²² Gideon then realized that it was the Lord's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign Lord! I have seen your angel face-to-face!”

²³ But the Lord told him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.” ²⁴ Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it “The Lord is Peace.” (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)

²⁵ That night the Lord told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old,^[a] tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it.

⁴ God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, where they are kept chained in darkness,^[a] waiting for the Day of Judgment. ^5 (A)God did not spare the ancient world, but brought the flood on the world of godless people; the only ones he saved were Noah, who preached righteousness, and seven other people. ^6 (B)God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them with fire, and made them an example of what will happen to the godless. ^7 (C)He rescued Lot, a good man, who was distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless people. ⁸ That good man lived among them, and day after day he suffered agony as he saw and heard their evil actions. ⁹ And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment,

Jesus Calms a Storm^(A)

³⁵ On the evening of that same day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too. ³⁷ Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water. ³⁸ Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don't you care that we are about to die?”

³⁹ Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, “Be quiet!” and he said to the waves, “Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ But they were terribly afraid and began to say to one another, “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”