5 Spiritual Practices for Healing and Transformation

Thankful Through the Struggle

Advent Guide: You Belong

Embracing Wonder: A 5-Week Advent Devotional From Matthew West

Daily Reading Plan With Christian Mael (December)

Our Father

Vote With Vision: Praying God’s Will Over Elections

El-Roi the God Who Sees Me

Moving Toward Each Other in the Middle of a Divisive World

Giving Thanks in Every Season

New International Version

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJDG">
 <div class="chapter ch6" data-usfm="JDG.6.1+JDG.6.2+JDG.6.3+JDG.6.4+JDG.6.5+JDG.6.6+JDG.6.7+JDG.6.8+JDG.6.9+JDG.6.10+JDG.6.11+JDG.6.12+JDG.6.13+JDG.6.14+JDG.6.15+JDG.6.16+JDG.6.17+JDG.6.18+JDG.6.19+JDG.6.20+JDG.6.21+JDG.6.22+JDG.6.23+JDG.6.24+JDG.6.25+JDG.6.26+JDG.6.27">
 <div class="p">1The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4They 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. 5They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.</div><div class="p"> 7When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8he sent them a prophet, who said, &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10I said to you, &#8216;I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.&#8217; But you have not listened to me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11The 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. 12When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, &#8220;The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;Pardon me, my lord,&#8221; Gideon replied, &#8220;but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, &#8216;Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?&#8217; But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14The Lord turned to him and said, &#8220;Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian&#8217;s hand. Am I not sending you?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15&#8220;Pardon me, my lord,&#8221; Gideon replied, &#8220;but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16The Lord answered, &#8220;I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17Gideon replied, &#8220;If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">And the Lord said, &#8220;I will wait until you return.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah#6:19 That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.</div><div class="p"> 20The angel of God said to him, &#8220;Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.&#8221; And Gideon did so. 21Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, &#8220;Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23But the Lord said to him, &#8220;Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24So 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.</div><div class="p"> 25That same night the Lord said to him, &#8220;Take the second bull from your father&#8217;s herd, the one seven years old.#6:25 Or Take a full-grown, mature bull from your father&#8217;s herd Tear down your father&#8217;s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole#6:25 That is, a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah; also in verses 26, 28 and 30 beside it. 26Then build a proper kind of#6:26 Or build with layers of stone an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second#6:26 Or full-grown; also in verse 28 bull as a burnt offering.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.</div><div class="p"> </div>
 </div>
 </div>
</div>

Daily Bible Reading— August 2024, God’s Guiding Word: FaithSample

August 11

Introduction

Today’s Key Verse: Judges 6:12

Reflect

Pray

Tomorrow’s Reading

Scripture

About this Plan

Related Plans