Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² The Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups^[a] from the east lay encamped in the valley, as thick as locusts. The number of their camels couldn’t be calculated—they seemed as numerous as the sand on the seashore. ¹³ Gideon arrived just as a soldier was talking to a friend about a dream. “Look!” he was saying. “I had a dream that went like this: A loaf of barley bread rolled into the Midianite encampment, came to a tent, and collided with it. The loaf of bread fell down, turned upside down, and the tent collapsed!”

¹⁴ Then his friend replied, “Can this be anything else than the sword of Joash’s son Gideon, that man from Israel? God must have given Midian and the entire encampment into his control!”

¹⁵ When Gideon^[b] heard the tale of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down in worship and then returned to the Israeli encampment.

Gideon’s 300 Attack

There he announced, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite army into your control!” ¹⁶ Then he separated the 300 men into three companies, gave them each trumpets to carry, along with jars into which he placed lit torches.

¹⁷ He instructed them, “Watch me, and do what I do. When we come to the outer perimeter of the encampment, do what I do. ¹⁸ When I sound my trumpet, accompanied by everyone who is with me, you must blow your trumpets all around the entire encampment. Then shout out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹ So Gideon and the 100 men with him arrived at the outer perimeter of the encampment at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had posted sentries. They blew their trumpets and smashed the jars that they were carrying in their hands. ²⁰ When the three companies sounded their trumpets and broke the jars, they held the torches in their left hands and sounded their trumpets with their right hands. Then they cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹ They stood up, each soldier in his assigned^[c] place surrounding the encampment, and the entire army ran away, sounding the alarm to retreat.

²² As the 300 trumpets were being sounded, the Lord turned the swords of the Midianite^[d] soldiers against one another throughout the entire army, and the army ran away as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zererah. They got as far as the outskirts of Abel-meholah, near Tabbath.

Blameless Living

¹² And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. ¹³ For it is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him. ¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing ¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and innocent, God’s children without any faults among a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world ¹⁶ as you hold firmly to the word of life. Then I will be proud when the Messiah^[a] returns^[b] that I did not run in vain or work hard in vain.

¹⁷ Yet even if I am being poured out like an offering as part of the sacrifice and service I offer^[c] for your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with all of you. ¹⁸ In the same way, you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.