Day 124 reading

Wisdom·Psalms 75:6–76:5

⁶For exaltation comes neither from east nor west, nor out of the desert, ⁷but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another. ⁸For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs. ⁹But I will proclaim Him forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. ¹⁰“All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”

76God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel. ²His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion. ³There He shattered the flaming arrows, the shield and sword and weapons of war. Selah ⁴You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains filled with game. ⁵The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

New Testament·Luke 21:1–25

¹Then Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, ²and He saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ³“Truly I tell you,” He said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴For they all contributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” ⁵As some of the disciples were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and consecrated gifts, Jesus said, ⁶“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ⁷“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?” ⁸Jesus answered, “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹When you hear of wars and rebellions, do not be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end is not imminent.” ¹⁰Then He told them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven. ¹²But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors. ¹³This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses. ¹⁴So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves. ¹⁵For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. ¹⁷And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. ¹⁸Yet not even a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your patient endurance you will gain your souls. ²⁰But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near. ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city. ²²For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. ²³How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. ²⁵There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.

Old Testament·Judges 6–7

¹Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, ²and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. ³Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them, ⁴encamping against them as far as Gaza and destroying the produce of the land. They left Israel with no sustenance, neither sheep nor oxen nor donkeys. ⁵For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it. ⁶Israel was greatly impoverished by Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD. ⁷Now when the Israelites cried out to the LORD because of Midian, ⁸He sent them a prophet, who told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ⁹I delivered you out of the hands of Egypt and all your oppressors. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰And I said to you: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.’ But you did not obey Me.” ¹¹Then the angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” ¹³“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?” ¹⁵“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” ¹⁶“Surely I will be with you,” the LORD replied, “and you will strike down all the Midianites as one man.” ¹⁷Gideon answered, “If I have found favor in Your sight, give me a sign that it is You speaking with me. ¹⁸Please do not depart from this place until I return to You. Let me bring my offering and set it before You.” And the LORD said, “I will stay until you return.” ¹⁹So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread and an ephah of flour. He placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and brought them out to present to Him under the oak. ²⁰And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹Then the angel of the LORD extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. And fire flared from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. ²²When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he said, “Oh no, Lord GOD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” ²³But the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you. Do not be afraid, for you will not die.” ²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. ²⁵On that very night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take your father’s young bull and a second bull seven years old, tear down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. ²⁶Then build a proper altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold. And with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down, take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering.” ²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city, he did it by night rather than in the daytime. ²⁸When the men of the city got up in the morning, there was Baal’s altar torn down, with the Asherah pole cut down beside it and the second bull offered up on the newly built altar. ²⁹“Who did this?” they said to one another. And after they had investigated thoroughly, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” ³⁰Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has torn down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.” ³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Are you contending for Baal? Are you trying to save him? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal is a god, let him contend for himself with the one who has torn down his altar.” ³²So on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he had torn down Baal’s altar. ³³Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east gathered together, crossed over the Jordan, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴So the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, who blew the ram’s horn and rallied the Abiezrites behind him. ³⁵Calling them to arms, Gideon sent messengers throughout Manasseh, as well as Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, so that they came up to meet him. ³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “If You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said, ³⁷then behold, I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” ³⁸And that is what happened. When Gideon arose the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time let it be dry, and the ground covered with dew.” ⁴⁰And that night God did so. Only the fleece was dry, and dew covered the ground.

7Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. ²Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many people for Me to deliver Midian into their hands, lest Israel glorify themselves over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ ³Now, therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people: ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of them turned back, but ten thousand remained. ⁴Then the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go. But if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” ⁵So Gideon brought the people down to the water, and the LORD said to him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel to drink.” ⁶And the number of those who lapped the water with their hands to their mouths was three hundred men; all the others knelt to drink. ⁷Then the LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped the water I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. But all the others are to go home.” ⁸So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred men, who took charge of the provisions and rams’ horns of the others. And the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. ⁹That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up and go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. ¹⁰But if you are afraid to do so, then go down to the camp with your servant Purah ¹¹and listen to what they are saying. Then your hands will be strengthened to attack the camp.” So he went with Purah his servant to the outposts where armed men were guarding the camp. ¹²Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore. ¹³And as Gideon arrived, a man was telling his friend about a dream. “Behold, I had a dream,” he said, “and I saw a loaf of barley bread come tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent so hard that the tent overturned and collapsed.” ¹⁴His friend replied: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has delivered Midian and the whole camp into his hand.” ¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” ¹⁶And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave each man a ram’s horn in one hand and a large jar in the other, containing a torch. ¹⁷“Watch me and do as I do,” Gideon said. “When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do exactly as I do. ¹⁸When I and all who are with me blow our horns, then you are also to blow your horns from all around the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’” ¹⁹Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the changing of the guard. They blew their horns and broke the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰The three companies blew their horns and shattered their jars. Holding the torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” ²¹Each Israelite took his position around the camp, and the entire Midianite army fled, crying out as they ran. ²²And when the three hundred rams’ horns sounded, the LORD set all the men in the camp against one another with their swords. The army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath. ²³Then the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and they pursued the Midianites. ²⁴Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim to say, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth-barah.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth-barah. ²⁵They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. So they pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.