Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 Lord, hear me when I call to you for help.[a]
Be kind to me and answer me.
8 I have heard you say to me, ‘Come near to me.’
So I will come and pray to you, Lord.
9 Please do not turn away from me.
I am your servant,
so do not be angry with me.
You have always helped me in the past,
so do not push me away now.
You are the one who saves me, God,
so do not turn away from me.
10 Even if my father and my mother leave me,
the Lord will still take care of me.
11 Lord, please teach me to follow your way.
Lead me along a good, safe path,
because my enemies are waiting to attack me.
12 Do not give me to my enemies.
They say false things against me,
so that they can destroy me.
13 But I surely believe
that I will see how good the Lord is!
I will know his love while I still live in this world.
14 Wait for the Lord to help you!
Be strong and brave.
Yes, wait for the Lord to help you!
The Lord chooses Gideon
11 The Lord's angel came to sit under a big oak tree in Ophrah. It belonged to Joash, from Abiezer's clan. When the angel arrived, Joash's son Gideon was threshing wheat. He was doing it in a winepress because he wanted to hide his food from the Midianites. 12 The Lord's angel appeared to Gideon. He said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, brave fighter.’[a] 13 Gideon replied, ‘But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this trouble happened to us? Our ancestors told us about all the great things that the Lord did for them. They told us how he brought them safely out of Egypt. But the Lord has not helped us like that. He has turned away from us. He has put us under the power of the Midianites.’
14 The Lord himself then said to Gideon, ‘Go now and use the strength that you have. Rescue Israel from the power of the Midianites. I myself am sending you to do this.’
15 Gideon said, ‘But sir, how can I rescue Israel? Look at me! My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh. And I am the youngest person in my family.’
16 The Lord answered him, ‘Understand that I will be with you! You will destroy the Midianites as if they were only one man.’
17 Gideon replied, ‘If you are pleased with me, please do something special. I want to know that you really are the Lord who is speaking to me. 18 Please stay here so that I can bring a gift for you.’ The Lord answered, ‘I will stay here until you come back.’
19 Gideon went home and he cooked a young goat. He also used an ephah of flour to make some flat bread. He put the meat in a basket and he put the soup in a pot. He took the food to the one who was sitting under the oak tree.
20 God's angel said to him, ‘Put the meat and the bread on this rock. Pour the soup over them.’ Gideon did what the angel told him to do. 21 Then the Lord's angel touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick that he held in his hand. Fire came from the rock and it burnt up the meat and the bread. Then the Lord's angel disappeared.
22 Gideon realized that he had been talking to the Lord's angel. He cried out, ‘Oh no! Almighty Lord, I have seen your angel, face to face.’
23 But the Lord said to him, ‘Do not worry. Do not be afraid. You will not die because of this.’[b]
24 So Gideon built an altar there to give honour to the Lord. He called it ‘The Lord is Peace’. The altar is still there, in Ophrah, on the land of Abiezer's clan.
6 Do not let anyone have a chance to deceive you with a false message about those kinds of bad things. God will certainly punish people who do not obey him. 7 So keep away from those kinds of people. 8 Once your minds were completely in the dark. But now you belong to the Lord. As a result, you have become full of light. So now you must live as people who belong to the light. 9 The light helps you to live in a way that is good, right and true. 10 You should learn more and more to do the things that please the Lord. 11 People whose minds are in the dark do things that have no good purpose. Keep away from wrong things like that. Instead, show how bad those things really are. 12 People like that should be ashamed of the things that they do secretly. Those things are too bad for us even to talk about. 13 But when God's light shines on something, people can see clearly its true nature. 14 Everything that becomes clear to see is in the light. That is why it says:
‘Wake up, you people who are asleep!
Rise up from among the dead people!
Then Christ will shine his light on you.’[a]
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