Daily Bible CEV May 07 Scroll

Paul in Athens

Acts 17 ¹⁶While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. ¹⁷He went to the Jewish meeting place to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. ¹⁸Some of them were Epicureans and some were Stoics, and they started arguing with him.

People were asking, "What is this know-it-all trying to say?"

Some even said, "Paul must be preaching about foreign gods! That's what he means when he talks about Jesus and about people rising from death."

¹⁹They brought Paul before a council called the Areopagus, and said, "Tell us what your new teaching is all about. ²⁰We have heard you say some strange things, and we want to know what you mean."

²¹More than anything else the people of Athens and the foreigners living there loved to hear and to talk about anything new. ²²So Paul stood up in front of the council and said:

People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. ²³As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, "To an Unknown God." You worship this God, but you don't really know him. So I want to tell you about him. ²⁴This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. ²⁶From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.

²⁷God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, ²⁸and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. "We are his children," just as some of your poets have said.

²⁹Since we are God's children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn't like anything that humans have thought up and made. ³⁰In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. ³¹He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.

³²As soon as the people heard Paul say that a man had been raised from death, some of them started laughing. Others said, "We will hear you talk about this some other time." ³³When Paul left the council meeting, ³⁴some of the men put their faith in the Lord and went with Paul. One of them was a council member named Dionysius. A woman named Damaris and several others also put their faith in the Lord.

Judges 7 Early the next morning, Gideon and his army got up and moved their camp to Fear Spring. The Midianite camp was to the north, in the valley at the foot of Moreh Hill.

²The LORD said, "Gideon, your army is too big. I can't let you win with this many soldiers. The Israelites would think that they had won the battle all by themselves and that I didn't have anything to do with it. ³So call your troops together and tell them that anyone who is really afraid can leave Mount Gilead and go home."

Twenty-two thousand men returned home, leaving Gideon with only ten thousand soldiers.

⁴"Gideon," the LORD said, "you still have too many soldiers. Take them down to the spring and I'll test them. I'll tell you which ones can go along with you and which ones must go back home."

⁵When Gideon led his army down to the spring, the LORD told him, "Watch how each man gets a drink of water. Then divide them into two groups--those who lap the water like a dog and those who kneel down to drink."

⁶Three hundred men scooped up water in their hands and lapped it, and the rest knelt to get a drink. ⁷The LORD said, "Gideon, your army will be made up of everyone who lapped the water from their hands. Send the others home. I'm going to rescue Israel by helping you and your army of three hundred defeat the Midianites."

⁸Then Gideon gave these orders, "You three hundred men stay here. The rest of you may go home, but leave your food and trumpets with us."

Gideon's army camp was on top of a hill overlooking the Midianite camp in the valley.

⁹That night, the LORD said to Gideon. "Get up! Attack the Midianite camp. I am going to let you defeat them, ¹⁰but if you're still afraid, you and your servant Purah should sneak down to their camp. ¹¹When you hear what the Midianites are saying, you'll be brave enough to attack."

Gideon and Purah worked their way to the edge of the enemy camp, where soldiers were on guard duty. ¹²The camp was huge. The Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern nations covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. And it would be easier to count the grains of sand on a beach than to count their camels. ¹³Gideon overheard one enemy guard telling another, "I had a dream about a flat loaf of barley bread that came tumbling into our camp. It hit the headquarters tent, and the tent flipped over and fell down."

¹⁴The other soldier answered, "Your dream must have been about Gideon, the Israelite commander. It means God will let him and his army defeat the Midianite army and everyone else in our camp."

¹⁵As soon as Gideon heard about the dream and what it meant, he bowed down to praise God. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and shouted, "Let's go! The LORD is going to let us defeat the Midianite army."

¹⁶Gideon divided his little army into three groups of one hundred men, and he gave each soldier a trumpet and a large clay jar with a burning torch inside. ^17-18Gideon said, "When we get to the enemy camp, spread out and surround it. Then wait for me to blow a signal on my trumpet. As soon as you hear it, blow your trumpets and shout, 'Fight for the LORD! Fight for Gideon!' "

¹⁹Gideon and his group reached the edge of the enemy camp a few hours after dark, just after the new guards had come on duty. Gideon and his soldiers blew their trumpets and smashed the clay jars that were hiding the torches. ²⁰The rest of Gideon's soldiers blew the trumpets they were holding in their right hands. Then they smashed the jars and held the burning torches in their left hands. Everyone shouted, "Fight with your swords for the LORD and for Gideon!"

²¹The enemy soldiers started yelling and tried to run away. Gideon's troops stayed in their positions surrounding the camp ²²and blew their trumpets again. As they did, the LORD made the enemy soldiers pull out their swords and start fighting each other.

The enemy army tried to escape from the camp. They ran to Acacia Tree Town, toward Zeredah, and as far as the edge of the land that belonged to the town of Abel-Meholah near Tabbath.

²³Gideon sent word for more Israelite soldiers to come from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both halves of Manasseh to help fight the Midianites. ²⁴He also sent messengers to tell all the men who lived in the hill country of Ephraim, "Come and help us fight the Midianites! Put guards at every spring, stream, and well, as far as Beth-Barah before the Midianites can get to them. And guard the Jordan River."

Troops from Ephraim did exactly what Gideon had asked, ²⁵and they even helped chase the Midianites on the east side of the Jordan River. These troops captured Raven and Wolf, the two Midianite leaders. They killed Raven at a large rock that has come to be known as Raven Rock, and they killed Wolf near a wine-pit that has come to be called Wolf Wine-Pit.

The men of Ephraim brought the heads of the two Midianite leaders to Gideon.
Judges 8 ¹But the men were really upset with Gideon and complained, "When you went to war with Midian, you didn't ask us to help! Why did you treat us like that?"

²Gideon answered:

Don't be upset! Even though you came later, you were able to do much more than I did. It's just like the grape harvest: The grapes your tribe doesn't even bother to pick are better than the best grapes my family can grow. ³Besides, God chose you to capture Raven and Wolf. I didn't do a thing compared to you.

By the time Gideon had finished talking, the men of Ephraim had calmed down and were no longer angry at him.

Gideon Finishes Destroying the Midianite Army

⁴After Gideon and his three hundred troops had chased the Midianites as far as the Jordan River, they were exhausted. ⁵The town of Succoth was nearby, so he went there and asked, "Please give my troops some food. They are worn out, but we have to keep chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings."

⁶The town leaders of Succoth answered, "Why should we feed your army? We don't know if you really will defeat Zebah and Zalmunna."

⁷"Just wait!" Gideon said. "After the LORD helps me defeat them, I'm coming back here. I'll make a whip out of thorns and rip the flesh from your bones."

⁸After leaving Succoth, Gideon went to Penuel and asked the leaders there for some food. But he got the same answer as he had gotten at Succoth. ⁹"I'll come back safe and sound," Gideon said, "but when I do, I'm going to tear down your tower!"

¹⁰Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with an army of fifteen thousand troops. They were all that was left of the army of the eastern nations, because one hundred twenty thousand of their warriors had been killed in the battle.

¹¹Gideon reached the enemy camp by going east along Nomad Road past Nobah and Jogbehah. He made a surprise attack, ¹²and the enemy panicked. Zebah and Zalmunna tried to escape, but Gideon chased and captured them.

¹³After the battle, Gideon set out for home. As he was going through Heres Pass, ¹⁴he caught a young man who lived in Succoth. Gideon asked him who the town officials of Succoth were, and the young man wrote down seventy-seven names.

¹⁵Gideon went to the town officials and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. Remember how you made fun of me? You said, 'We don't know if you really will defeat those two Midianite kings. So why should we feed your worn-out army?' "

¹⁶Gideon made a whip from thorn plants and used it to beat the town officials. ¹⁷Afterwards he went to Penuel, where he tore down the tower and killed all the town officials there.

¹⁸Then Gideon said, "Zebah and Zalmunna, tell me about the men you killed at Tabor."

"They were a lot like you," the two kings answered. "They were dignified, almost like royalty."

¹⁹"They were my very own brothers!" Gideon said. "I swear by the living LORD that if you had let them live, I would let you live."

²⁰Gideon turned to Jether, his oldest son. "Kill them!" Gideon said.

But Jether was young, and he was too afraid to even pull out his sword.

²¹"What's the matter, Gideon?" Zebah and Zalmunna asked. "Do it yourself, if you're not too much of a coward!"

Gideon jumped up and killed them both. Then he took the fancy gold ornaments from the necks of their camels.

The Israelites Ask Gideon To Be Their King

²²After the battle with the Midianites, the Israelites said, "Gideon, you rescued us! Now we want you to be our king. Then after your death, your son and then your grandson will rule."

²³"No," Gideon replied, "I won't be your king, and my son won't be king either. Only the LORD is your ruler. ²⁴But I will ask you to do one thing: Give me all the earrings you took from the enemy."

The enemy soldiers had been Ishmaelites, and they wore gold earrings.

²⁵The Israelite soldiers replied, "Of course we will give you the earrings." Then they spread out a robe on the ground and tossed the earrings on it. ²⁶The total weight of this gold was over forty pounds. In addition, there was the gold from the camels' ornaments and from the beautiful jewelry worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon also took their purple robes.

^27-29Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshiping. They became unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshiping the statue.

The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining forty years of Gideon's life.

Gideon Dies

³⁰Gideon had many wives and seventy sons. ³¹He even had a wife who lived at Shechem. They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.

³²Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his hometown of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.

³³Soon after Gideon's death, the Israelites turned their backs on God again. They set up idols of Baal and worshiped Baal Berith as their god. ³⁴The Israelites forgot that the LORD was their God, and that he had rescued them from the enemies who lived around them. ³⁵Besides all that, the Israelites were unkind to Gideon's family, even though Gideon had done so much for Israel.

Elihu Continues

I Am Frightened

Job 37 I am frightened and tremble all over,

²when I hear the roaring voice of God in the thunder,

and when I see his lightning flash across the sky.

⁴God's majestic voice thunders his commands,

⁵

creating miracles too marvelous for us to understand.

⁶Snow and heavy rainstorms

⁷make us stop and think about God's power,

⁸

and they force animals to seek shelter.

⁹The windstorms of winter strike,

¹⁰

and the breath of God freezes streams and rivers.

¹¹Rain clouds filled with lightning appear at God's command,

¹²traveling across the sky ¹³to release their cargo--

sometimes as punishment for sin, sometimes as kindness.

Consider Carefully

¹⁴Job, consider carefully the many wonders of God.

¹⁵Can you explain why lightning flashes

at the orders ¹⁶of God who knows all things?

Or how he hangs the clouds in empty space?

¹⁷You almost melt in the heat of fierce desert winds

when the sky is like brass.

¹⁸God can spread out the clouds to get relief from the heat,

but can you?

¹⁹Tell us what to say to God! Our minds are in the dark,

and we don't know how to argue our case.

²⁰Should I risk my life by telling God that I want to speak?

²¹No one can stare at the sun

after a breeze has blown the clouds from the sky.

²²Yet the glorious splendor of God All-Powerful

is brighter by far.

²³God cannot be seen--

but his power is great, and he is always fair.

²⁴And so we humans fear God, because he shows no respect

for those who are proud and think they know so much.

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