Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² The Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners were spread across the valley like a swarm of locusts; their camels were too many to count, like the grains of sand on the seashore.

¹³ Just when Gideon arrived, there was a man telling his friend about a dream. He said, “Get this! I had a dream that a loaf of barley bread was rolling into the Midianite camp. It came to a tent and hit it, and the tent collapsed. In fact, it rolled the tent over upside down, so it fell flat.”

¹⁴ His friend replied, “Can this be anything other than the sword of the Israelite Gideon, Joash’s son? God has handed over Midian and its entire camp to him!”

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its meaning, he worshipped. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up! The Lord has handed over the Midianite camp to you.” ¹⁶ He divided the three hundred men into three units and equipped every man with a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch inside each jar. ¹⁷ “Now watch me,” he ordered them, “and do what I do. When I get to the outpost of the camp, do just what I do. ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, along with all who are with me, then you blow the trumpets, all of you surrounding the whole camp. And then shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹⁹ Gideon and one hundred of his men moved to the outpost of the camp at the middle watch of the night, when they had just changed the guards. Then they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰ So the three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars, holding the torches with their left hands and blowing the trumpets in their right hands. And they called out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹ Each man stood fast in his position around the camp, and the entire camp took off running, shouting, and fleeing. ²² When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord turned the swords of fellow soldiers against each other throughout the whole camp. The camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, to the border of Abel-meholah, beside Tabbath.

Carry out your salvation

¹² Therefore, my loved ones, just as you always obey me, not just when I am present but now even more while I am away, carry out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ¹³ God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes. ¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling and arguing ¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and pure, innocent children of God surrounded by people who are crooked and corrupt. Among these people you shine like stars in the world ¹⁶ because you hold on to the word of life. This will allow me to say on the day of Christ that I haven’t run for nothing or worked for nothing. ¹⁷ But even if I am poured out like a drink offering upon the altar of service for your faith, I am glad. I’m glad with all of you. ¹⁸ You should be glad about this in the same way. Be glad with me!