JUDGES 6:1-40
LUKE 22:54-23:12
PSALM 95:1-96:13
PROVERBS 14:5-6
JUDGES 6:1-40
Again the Israelites did what was evil in the LORD's sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. 2 The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites fled to the mountains, where they made hiding places for themselves in caves and dens. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, 4 camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, oxen, and donkeys. 5 These enemy hordes, coming with their cattle and tents as thick as locusts, arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. 6 So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help. 7 When they cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, " This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt 9 and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. 10 I told you, ` I am the LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.' But you have not listened to me." 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, " Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!" 13 " Sir," Gideon replied, " if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, ` The LORD brought us up out of Egypt'? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites." 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, " Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!" 15 " But Lord," Gideon replied, " how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" 16 The LORD said to him, " I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man." 17 Gideon replied, " If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me. 18 Don't go away until I come back and bring my offering to you." The LORD answered, " I will stay here until you return." 19 Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with half a bushel of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the oak tree. 20 The angel of God said to him, " Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it." And Gideon did as he was told. 21 Then the angel of the LORD touched the meat and bread with the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he cried out, " Sovereign LORD, I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" 23 " It is all right," the LORD replied. " Do not be afraid. You will not die." 24 And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it " The LORD Is Peace." The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day. 25 That night the LORD said to Gideon, " Take the second best bull from your father's herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. 26 Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hill, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down." 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town. He knew what would happen if they found out who had done it. 28 Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been knocked down and that the Asherah pole beside it was gone. In their place a new altar had been built, and it had the remains of a sacrifice on it. 29 The people said to each other, " Who did this?" And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash. 30 " Bring out your son," they shouted to Joash. " He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole." 31 But Joash shouted to the mob, " Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who knocked down his altar!" 32 From then on Gideon was called Jerubbaal, which means " Let Baal defend himself," because he knocked down Baal's altar. 33 Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon. He blew a ram's horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him. 35 He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. 36 Then Gideon said to God, " If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put some wool on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised." 38 And it happened just that way. When Gideon got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, " Please don't be angry with me, but let me make one more request. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew." 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
LUKE 22:54-23:12
So they [the leaders of the mob] arrested him [Jesus] and led him to the high priest's residence, and Peter was following far behind. 55 The guards lit a fire in the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. 56 A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, " This man was one of Jesus' followers!" 57 Peter denied it. " Woman," he said, " I don't even know the man!" 58 After a while someone else looked at him and said, " You must be one of them!" " No, man, I'm not!" Peter replied. 59 About an hour later someone else insisted, " This must be one of Jesus' disciples because he is a Galilean, too." 60 But Peter said, " Man, I don't know what you are talking about." And as soon as he said these words, the rooster crowed. 61 At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered that the Lord had said, " Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times." 62 And Peter left the courtyard, crying bitterly. 63 Now the guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him; then they hit him and asked, " Who hit you that time, you prophet?" 65 And they threw all sorts of terrible insults at him. 66 At daybreak all the leaders of the people assembled, including the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. Jesus was led before this high council, 67 and they said, " Tell us if you are the Messiah." But he replied, " If I tell you, you won't believe me. 68 And if I ask you a question, you won't answer. 69 But the time is soon coming when I, the Son of Man, will be sitting at God's right hand in the place of power." 70 They all shouted, " Then you claim you are the Son of God?" And he replied, " You are right in saying that I am." 71 " What need do we have for other witnesses?" they shouted. " We ourselves heard him say it."23:1 THEN the entire council took Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 They began at once to state their case: " This man has been leading our people to ruin by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king." 3 So Pilate asked him, " Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus replied, " Yes, it is as you say." 4 Pilate turned to the leading priests and to the crowd and said, " I find nothing wrong with this man!" 5 Then they became desperate. " But he is causing riots everywhere he goes, all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!" 6 " Oh, is he a Galilean?" Pilate asked. 7 When they answered that he was, Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod's jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time. 8 Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. 9 He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. 10 Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. 11 Now Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Then they put a royal robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. 12 Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies before, became friends that day.
PSALM 95:1-96:13
Come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving.
Let us sing him psalms of praise.
3 For the LORD is a great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 He owns the depths of the earth,
and even the mightiest mountains are his.
5 The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
His hands formed the dry land, too.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,
7 for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
the sheep under his care.
Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!
8 The LORD says, " Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
9 For there your ancestors tried my patience;
they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles.
10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
` They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.'
11 So in my anger I made a vow:
` They will never enter my place of rest.' "
96:1 SING a new song to the LORD!
Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!
2 Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
3 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
4 Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be revered above all the gods.
5 The gods of other nations are merely idols,
but the LORD made the heavens!
6 Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 O nations of the world, recognize the LORD;
recognize that the LORD is glorious and strong.
8 Give to the LORD the glory he deserves!
Bring your offering and come to worship him.
9 Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor.
Let all the earth tremble before him.
10 Tell all the nations that the LORD is king.
The world is firmly established and cannot be shaken.
He will judge all peoples fairly.
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice!
Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
12 Let the fields and their crops burst forth with joy!
Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise 13before the LORD!
For the LORD is coming!
He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness
and all the nations with his truth.
PROVERBS 14:5-6
A truthful witness does not lie; a false witness breathes lies. A mocker seeks wisdom and never finds it, but knowledge comes easily to those with understanding.
