trusting guy was gonna do what he did. And we see this even with Jesus. He tells someone he will go wash your eyes and it's only when he wash his eyes that he starts to see.   [01:04:12] So that's pretty much it. Any thoughts or comments anything stand out for you.   [01:04:20] Well I think it was kind of like we started off earlier. It's just a challenge you know to examine your heart. And it's a challenge to step out and risk when you feel holy spirit pumping are you. You hear the words too you know to go for it whether it's praying for somebody or believing for healing or believing like you said the provision whatever it is. I think sometimes that it's easy to believe in your own family or are against it. For my experience to believe you know four things because I can reflect back and know has always been faithful and things like that for my own family and for this and. But it's definitely been these calls have been challenging me as far as stepping out for the evangelistic side because that's not always the easiest thing to operate in as easily as my husband. And so as always it's a good reminder just to go and to to kind of. I don't love this terminology but you know for lack of a better word it's just the verse uses under the bus. But let's do it like you've got to show up guys. And so I don't know. I always walk away challenged. So thank you for inviting me to be a part of this.   [01:05:39] Ok. Well you're welcome.     P006

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   [00:00:00] Hi this is Carolyn Springer. Welcome to the next session. I'm calling you with Beatty Carmichael Beatty is the CEO of Master grabber. He created agent dominator and he's one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Today we're going to be having one of our radical things call they'll welcome me. I'm excited to get started.   [00:00:21] Well thank you Caroline and I am excited as well and for just as a note for those who are joining in from the real estate side of things. If you're looking for marketing this call is not going to be doing any real estate marketing. We're going to be talking entirely about living a life as a Christian and how to step out in faith. So if you're not interested in that topic just fair warning. That's what this entire call is going to be about so you can move on if you don't have interest but. Oh yeah. So what I wanted to do today Caroline is kind of pick up where we left off the last time we're talking about getting out of the boat and what that means in our spiritual life I saw a plane off not playing off the title but the title of guy's book if you want to walk on water you've got to step out of the boat. So just out of curiosity without putting you on the spot there's no right answer. Does anything come to mind that stood out from our last call that you thought was really interesting or something you really picked up on.   [00:01:36] Well I do remember being just really challenged. I love the way that you explain a lot of you know almost what God expects of us in faith because I think a lot of times we kind of weather it just day to day. We don't really think about being there. You know and just you know the way that faith pleases God really is such a good challenge to be reminded of it's just the way that you explain things in the way that you take scripture. It feels more like conviction than just something that kind of warm and this conviction you know and like a charge and challenge I guess if that makes sense. So that's that's the feeling I remember leaving the last call with. So I don't know if that's something specific but I do always appreciate the way that you explain Scripture with a lot of you know fire and passion and tenacity. I love it.   [00:02:34] I appreciate that. You know it's interesting. If we truly live our life for Christ then there should be that fire and passion just like if you are truly in a marriage where you love your spouse there's gonna be that fire and passion as well because in our life with Christ is a relationship.   [00:02:56] And it's not a list of it's not a set of techniques. It's not a set of do's and don'ts. It's a relationship. And the more you know the person you're in love with the more you know how their heart beats the more you know how they respond and how much they love you then you just flourish in that environment. Does that make sense.   [00:03:22] Absolutely. I mean I think you know that's part of that's a good illustration with a marriage. I mean that's what our relationship with the word should be. It should be the most important relationship in our lives. Then you know to know him that's how we can begin to understand and serve him and so knowing him and loving him and what makes his heart be and I love that that's a great description.   [00:03:44] Yeah. So my goal with these calls is to try to open up what causes that heart to be. And there are laws okay. At the end of Romans 7 Paul talks about the law and how with the law comes recognition of the sin in fact without the law there is no sin but he starts to talk about God's laws are spiritual laws okay. We don't grasp them in our physical body our physical body is unable to do the spiritual laws and that's why our flesh is always at war in conflict worth God's laws and can never please God as it says later in Roman say but in when we have these spiritual laws the more we understand the spiritual laws that's the heart of the father because the father created these laws for us and and so my goal is to try to you know open up what these laws are so we understand more of God's heart and we understand more of how we live in relationship with that.   [00:04:57] Let me do a quick review on just a couple of key things we talked about last time. So this thing we're calling radical faith OK. Which is probably it's a term I started many years back and I'm not sure I will use it today only because I have to re-explain it in Christendom. There is no radical faith here either a yes or no you have faith or you don't have faith there is no degrees of faith that says that.   [00:05:27] What is it. I think it's Romans 12. God has given all a measure of faith. And you don't get more faith or of less faith you either have it or you don't. And in a technical term in what's called programming languages a billion billion is either true or false. OK. That's kind of what faces. But we in our fleshly minds tend to categorize things and degrees and we think that someone has faith because oh look at them there they're walking with the Lord.   [00:06:02] They must have faith or they pray or light. So they have faith but then we see someone that does something more dramatic and they go. That's really a lot of faith that's radical. OK. So using the term strictly from that point radical faith is really what God says this is faith. And what we talked about last time is that this concept this understanding of faith is really choosing to step out on God clearly defined will. And when we step out on. Clearly defined will we see God act when we step out at great personal risk or sacrifice. OK that's a little nutshell definition and this is the point I wanted to kind of underscore from last time. We talked about some things now I want to go into a little bit more application that we see from Scripture and maybe from other people's lives today. But the understanding is this is not simply stepping out trusting God to take care of us. What faith is it stepping out trusting God when we step out on what he directed us to do. Because a lot of times will presume upon God's goodness and when we presume upon God's goodness. God doesn't always act does that make sense.   [00:07:31] Absolutely I think you know the faith has to be placed in his word. And you know in his nature so that makes sense and that's a great explanation.   [00:07:42] Yeah. Let me give you an actual example real life story from to kind of talk about this. The. Let's see. I'm just shooting you a quick text.   [00:07:59] So on this story this is a bypass or over in Korea named Dr. Paul younger Cho. He wrote a book called The fourth dimension. Really fascinating book. It was written back in the 80s I think. And at that time his church was much smaller than it is today. At that time his church was only 500000 members. Okay. Today it numbers into the millions. But he was sharing this. He was talking about this this idea this understanding of faith and what it is and how we apply it. And he was sharing an example. That kind of I'm trying to lead into and that is it's not presumption. Faith is when we act on God's clearly defined well enough when we act on what we think his desires. And so there has been there was a lot of discussion during this timeframe about stepping out on God's will and stepping up by faith God's going to move and do frequently do the miraculous. So these teenagers were headed to a remote village to go share the gospel. That's God's will to go share the gospel with these people. They came to an impasse. There was a raging river. Much like the Jordan was a raging river at the time Joshua crossed the Jordan to go to Jericho. When God finally led them into the promised land and these teenagers there was a group of three or four girls out of this group of teenagers that said hey guys wait hold on. We're doing God's will. We need a step out by faith just like the priest did when they crossed the Jordan says they put their foot in the Jordan. The Jordan River dried up so they could cross on dry line dry land. So we need to trust God to do the same thing here. When we walk into that raging creek raging river god will dry it up and we're gonna walk across on dry land. So they stepped out and guess what happened.   [00:10:10] Did not part. That's right. They're not art.   [00:10:14] They found their bodies three or four days later. Okay so that's presumption. That's not faith. And this is the key. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ and that hearing the word that word is Raymer. And in a very simplistic I was corrected by my pastor.   [00:10:36] One of my pastors a couple of years ago said you know the word Ramo actually has like you know multiple different definitions and stuff. So I'm not being real technical I'm being very general on this. The general idea with Reema is it's a specific message to you and those girls do not have a specific message to go step out in the creek in the river. So when we have the specific message then when we step out by faith then that's when God moves. Fun fun interesting story years back Smith Wigglesworth is praying for this guy who has no feet.   [00:11:17] And he said tomorrow when you wake up you will have feet. So you need to go buy some shoes today. So the man goes into the shoe store and says I need to get some shoes and the shoe man shoe salesman said what size. He said I don't know just pick any size. Therefore a guy looked as though you don't have any fees said not today but I will tomorrow. So he bought the shoes and he woke up in the morning in the Etsy. So now you could wear the shoes and they happen to be. I'm sure the exact same size as the shoes that he bought.   [00:11:56] So that's stamping out by God's direction. OK.   [00:12:02] But if you're not stepping out by God's clearly defined well then you're not standing up by faith. So just be cautious on that. So when we do step out this is the thing that's interesting when we act on quote God has clearly directed us even though what God has directed us may seem contrary to all natural laws. It doesn't matter because I think we talked about this earlier Thy word is truth remember. God's Word is truth.   [00:12:34] Truth is always true. What we have in N on the earth is simply reality and God's truth trumps reality all the time. So when God tells us to do something and it doesn't line up into what we think it should or could. That's where faith comes in because faith is is walking not by sight but by faith. So we find that God shows up when we step out sometimes God shows up providential and sometimes he shows up miraculously. We're having this challenge right now. I'll just share a personal story. It's not a challenge. There's this constant conflict. My wife and I and my son who goes by my name Beatty Junior and the Lord's been directing Beatty Junior to fast too fast for extended periods of time. Okay so you see a lot of people when they seek the Lord in the Bible they fast for 40 days and 40 nights. Now if you know anything about fasting the body usually can go about two or three weeks without food and then it goes into extreme stages of starvation. So 40 days and 40 nights and still have energy is miraculous.   [00:13:55] Well my wife is our concern because Beatty Junior is losing weight. I keep going but he's following guy's direction. Don't worry about it. So there's this natural conflict because she sees it in the natural but you got to have nutrition. And I keep saying. But if you feast on God's Word and God's word provides the sustenance your body needs. This is what it says back in in Rome and say that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies. Okay. Sustaining life. And so you have this conflict that it doesn't seem natural but because it's not. So are you going to trust the natural or are you going to trust God's word. And and so this kind of brings us back to one key element. You can't put God in a box based on what you see and experience. You can't put him in a box that it can't be true because. OK that's it. You know if you have a limit to what you're willing to trust God on then that means you've got God in a box and God doesn't fit in a box because he's infinite. And what he chooses to do goes beyond anything that the human mind can can dream up something and comprehend.   [00:15:24] Thank you. And so this is where. And so that's kind of the review I want to do one last thing that we talked about last week and then move on from there in two days visit. So last week we also talked about or last time we talked about Peter walking on the water and I just want to go back to that passage. So this is Matthew 14 versus 28 331. And it says this. So Peter said to him meanings to Jesus Lord if it's you.   [00:15:54] Command me to come to you on the water and Jesus said Come. Okay. So Peter's saying Lord if it's you give me a Raymer. Right. If we want to use these terms and so Jesus gave Peter a Raymer he commanded Peter come. And with that come in is the intrinsic promise of sustenance. Come walk on the water and you will walk. So so Peter now has this Rama. And so Peter with this quote unquote radical faith he steps out. He chooses to step out to do God's clearly defined will at great personal risk. OK. So there is our definition. And here's how Peter does it. And Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water and he came toward Jesus. It makes no sense in the natural. But truth overcomes reality. And so he starts to walk on the water. And now God provides not profit initially but provides miraculously and then it continues and he says. But seeing the wind. He became frightened. So now we have the problem. Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus with his which is the truth and puts his eyes onto the natural which is reality. And something happens. But seeing the wind he became frightened and beginning to sink. He cries out. Lord save me. So as soon as he changes where he places his focus living life in the spirit versus life in the flesh if we go back to that Roman terminology kind of loosely okay then as soon as he does that the miracle stops and a natural consequence occurs. Until at that point he prays. He says Lord save me. And at that moment God answers his prayer immediately. Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and saved him. Right. And so we think sometimes that because God answers our prayer we're doing great.   [00:18:18] But that's not the case all the time because here God answers his prayer because he failed to do God's highest and best because he got his eyes off of Jesus and he got them on to reality. He shifted perspective and then Jesus rebuked him. There's only a few things that Jesus rebukes his disciples for the one he rebukes them the most often is this one you have little faith. Why did you doubt. And so now we have little faith and doubt. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Faith is seen from God's perspective. Doubt is seeing the opposite of God's perspective. And we could say that fairly simply and mostly accurately that doubt is seen from the natural perspective faith is from God's perspective. Doubt is from the natural perspective. And so here's the cool part that we start to pull out of this passage.   [00:19:22] Is that when we act in faith. God acts on our behalf. Either miraculously or providential both when we act by sight. Then what happens is those miracles or gods acting on our behalf stopped and we start to get the natural consequence.   [00:19:44] Did I share. I think I did last time about that period of time in my business like fears back where we were losing money losing money and I came to the law and said When are you going to let up and he said well if you believe my word to be true how would you act differently. Did we talk about that.   [00:20:02] We did. Yes and how you had cut back on salaries and then even though the numbers didn't add up. You kind of changed it around according to faith.   [00:20:12] Yeah yeah.   [00:20:13] So you know the cool thing is nothing changed except we now spent more money because we put everyone back at full pay and immediately without any any comprehension of how we did it. We started making money again.   [00:20:32] Okay. And this is what what happens when you step out by guys clearly defined well. So when he said you know if you really believe my word to be true how would you act differently than you're acting right now. When I acted differently then that was me acting on his. Okay. And so that kind of brings us in to where we are. And here's the here's why I want to kind of take off from here as we walk through our lives our life of walking by faith with the Lord. Nothing is set in stone in terms of what's going to occur in a kind of in a natural sense. Okay. In every situation there are two possible outcomes the outcome if we step out by faith and follow God's word or the outcome if we step out by sight. And follow our eyes. OK. And and as violence we follow God's word. We're gonna have his promises but if we fight if we if we resist his word because it doesn't make sense and therefore we're believing in our logic and in believing in our intellect and believing in what we see then at that point we don't get his promises we get the consequences of our actions and and both of those are true outcomes which is dependent on you.   [00:22:03] So I wanted to walk you through a couple of examples scripturally on how this works. Just to try to build out this picture a little bit more because what what I've learned is God starts to take what ever it is that we have. And then he usually multiplies that in some form or fashion to accomplish what we need. It's not that he does a creative miracle by itself is that he either does it create a miracle starting with what we have or he does a providential supply starting with what we have. But it seems like he usually starts with what little we have. And I want to I want Have you read a passage and then we'll kind of talk through this.   [00:22:48] So this is coming from second King's second Kings chapter 4 and the first six verses. So as you're getting there. Let me just kind of give the background. So this is a story about Eliza and a widow and not Elijah but this is Elijah successor Alicia. And let me know if you've got it pulled up and then I'll let you read it.   [00:23:16] Yes.   [00:23:17] Taking kings for starting first six verses OK here's how we read it.   [00:23:25] Ok so the wife of the man from a company of prophets cried out to Elijah your servant my husband is dead and you know that he revered the Lord but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elijah replied to her How can I help you. Tell me what you what do you have in your house.   [00:23:46] It has four walls also just kind of give you the framework here. So at this time you have what's called debtors prison and debtor slavery. If you owe money and you can't pay it you then come either thrown in prison until you or somebody brings the money on your behalf or you go into slavery to work it off. That's what's happened here. Her deceased husband had borrowed money. They have nothing. And so now she's about to lose her sons to become slaves. So da situation you pick up from there again.   [00:24:26] Ok so this is her replying to a license. She says your servant has nothing here at all she said except a small jar of olive oil like you said go round and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your son. Pour oil into all the jars and as it's filled. Put it to one side. She left him and shut the door behind her and her son. They they brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the doors were closed he said to her son bring me another one. But he replied There is not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing.   [00:25:03] Okay great. So here's we start to see the same pattern that we're going to see throughout. And that pattern is that.   [00:25:14] We come into a dire situation in fact I was reading in Psalms this morning and it says and it said that God takes pleasure and is honored when we cry out to him in times of trouble. He loves rescuing us. And so here we have a situation bad situation. The widow has nothing to lose her sons. And then she hears God's word God's Rama spoken through a life of the prophet. And first off God asks her What do you have. And she says I don't have much. All I have is a jar of oil. So then there's the Rama.   [00:26:05] We'll go grab all the jars not little ones and not just a few as many big ones as many jars as possible throughout everywhere in the village.   [00:26:15] Go on and bring them all. And so they act by faith. They can't see. They don't understand. If they were to try to understand in the natural they would completely doubt. But they acted on God's word. And then when they acted on God's word God starts to do a miracle. He starts to take the little that she has and produce the abundance that she needs. But he starts with what she has which is the little that she has and her faith. And then we see one other thing. Okay as long as she acts by faith and there's more jars to pour the oil into what happens to the oil.   [00:27:06] It stops flowing once the giant.   [00:27:08] Yeah. Once they're out of charge. But as long as they continue to have jars and continue to act by faith God continue to produce a miracle.   [00:27:18] But then my second question was going to be what happened when they ran out of jars when they ran out. They stopped acting by faith and the oil stopped. It's the same pattern that happened with Peter walking on the water isn't it.   [00:27:37] Peter walked on the water as long as he acts by faith. As soon as he starts acting the miracle starts. But we see that guy there with a light show. Let's pull up another one. Pull this up. So then let's shift over to Mark and I'll read this. This comes from Mark Six. This is Jesus feeding the 5000 people. We see a very similar pattern. OK so this is starting in verse 35. It says when it was already quite late His disciples came to him to Jesus and said This place is desolate so just set the background okay.   [00:28:21] Jesus has come over here to a large area on the side of the lake. The Sea of Galilee. Crowds of people are there. He's been teaching them okay. They've been there apparently for several days and now we we pick up on this and it is already quite late His disciples came to him and said This place is desolate and is already quite late send them away so that they may go by themselves something to eat but Jesus answered You give them something to eat.   [00:28:54] How much have you have. How much do you have. How many loaves. We have some kind of skipping around. And Jesus says go look. Tell me how many loaves you have so same thing that happened with Aisha. He asked the widow first. What do you have. That's now what Jesus is doing. What do you have. And when they found out they said five and two fish. So they don't have much. And their need is very great. So then Jesus commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass.   [00:29:27] And it says that they all eight and were satisfied and they picked up twelve baskets of the broken pieces and also the fish fish. And there were 5000 men who ate the loves. So we know obviously that there's 10 to 15000 total people by the time you add women and children. So here we see the same thing happening. God takes the little that we have and produces the abundance that we need. Because he takes the little that we have and produces the abundance that we need when we are following him. When we act in faith by faith on his direction when we serve him because he always takes a little that we have and produces the abundance we need there should never be any time of fear in our lives because we don't have enough of one ever because I know one of the things that most of us struggle with is oh my gosh we don't have enough money to pay the bills or we don't have enough of this or when it comes to health or anything like that we're always start to get our eyes on the natural but God says follow me when I give you a direction step out in faith and I'll always provide for you I'll always give you what you need I won't share one other story from biblical account and this is the story of getting in Do you remember getting in the Bible.   [00:31:02] I do. I don't remember much about him. OK.   [00:31:07] Yes. So. So Gideon is one of one of the judges. OK so to give you a historical perspective the Israelites have moved into the Promised Land. Joshua has now died. And when Joshua died the leadership who trusted the Lord and believed in the Lord and follow the Lord went away. And then people kind of went and did their own things. Okay. So you lost the unity you lost the leadership and therefore you lost the. The receiving of the full promise. So there was a period of judges where God used different people. He called judges. There were basically rulers of the people that would come up and provide protection for the people and guidance and Gideon is one of them. So the way it happens with Gideon is the Lord speaks to Gideon says Gideon. So at this time many knights were coming and raiding the Israelites and they would read them during harvest time. So you'd go out there you'd work all the time you know get a crop in get your olives in get your grapes in and then these bands of warriors would come and attack you and take all your food. So people were living in caves.   [00:32:35] They were storing their food in secret trying to do everything they could to protect themselves. And that's the time that we find Gideon and God comes up to Gideon and says I think I've got this turn right. Oh mighty warrior. OK. And getting in says who me and God tells getting that I want you to go defeat your enemies for Israel. And getting in says I'm not sure this is real. I'm the least of the least of all the tribes and the youngest of my family my family is the least of the tribe. Okay. And so from a hierarchy he has no ruler in ruling or leadership opportunity. It's sort of a caste system there and he's at the bottom of the barrel. But God says no it is you. You know I've chosen you right. And we're gonna want you to do it. So if you remember the story the fleece getting put out of fleece. This is really you and this is your word then cause the police to be wet but the ground to be dry. God does and then he does it again but just it cause the fleece to be dry. But the ground to be wet guy does. And so God has patience with Gideon as Gideon wrestles with what he sees in the natural versus gods clearly defined well for him.   [00:33:58] So now we fast forward just a little bit. Gideon steps out by faith he takes away the altar that his father had made to an idol and and then we fast forward to the point that I want to talk about at this point the MITI knights are now invading the land they're coming against the land. And God tells Gideon you know go and defend Israel against the media nice So Gideon goes out any recruits about 30000 soldiers you call them soldiers. These are peasants for the most part they're farmers. They don't have any swords. I think out of the whole group there may be like three or four swords at that. Okay but come out with Ploughshares with slings whatever they have. And and they're up against thirty one hundred and thirty five thousand Medhi Knight soldiers armed for war. Okay so. But Gideon acts by faith and then God says getting this too many people tell those who are scared to go home. So he tells those who are scared you can go home. So 10000 leave. And now he's left with twenty thousand and now getting into getting a little nervous. Would you agree.   [00:35:23] Yes.   [00:35:25] Twenty thousand force a third of my troops. And we're going to get one hundred thirty five thousand armed warriors all right.   [00:35:32] Those numbers don't add up. Those numbers don't add. So what do you. So what does God say.   [00:35:38] Oh remember. I mean it's been so long.   [00:35:41] Yeah. God says getting you still have too many.   [00:35:44] Yeah. Yeah. But you still have to man.   [00:35:48] So he says Tell everyone to go to the creek go to this river and drink. And based on how they drink there are two ways to drink water you kneel and you cut it in your hand and you bring it up to your mouth and the other way to drink is you kneel and you stick your mouth down to the creek and actually drink out of the creek.   [00:36:08] And he says tell I won't go down and drink. And based on how they drink and I think it's the ones who kneel and stick their mouth into the creek to slurp it up just tell all of them to go home. And so now median is down. Gideon is down to 300 men from thirty thousand three hundred. And guess what God says at that point.   [00:36:35] He says more. Oh no. He says that's perfect. That's all you need.   [00:36:41] Three hundred men against a hundred and thirty five thousand meeting tonight. Okay but then God tells get in to do something strange again. He says now what I want you to do is I want each of you to carry a torch underneath a jar and carry a trumpet. Or a bugle. So if you think about it these days. Okay. You'd have to carry the torch with a jar in one hand and the bugle on the other hand. There is nothing else for you to carry. So he's sending these guys out there without any weapons of warfare. Against one hundred thirty five thousand million AIDS. And here's the plan. All of you get straight down the line marks out there. You take off the jars or break your jars all at the same time. So now there's a flame of torches across one into the other. And then everyone blows the trumpet and says for Gideon and for the Lord. But before he since getting out there God says one more thing. Gideon if you're scared go down into the camp and listen. So Gideon takes his armor bearer. They go into this camp and they hear a story of a dream Being related by one to midnight soldiers to the other.   [00:38:05] I had this dream and this this song this loaf of bread roll down and fell on the tent and crushed it and the other person is now interpreting the dream. By God's direction thing. Well that's nothing but the sort of Gideon he's going to destroy us all. Okay so now Gideon is hearing this go okay. We got this. So now I want you to picture the situation. Gideon goes back and tells these 300 men hey here's what God has told us to do. Here's what we just heard in the camp. Guys we got this. Let's go forward. So they stepped out and they start to march in the middle of the night to do what God has told them.   [00:38:48] Here's the question I have for you. Do you think their heart was beating fast. Do you think they were nervous and maybe a little apprehensive as they went out there or do you think they were cocky confident.   [00:39:06] I would think their hearts would be beating fast even though they heard that you had that word I would think would be.   [00:39:14] I would think so too. OK so firming up by faith is it a lack of concern.   [00:39:22] But it's your choice to step out on God's Will overruling and overpowering any concern you have in the flesh. Okay so it's not like people talk about oh you're so brave. Talking about you know battle warriors. So I wasn't I was scared to death. I just did what I had to do. Okay so the same thing faces. It's not that you have no concern is simply that your commitment to do what the Lord said overrides any concerns that you have.   [00:39:54] And so that's where we find Gideon and the rest the story is they go down there they break their jars so no one holds out their torch. They all blow the trumpet. So you know the trumpet in that time the bugle is a call to war.   [00:40:08] And so three hundred men with trumpets our bugle start blowing their bugles and yelling for Gideon and for the Lord and they round the media night army and from that little bit. The entire hundred thirty five thousand Mitty nights were completely cool. They not only start killing themselves but then during this battle the other Israelites that were the 30000 that did not come with them they muster arms and they come out and they start pursuing them until they're all destroyed. And so we see the same pattern the pattern is that God takes the little resources we have. And frequently he puts us in a position to have only a little bit of resource so that we don't rely on ourselves but we rely on God. And then he tells us very clearly what we should do when he tells us clearly what we talked about in one of the other sessions he highlights scripture for you and he speaks it to your heart or in some way he makes it very clear you know Caroline or Beatty or sue. This is my word for you. I want you to do this. And he makes it very clear to us. And then we step out by faith to do what he has said and we have no comprehension really of how he's going to accomplish protecting us. We're scared we're nervous but we do it anyway because it's God's word to us. And then when we do that God shows up. That's how this whole radical faith concept starts to play out. Is this making sense.   [00:42:01] Oh yes it is. I mean I think even just your description using that story with Gideon is you know encouraging too because I think a lot of times in our mind you know when we think of radical faith or you know what kind of basis we think that pleases God you know maybe we pop ourselves out a thing because you know it's okay to still have you know maybe a question or our heart beating back and you know I think that's encouraging to know. No I mean that's okay. It's about obedience. It's about taking that step even in the midst of you know that kind of question. So I think that was really encouraging for me.   [00:42:44] Let me let me share just kind of personally a time in my business where we weren't doing all that well financially business was hard. Revenues were down. Customers were not very prevalent. Trying to get new customers was tough. And we were on the verge of you know in the natural going out of business. And and the Lord told me focus on my temple not your business. Okay so this message is Hagai one in two. So let me give you the quick synopsis of Hagai Hagai one.   [00:43:26] Okay so this is during the time of Zachariah and Azra it's at the end of the dispersion of the Israelites as God destroy Jerusalem destroyed the temple and shift and sent all of his people Israel and Judah into exile and then God calls them back and they start to rebuild the wall and rebuild the temple. So Hagai is in that timeframe. And during this timeframe they were told to start to rebuild. So they they built the wall up OK. And they were also supposed to build a temple but they stopped building the temple the place of worship. OK. In the Old Testament the temple is a physical structure in the new temple in the New Testament.   [00:44:17] And now the temple is the body of Christ. We're all living stones that we build out the temple of the Lord because the temple is where the Lord dwells and that's us. Okay. So so the correlation into two days time is building the temple is is is sharing the Gospel nurturing people deciphering them being gods hands and feet and building up to the body of Christ. So in Hagai one it says you know you work hard and you get nothing in return.   [00:44:53] He says you put money in your pocket and it goes out in the holes in your pocket. God says I blow it all away.   [00:44:59] And why do I blow away all of your work and all your labors because your focus on your house by my house lies in ruins. And then in Hagai 2 he tells him something really interesting. And it's one of these things that makes no sense. He says. Stop focusing on your own house.   [00:45:21] Stop focusing on your fields. Stop focusing on your provision. Stop focusing on trying to harvest in the grapes and the olives and the figs and all your crops because I just keep blowing them away. You have nothing because I choose for you to have nothing because you've been disobeying me. He says instead focus on building my temple. And if you do then I will bless all of your crops and all your fields and all your heart I'll bless all of that and you'll have an abundance.   [00:45:55] So in this timeframe in my business it was one of those situations where I was working really hard because everything was going south. Figuratively speaking and it required all of my focus just to keep the business going and God kept telling me this is your problem. I told you earlier to build my temple but you keep focusing on your house and Sir my house take me at my word. Focus on my house first and then see what happens. So you know what I did.   [00:46:35] Thanks direction. You have that kind of vision be back in the place. I don't know.   [00:46:42] Yeah I started to focus on saying Okay I'm going to take my time my mental energies my efforts that I would normally put in the business to try to work the business and get it jumpstarted and I'm instead going to abandon that direction and focus on building the Lord's house. Now I still have some business responsibilities I had to do during that time okay. And so I maintain them but my focus shifted to not be concerned about my house but to be concerned about his house.   [00:47:15] And guess what happened with my business.   [00:47:20] Yeah I worked less in the business I had less stress in the business because I turned it over to him and I was now focusing on building his house and also my business starts to grow. It makes no sense in the natural. But it makes all kinds of sense in the spiritual because it's the truth. The truth is when you act on God's direction his clearly defined well for you and you step out at great personal risk or sacrifice because what I was risking is I could lose everything if if I'm wrong.   [00:47:54] But yet even though I was nervous about it I chose to take God at His word and God provided the same thing that we see throughout all these scriptures.   [00:48:07] So that's pretty cool I can tell you some other stories On My Mind in just a moment but I want to kind of go through a couple of what I call truths in all this. So this and the truths of radical faith. Ok first truth is that God is going to use the little that we have to produce the abundance that we need. When we step out on his word he always provides enough. So he's going to always take a little that we have and always provide. The abundance we need. That's the law. That's one of his spiritual laws. Gosh I love to tell you some more stories. Let me move on. The second truth is we must act in faith without any doubt. OK. Once we doubt. The miracle stops or the providential supply stops. Basically when we act by faith which is on God's clearly defined will then God always produces as he's promised. But when we stop acting by faith and we start looking in the natural we get our eyes off of the Lord and on to our circumstances. Then we stop receiving the Lord's providential blessings and we start to receive circumstantial consequences. And the third truth that we can pull out of all this is we have to be willing to accept risk. You cannot live a Christian life without risk because by definition faith is all about risk. With what we see because by definition faith is seeing things from God's perspective which is not the world's perspective. College is kind of making sense.   [00:50:13] Those are great. I hope they will. Let's rewind. Write this down. Those are some great principles. The premise is even more laid on a little longer. What a great way to kill this thing.   [00:50:28] Yeah. So I love what so one of the guys that I learned learned is the wrong word one the guys I studied and that helped me a lot and going on and praying for healing and seeing God heal as a guy named Robbie Dawkins and.   [00:50:52] He says faith is spelled out. I ask. It's risk.   [00:50:59] And here's the way that I think I may have shared this in one of the other visits. Here's the way he expresses it in healing terms. His son one of his son's name is Judah and his son is at a McDonald's. And did I tell the story last time. If I did not tell it again.   [00:51:21] Remember McDonald. Okay Green. I don't know but I'm all for the now.   [00:51:29] Okay folks I'll let them know we finish the story basically redundant then totally a. So. So Judah is at a McDonald's a bunch of high schoolers are in there and one the high school kids is on crutches with a bum food. So what happened is that I broke my foot. So does it hurt his head hurts a lot. So would you like God to heal it.   [00:51:52] Well sure. First off do you think that that high schooler had any expectation that God was going to heal that foot right then. No probably not.   [00:52:01] Probably not. You just said Sure I love regarding yoga but he had no expectation. So here's the question. Did Judah take him off into a corner by himself or no one could see to pray for that foot for God to heal it instantly. Or do you think Judah called everyone in the restaurant to come watch it happen.   [00:52:27] I mean I'm sure. Which way would you do it. I don't know that I would.   [00:52:33] Call everybody to come see it. Whenever we pray for people we do whatever the natural circumstances are we wouldn't necessarily take them away or sue people away but I don't know that we would also sometimes think that they are. But you know I'm thinking wait a minute. Let me tell stories before where he's caught people that won't be my words.   [00:53:01] That's what happened here. So keep in mind Judah is Robby's son and Robby spells faith. Ah I ask. So far Judah did and this is kind of where am.   [00:53:11] This is one of the truisms okay to a degree of radical faith. Is all about risk. You have to be willing to accept risk of what Judah did.   [00:53:20] If he yells out to the entire restaurant Hey guys you want to see a miracle. God is about to heal this broken foot right now.   [00:53:27] Come over and watch that stepping out at great personal risk right. Because you could be greatly embarrassed if God doesn't show up. And then one of the guys said I'm an atheist. I don't believe in that. And so Judas said well then you come up front because you're going to wipe something happened. And so he prays for the foot instantly Hill. The guy throws away his crutches jumping up and down everyone's amazed. God gets the glory. Okay so stepping up in faith always requires risk.   [00:54:06] And I would even say that to the degree of risk you take by acting on God's word is the degree of amazement you're gonna have in watching God work in your life. Let me share just a couple of stories and then we'll wrap up because we're getting close to the time so provision. OK. I want to tell the story of how I got started in business because it's really interesting but it has it ties all this together and shows how much God takes care of us. So nineteen ninety seven is the starting of the story. My wife and I are young married. We have one child just coming out of diapers or maybe still in diapers. We have another Beatty that comes that year. And I find myself first off she's a stay at home mom. So she has no income. We have a house with a mortgage. We have a car with a mortgage. If you ever had one of those and I was unemployed we had 5000 dollars in savings and I gave that five thousand dollars to a missionary couple. So by the first of the year we had nothing in savings. That's where we found ourselves. I did 13 different things that year to make money.   [00:55:40] None of them were very brilliant and none of them did a whole lot because by the end of the year my total adjusted gross income. What you what you actually pay taxes on before you have any giving deductions or maybe after I forget but my total just adjusted gross income was eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars. That's after giving. And during that time what we did is we were giving at that time 20 percent of our income. So every time we earn some money first thing we did is we honor the Lord with it. We gave 20 percent first to the Lord and then we lived off the rest. And I'm a firm believer in Malachi 3. And second Corinthians 9 both of which talk about you cannot out give God financially if you trust him and and give generously that he'll always take care of your needs. So. So here's the cool thing. Not only did we have both mortgages. Not only did we have a Beatty come that year. My wife also had a root canal which cost eleven hundred dollars cash. Not only words are adjusted gross income eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars and not only did we have nothing in savings but here's the cool part.   [00:57:04] We never once miss a payment on anything.   [00:57:08] Well we never once were even late on a payment. We always had an abundance for all of our needs. How does that happen. It doesn't just happen but God moved providential me throughout that entire time and took care of our needs but we stepped out in faith giving the little that we had to him first because we gave by his clearly defined will that he wants us to give and he promises to take care of us when we do. And so that's just you know just another example of not bringing sorry to me but bringing story to how good God is. And we've never once have gone through a period of time where we did not have enough. We've gone through a period of time where we almost went bankrupt. But God always provided and we always had an abundance. And there was never even any great fear because we knew God would always take care of us. And that's kind of what I'm talking about with this radical faith that's trusting at that level that that God is gonna move. Let me wrap up the last couple of thoughts on this because I've got to we've got to start wrapping it up. Last couple of thoughts on this faith is the absolute trust that God will do what he says he will do. And that's where on the last call at the end of the last call I was told you know God asked me what you really believe my word to be true. How would you act differently than you're acting right now.   [00:58:49] If you're acting differently then you would act if you really believed God's word to be true.   [00:58:56] Then you really don't have faith because faith is that absolute trust that God will do what he says he will. And therefore you're going to do exactly what he tells you to do. Faith ultimately can be kind of wrapped up in a simple question Do you trust me. Do you trust my word to be true. Do you trust me to be faithful and true. Do you trust that I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do. And it's not so much about our ability to handle things. Our ability to fix our problems. The thing faith is all about trusting God to act on his promise. Now if we don't have this promise if we don't have his word then we cannot act by faith. It starts first. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. So we have to do that. And then the last thing I want to share is how much faith does it take. I mentioned earlier at the first the call that faith is you either have it or you don't. It's either true or false. Everyone's been given a measure of faith. When the disciples said to Jesus increase our faith Jesus doesn't say how to increase faith he says well if you have faith of grain the size of a grain of mustard seed you could tell this mountain to be taken up and thrown into the mountain into the ocean. That is not how much faith you have it's simply that you have faith. So I want to show you something. So this comes from Mark Martin 9 versus 23 and 24. To set the stage Jesus has just come down from the mount of transfiguration.   [01:00:36] So this is where Moses and Elijah you know the Prophet the law and the prophet and now Christ's grace and the new covenant all appear the law and the prophets disappear.   [01:00:49] All you have left is the new covenant of grace and Peter blurts out before the law and the prophets disappear. It says Shall I make you a tent for all three of them. Okay. So then they come down the mountain they find a commotion and a commotion is there's a man there with a boy with epilepsy who brought the his son to Jesus his disciples to cast out the demon to heal a son and they could not. And so that's now where we start to find this passage and then he says Lord help me help. Help me if you can.   [01:01:31] And then Jesus says starting in Mark 923 and Jesus said to him if you can. All things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the boy's father cried out and said I do believe help my unbelief. So here's the question. Caroline how much faith did that father have.   [01:01:58] Very little. I mean I guess you could say the size of a mustard seed that Al Gore would need to work with what we have.   [01:02:06] That's right. He had very little in fact the only faith he had. He brought his son there. But even by his own admission. I do believe help my unbelief and all it takes is a little bit of belief. God takes the little that we have.   [01:02:26] And then he miraculously produces the abundance that we need to accomplish what he said is gonna happen. And so it's not a lot of faith is simply acting by what we do have. And last couple of statements on this is that you cannot receive God's promises without faith office promises or promises. From the spiritual realm they emanate into quite frequently into the physical realm. But just like his laws are spiritual so are his promises and you cannot receive those promises except by faith. The other final thing is faith and doubt cannot coexist. If you doubt you don't have faith.   [01:03:18] This is what James says but not the one who doubts expect to receive anything from the Lord. It's okay to be a little bit afraid. It's okay to be a little anxious just like Gideon going down there. I'm sure his heart was beating and they're probably perspiring and they're going oh lord I'm doing what you said but please show up. Okay. And we did the same thing. But the fact is that you act by faith just like the guy that I was selling about Smith Wigglesworth. If he did not go and buy those shoes would he have woken up with his feet. I don't know but my guess is probably not because it was that little act of faith. Trusting guy was gonna do what he did. And we see this even with Jesus. He tells someone he will go wash your eyes and it's only when he wash his eyes that he starts to see.   [01:04:12] So that's pretty much it. Any thoughts or comments anything stand out for you.   [01:04:20] Well I think it was kind of like we started off earlier. It's just a challenge you know to examine your heart. And it's a challenge to step out and risk when you feel holy spirit pumping are you. You hear the words too you know to go for it whether it's praying for somebody or believing for healing or believing like you said the provision whatever it is. I think sometimes that it's easy to believe in your own family or are against it. For my experience to believe you know four things because I can reflect back and know has always been faithful and things like that for my own family and for this and. But it's definitely been these calls have been challenging me as far as stepping out for the evangelistic side because that's not always the easiest thing to operate in as easily as my husband. And so as always it's a good reminder just to go and to to kind of. I don't love this terminology but you know for lack of a better word it's just the verse uses under the bus. But let's do it like you've got to show up guys. And so I don't know. I always walk away challenged. So thank you for inviting me to be a part of this.   [01:05:39] Ok. Well you're welcome. P032

So Gideon’s dead… Anyway, there’s a s#!t load of other planeswalkers in War of the Spark that we can all choose from to be the projected eidolons of our inner desires. And Kyle and Andy are going to review every last one of them.   Join us this week to get the scuttlebutt on all the planeswalker from War of the Spark.   Get some real magic experiences—or watch us screw up games. Check out our gameplay videos on YouTube:    Find the podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or wherever you grab your RSS feeds. Also, ask your smart speakers to play the Legendary Creature Podcast.   The intro and outro beats this episode are from Protector 101’s album Neoncholy. The song is Street Trash. Check out all the dope musicians who graciously let us use their beats, so we can mix up the intro/outro each week: Protector 101 –  Home –  Silver Richards –  Dan Terminus –    Big shout out to Mikey Patch for logo artwork! Check his stuff out: 

In this lesson, we continue learning about Gideon as chosen of God to save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Gideon is fearful, even as God sends an angel to bolster him, calling him a mighty warrior! Then, as Gideon goes to prepare an army from the many men camped among him, the LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. God has Gideon use some unlikely methods to eliminate all but three-hundred men to go up against the entire Midianite army! Further, the LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. Too many men?! How does that hinder God from from defeating the Midianites? Join us in this lesson as we all ow the Scriptures to help us understand what God was really achieving with Gideon. After listening to this lesson, please consider: How does God want us to apply this historic account to our lives, the many times we are fearful, just like Gideon? Allow the Scriptures to further inform you of just Who God Is and enjoy learning what He desires to reveal to you about Him! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/biblestudyweekly/message

The Bible is a book about broken people, causing broken relationships, and hence breaking the environment being redeemed to their creational purpose. Once our connection with God is restored, we learn to begin to love ourselves in an appropriate way, spilling over in love towards others, bring healing and restoration to the world we live in. So essentially the Bible and it’s message is about CHANGE. Constant change to mature and grow in our love towards God, others and changing the world. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” Rev 22:11 Since the beginning we were called to subdue the Earth. (Gen 1:28) but also importantly rule over sin. (Gen 4:7) We sinned when we abandoned our divine purpose, giving in to carnal fleshly, animal instincts. Hence satan appearing in the figure of a snake… an animal. Our lower, state. The greatest gift the Bible, and Christianity ever gave the world is the concept, and belief that we are made in God’s Image. We are more than mere animals. (Gen 1:26; Gen 1:27; Gen 9:6; James 3:9) Voorbeelde: Gewoontes, werk, studie, reg eet, oefening, produksie, kliente sien, op tyd wees, humeur, emosies, depressie, rehabilitasie. So Gideon had to select only 300 men, making a distinction “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself” Judg 7:5-7 God was looking for distinct, distinguished, high morale type of people, to win the battle. Temptation always wants to lead us lower, downward, towards our animal nature. Judah went down from his brethren Gen 38:1 And Samson went down to Timnath Judges 14:1 Whereas God wants to lead us upward. Taking the high moral road. Doing what is right. (Rom 8:5-9; Col 3:1-2; Phil 4:8) We are different than animals: the are not lazy, disloyal, overweight, get addicted no instinctively they merely survive the life-cycle. We have the ability to make choices. Society has adopted the mistaken belief that knowledge can solve all problems. The reality of our modern world is that knowledge and information are now more readily accessible than ever before. Just look at the Internet—knowledge has never been so cheap and readily available. And yet, have we seen improvements in our moral behavior? Do we make better choices for ourselves? No. On the whole, we do not. The problem is that knowledge alone does not alter our behavior. The only thing that will change our behavior is making the right decisions, and the only way to ensure we do that consistently is to build up the strength of our characters. We all hope for the Magic ferry, who will change our poor existence into that of a queen in a moment. This is not going to happen!! It takes a daily effort to continue to make the right choices, and do what is right! The hard part is not knowing what to do but actually doing it, day in and day out for the rest of your life. The dangers of smoking, overeating, and lack of exercise are well documented and understood by most. These are not failures of knowledge; they are failures of behavior. They are moral failures. You cannot pit real pain against imagined gain. Real pain wins every time. You are setting yourself up for failure by ignoring the way the human mind works. We have to find other motivators—imagined gain isn’t going to deter us when we face immediate pain. A summery of all the steps one needs to take to overcome temptation, and indulgences is found in 2 P et 1:3-8 1. FAITH πίστις pístis; gen. písteōs, fem. noun from peíthō (G3982), to win over, persuade. Faith. Subjectively meaning firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth, veracity, reality or faithfulness (though rare). Objectively meaning that which is believed, doctrine, the received articles of faith. 2. VIRTUE (Deug) ἀρετή aretḗ̄; gen. aretḗs, fem. noun. Superiority or being pleasin

A daily devotional exploring the names of God in scripture. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. Topic Introduction with headline. Scripture Judges 6:24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Devotional Jehovah-Shalom, The Lord is peace The story surrounding this verse is anything but one of peace Midianites raided the Israelites at will Stole their crops, livestock Left them in poverty with just enough to sustain life until the next harvest Gideon threshed grain in a winepress to hide from the raiders God chose him to lead an army against these marauders A war would start that would cost countless lives Gideon built an altar and called God, Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord is peace Seems contradictory Why could Gideon call God, Jehovah-Shalom? Brought peace to his own heart Warrior that came to the winepress wasn't there to take the grain Didn't die when he discovered it was an angel Discovered purpose for his life Saw future peace for Israel God had a plan to rescue His people God would defeat their oppressors God would bring peace to His land Can you call God, Jehovah-Shalom? What is causing turmoil in your life? What seems too big to conquer? What enemies seem to stand at the door about to break in? God is bigger. God has a plan. God is almighty and conquers all. Then God brings peace to the troubled heart. He brings victory through impossible situations. God gives peace when peace seems beyond hope Examine your life today. Remember we serve Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord is peace. He can bring peace to you today no matter what you might be facing. If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don't, tell me. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for "A Little Walk with God."  

The Hebrew word for peace is "Shalom" and means "wholeness, fullness, a state of blessedness." Shalom can even mean salvation. "So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is- Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites." Judges 6:24

The Hebrew word for peace is "Shalom" and means "wholeness, fullness, a state of blessedness." Shalom can even mean salvation. "So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is- Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites." Judges 6:24

Join us this week as we start our brand new series, Restored. We all want healthy, dynamic relationships.  However, some of us never seem to find health. We need to be RESTORED.  This unique series will require us to take a good look inside.  A look that may uncover areas we aren't proud of.  A look that will help bring us back to a state of health.  A look that will bring us back to a former position.  Finally a look that will help us regain that which was lost.  As a result, we will be Restored. (Hosea 6:2) (NLT) In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence. Title of Message: Insecurity   (Proverbs 4:23) (GN) Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.    Deceptive Definitions:   1. We let culture define who we are. 2. We let our past define who we are.   (Romans 12:3) Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.   Don't have an unhealthy view of yourself, but rather be set free of the wrong view and let God give you right thinking by being assured of who He is and what He believes about you. You'll never be right until you can see right.   How can I see right?   (Judges 6:11) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.   (Judges 6:12) When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”   (Judges 6:13) “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”   (Judges 6:14) The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?”   (Judges 6:15) “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”   (Judges 6:16) The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”   (Judges 6:24)...So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace.   To Overcome Insecurity:   1.    See God correctly.   Your relationship with God can be no better than your view of God.    (Psalm 59:10 LB) My God is changeless in his love for me…   (Isaiah 38:16) (NLT) Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live!   2.    See myself the way God sees me. (1 Peter 2:9) (TLB) But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God's very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the (Winepress) darkness into his wonderful light.   3. Get around people who see me the way God sees me.   (Proverbs 27:17) (NKJV) As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.   Right relationships help us define who we are and what we become.

"Hello My Name Is Jehovah - Shalom Part 5", Judges 6:24, So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites., The journey to peace… A look around causes DISTRESS!(v.13) Key word:"WHY", A look within makes you DEPRESSED!(v.15) Key word:"HOW", A look above can bring you true REST!(v.16) Key word:"WITH", Given by Ken Adams in Newnan, GA. , on 03/06/2010..

"Hello My Name Is Jehovah - Shalom Part 5", Judges 6:24, So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites., The journey to peace… A look around causes DISTRESS!(v.13) Key word:"WHY", A look within makes you DEPRESSED!(v.15) Key word:"HOW", A look above can bring you true REST!(v.16) Key word:"WITH", Given by Ken Adams in Newnan, GA. , on 03/06/2010..

Featuring BliSs, Mrs. BliSs, Octavia Harris, Kirk Franklin, 1NC, 21:03, Flame, Driven, Applejaxx, Lunie 3:80 and More!   Judges 7 Gideon Defeats the Midianites  1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, 3 announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.  4 But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."  5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." 6 Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.  7 The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.       Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp." So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.  13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed."  14 His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands."  15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, "Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands." 16 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.  17 "Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. 18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.' "  19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" 21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.  22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. 23 Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah."       So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.   God Bless, BliSs