The One Year Bible TLB (94 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
A rebel’s foolish talk should prick his own pride! But the wise man’s speech is respected.
4
An empty stable stays clean—but there is no income from an empty stable.
April 26Then the people of Israel began once again to worship other gods, and once again the Lord let their enemies harass them. This time it was by the people of Midian, for seven years.
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The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelis took to the mountains, living in caves and dens.
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When they planted their seed, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and other neighboring nations came and destroyed their crops and plundered the countryside as far away as Gaza, leaving nothing to eat and taking away all their sheep, oxen, and donkeys.
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These enemy hordes arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count and stayed until the land was completely stripped and devastated.
6-7
So Israel was reduced to abject poverty because of the Midianites. Then at last the people of Israel began to cry out to the Lord for help.
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However, the Lord’s reply through the prophet he sent to them was this: “The Lord God of Israel brought you out of slavery in Egypt,
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and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who were cruel to you, and drove out your enemies before you, and gave you their land.
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He told you he is the Lord your God, and you must not worship the gods of the Amorites who live around you on every side. But you have not listened to him.”
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But one day the Angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, on the farm of Joash the Abiezrite. Joash’s son, Gideon, had been threshing wheat by hand in the bottom of a grape press—a pit where grapes were pressed to make wine—for he was hiding from the Midianites.
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The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty soldier, the Lord is with you!”
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“Stranger,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors have told us about—such as when God brought them out of Egypt? Now the Lord has thrown us away and has let the Midianites completely ruin us.”
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Then the Lord turned to him and said, “I will make you strong! Go and save Israel from the Midianites! I am sending you!”
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But Gideon replied, “Sir, how can
I
save Israel? My family is the poorest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least thought of in the entire family!”
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Whereupon the Lord said to him, “But I, Jehovah,
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will be with you! And you shall quickly destroy the Midianite hordes!”
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Gideon replied, “If it is really true that you are going to help me like that, then do some miracle to prove it! Prove that it is really Jehovah who is talking to me!
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But stay here until I go and get a present for you.”
“All right,” the Angel agreed. “I’ll stay here until you return.”
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Gideon hurried home and roasted a young goat and baked some unleavened bread from a bushel of flour. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and broth in a pot, he took it out to the Angel, who was beneath the oak tree, and presented it to him.
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The Angel said to him, “Place the meat and the bread upon that rock over there, and pour the broth over it.”
When Gideon had followed these instructions,
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the Angel touched the meat and bread with his staff, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed them! And suddenly the Angel was gone!
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When Gideon realized that it had indeed been the Angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Alas, O Lord God, for I have seen the Angel of the Lord face-to-face!”
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“It’s all right,” the Lord replied. “Don’t be afraid! You shall not die.”
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And Gideon built an altar there and named it “The Altar of Peace with Jehovah.” (The altar is still there in Ophrah in the land of the Abiezrites.)
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That night the Lord told Gideon to hitch his father’s best ox to the family altar of Baal and pull it down, and to cut down the wooden idol of the goddess Asherah that stood nearby.
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“Replace it with an altar for the Lord your God, built here on this hill, laying the stones carefully. Then sacrifice the ox as a burnt offering to the Lord, using the wooden idol as wood for the fire on the altar.”
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So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night for fear of the other members of his father’s household, and for fear of the men of the city; for he knew what would happen if they found out who did it!
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Early the next morning, as the city began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal was knocked apart, the idol beside it was gone, and a new altar had been built instead, with the remains of a sacrifice on it.
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“Who did this?” everyone demanded. Finally they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash.
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“Bring out your son,” they shouted to Joash. “He must die for insulting the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah idol.”
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But Joash retorted to the whole mob, “Does Baal need
your
help? What an insult to a god! You are the ones who should die for insulting Baal! If Baal is really a god, let him take care of himself and destroy the one who broke apart his altar!”
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From then on Gideon was called “Jerubbaal,” a nickname meaning “Let Baal take care of himself!”
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Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and other neighboring nations united in one vast alliance against Israel. They crossed the Jordan and camped in the valley of Jezreel.
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Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet as a call to arms, and the men of Abiezer came to him.
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He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their fighting forces, and all of them responded.
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Then Gideon said to God, “If you are really going to use me to save Israel as you promised,
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prove it to me in this way: I’ll put some wool on the threshing floor tonight, and if, in the morning, the fleece is wet and the ground is dry, I will know you are going to help me!”
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And it happened just that way! When he got up the next morning, he pressed the fleece together and wrung out a whole bowlful of water!
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Then Gideon said to the Lord, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more test: this time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet!”
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So the Lord did as he asked; that night the fleece stayed dry, but the ground was covered with dew!
So they seized him and led him to the high priest’s residence, and Peter followed at a distance.
55
The soldiers lit a fire in the courtyard and sat around it for warmth, and Peter joined them there.
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A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she spoke: “This man was with Jesus!”
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Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know the man!”
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After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one of them!”
“No sir, I am not!” Peter replied.
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About an hour later someone else flatly stated, “I know this fellow is one of Jesus’ disciples, for both are from Galilee.”
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But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And as he said the words, a rooster crowed.
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At that moment Jesus turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered what he had said—“Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times.”
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And Peter walked out of the courtyard, crying bitterly.
63-64
Now the guards in charge of Jesus began mocking him. They blindfolded him and hit him with their fists and asked, “Who hit you that time, prophet?”
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And they threw all sorts of other insults at him.
66
Early the next morning at daybreak the Jewish Supreme Court assembled, including the chief priests and all the top religious authorities of the nation. Jesus was led before this Council
67-68
and instructed to state whether or not he claimed to be the Messiah.
But he replied,
“If I tell you, you won’t believe me or let me present my case.
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But the time is soon coming when I, the Messiah,
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shall be enthroned beside Almighty God.”
70
They all shouted, “Then you claim you are the Son of God?”
And he replied,
“Yes, I am.”
71
“What need do we have for other witnesses?” they shouted. “For we ourselves have heard him say it.”
23:
1
Then the entire Council took Jesus over to Pilate, the governor.
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2
They began at once accusing him: “This fellow has been leading our people to ruin by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is our Messiah—a King.”
3
So Pilate asked him, “Are you their Messiah—their King?”
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“Yes,”
Jesus replied,
“it is as you say.”
4
Then Pilate turned to the chief priests and to the mob and said, “So? That isn’t a crime!”
5
Then they became desperate. “But he is causing riots against the government everywhere he goes, all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!”
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“Is he then a Galilean?” Pilate asked.
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When they told him yes, Pilate said to take him to King Herod, for Galilee was under Herod’s jurisdiction; and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.
8
Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, for he had heard a lot about him and had been hoping to see him perform a miracle.
9
He asked Jesus question after question, but there was no reply.
10
Meanwhile, the chief priests and the other religious leaders stood there shouting their accusations.
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Now Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus; and putting a kingly robe on him, they sent him back to Pilate.
12
That day Herod and Pilate—enemies before—became fast friends.
Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord! Give a joyous shout in honor of the Rock of our salvation!
2
Come before him with thankful hearts. Let us sing him psalms of praise.
3
For the Lord is a great God, the great King of
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all gods.
4
He controls the formation of the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains; all are his.
5
He made the sea and formed the land; they too are his.
6
Come, kneel before the Lord our Maker,
7
for he is our God. We are his sheep, and he is our Shepherd. Oh, that you would hear him calling you today and come to him!
8
Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness
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at Meribah and Massah.
9
For there your fathers doubted me, though they had seen so many of my miracles before. My patience was severely tried by their complaints.
10
“For forty years I watched them in disgust,” the Lord God says. “They were a nation whose thoughts and heart were far away from me. They refused to accept my laws.
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Therefore, in mighty wrath I swore that they would never enter the Promised Land, the place of rest I planned for them.”
96:
1
Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing it everywhere around the world!
2
Sing out his praises! Bless his name. Each day tell someone that he saves.
3
Publish his glorious acts throughout the earth. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
4
For the Lord is great beyond description and greatly to be praised. Worship only him among the gods!
5
For the gods of other nations are merely idols, but our God made the heavens!
6
Honor and majesty surround him; strength and beauty are in his Temple.
7
O nations of the world, confess that God alone is glorious and strong.
8
Give him the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come to worship him.
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9
Worship the Lord with the beauty of holy lives.
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Let the earth tremble before him.
10
Tell the nations that Jehovah reigns! He rules the world. His power can never be overthrown. He will judge all nations fairly.
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Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the vastness of the roaring seas demonstrate his glory.
12
Praise him for the growing fields, for they display his greatness. Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise.
13
For the Lord is coming to judge the earth; he will judge the nations fairly and with truth!