²⁷ So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had told him, but because he was too afraid of his family and the townspeople to do it by day, he did it by night.

⁴ but, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals but to please God, who tests our hearts.^(A)

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me,^[a] so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with any human,^(A)

¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.^(A)

² He came to Jesus^[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”^(A)

The Cross and Self-Denial

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.^(A)

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^(A)