Judges 6:11-24 (NRSV)
11Now
the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged
to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine
press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12The angel of the LORD
appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior."
13Gideon answered him, "But sir, if the LORD is with us,
why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds
that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up
from Egypt?' But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand
of Midian." 14Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go
in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby
commission you." 15He responded, "But sir, how can I
deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in
my family." 16The LORD said to him, "But I will be with
you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them." 17Then
he said to him, "If now I have found favor with you, then show me a
sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Do not depart from here
until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you."
And he said, "I will stay until you return." 19So
Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from
an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a
pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. 20The
angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and
put them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. 21Then
the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand,
and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the
rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the
LORD vanished from his sight. 22Then Gideon perceived that it
was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, "Help me, Lord GOD! For
I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." 23But the
LORD said to him, "Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die."
24Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it,
The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to
the Abiezrites.
ELCA's daily Bible readings are chosen from
"Revised
Common Lectionary Daily Readings," prepared by Consultation
on the Common Texts, © 2005.
All text is from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division
of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches USA,
and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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