Category: Scripture

Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name?” For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.”

“Why do you ask my name” The angle of the Lord replied. “”It’s too wonderful for you to understand.”

Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered ot on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as he and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of theLord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.

The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the Lord, and he said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God!”

But his wife said, “If the Lord were goin to kill us, He wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.”

When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. (vv. 17-25, LT)

Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, to the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed then for forty years.

In those days a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan live in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. So be careful; you. must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink no eat any forbidden food. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be curt. FOr he will be dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.” (vv. 1-5, NLT)

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord saying,” Lord please let the man of God come back to us again and give us some more instructions about the son who is to be born.”

God answered Manoah’s prayer, and the angel of God appear once again to his wife while she was sitting in a field. U ther husband, Manoah, was not with her. So she quickly ran and told her husband, “The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!”

Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife the other day?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

So Manoah asked him, “When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy’s life an work?”

The angel of the Lord answered, “Be sure your wife follows the instructions I ave her. She must not eat grapes, or raisins, or drink wine or any alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food.”

Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for your to eat.”

I will stay,’ the angel of the Lord replied, ‘but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burn offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize it was the angel of the Lord.). (vv. 8-16, NLT)

Then Gideon said to God, “If You are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as You promised, prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that You are going to help me rescue Israel as You promised.” And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung it out in a whole bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered in dew. (vv. 36-40, NLT)

That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s heard, the one that is seven years old. Pul down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the alter, sing as fuel the wood from the Asherah pole you cut down.”

So Gideon took ten servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.

Early the next morning, as the people in the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down and that the Asherah pole beside it had been cut down. In their place, a new alter had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed. The people said to each other, “Who did this?” And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash.

“Bring out your son,” the men of the down demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.”

But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Who ever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal is truly a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar.: From then on Gideon was called Jerub-baal, which means “Let Baal defend himself,” because he broke down Baal’s altar. (vv. 25-32 NLT)

Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out an presented them to the angel, who was under a great tree.

The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touch the mead and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

When Gideon realized that it was an angel of the Lord, he cried out, “O Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

“It is all right,” the Lord replied, “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the Lord s peace”). The altar remains in Ophra in the land of the clan of Albiezer to this day. (vv. 17-24, NLT)

The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. (vv 1-2, NLT)

So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midiamites . Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.

When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the Lord the God of Israel says: I brought your up out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out our enemies and gave you their land. I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in who land you now live. But you have not listened to Me.'”

Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath a great tree at Oprah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And were are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord as brought us up from Egypt?’ But now the lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midinanites.”

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, I am the least in my entire family!”

The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as you were fighting against one man.”

Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that is really the Lord speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”

He answered, “I will stay here until you return.” (vv. 7-18, NLT)

Meanwhile, Sisera ran to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because Heber’s family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazor. Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come into my tent, sir. Com in. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

“Please give me some water,” he said. “I’m thirsty.” So she gave him some mild from a leather bag and covered him again.

“Stand at the door of the tent,” he told her. “If anybody comes and asks you if there is anyone her, say no”.

Bt when Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and drove a tent peg into his temple and into the ground, and so he died.

When Barak cam looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him. She said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he followed her into the tent and found Sisera lying there dead, with the tent peg through his temple.

Son on that day, Israel saw God defeat Jabin, the Canaanite king. And from that time on Israel became stronger and stronger against King Jabin until they finally destroyed him. (vv. 17-24, NLT)

After Ehud’s death, the Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord turned them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. Sisera, who had 900 chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help.

Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Epharim, and the Israelites would go to see her for judgement. One day, she sent for Barak son of Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in teh land of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: Call our 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor. And I will call our Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over them.”

Babak told her, “I will go, but only if you go with me.”

“Very well,” she replied, “I will go with you. But you will receive no honor in this venture, for the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.” (vv. 1-9, NLT)

Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get ready! This is the day the Lord will give you victory over Sisera, for the Lord is marching ahead of you.” So Barak led his 10,000 warriors down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle. When Barak attacked, the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots into a panic. Sisera leaped down from his chariot and escaped on foot. Barak chased the chariots and the enemy all the way to Harosheth-haggoyim, killing all of Sisera’s warriors. No a single one was left alive. (vv. 14-16, NLT)

Once again, the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel because of their evil. Eglon enlisted the Ammorites and Amalakites as allies, and then he went out and defeated Israel. And the Israelites served Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.

But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord again raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed man of the tribe of Benjamin. The Israelites sent Ehud to deliver their tribute money to King Eglon of Moab. So Ehud made a double-edged dagger that was about a foot long, and he strapped it to his right thigh, keeping it hidden under his clothing. He brought the tribute money to Eglon, who was very fat.

After delivering the payment, Ehud started home with those who had helped carry the tribute. But when Ehud reached the stone idols near Gilgal, he turned back. He came to Eglon and said, “I have a secret message for you.”

So the king commanded. his servants, “Be quiet!”and he sent them all out of the room.

Ehud walked over to Eglon, who was sitting alone in a cool upstairs room. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.!” As King Eglon rose from his seat, Eglon reached with his left hand, pulled out the dagger strapped to his right thigh, and plunged into the king’s belly. (vv. 12-21, NLT)

[Ehud and his servants] attacked the Moabites and killed about 10,000 of their stongers and most able-bodied warriors. Not one of them escaped. So Moab was conquered by Israel that day, and there was peace in that land for eighty years.

After Ehud, Shamar son of Anath rescued Israel. He once killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad. (vv 29-31, NLT)

The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They forgot all about the Lord their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles. Then the Lord burned with anger against Israel, and He turned them over to Aram-naharaim. And the Israelites serve Chshan-rishathaim for eight years.

But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Othniel, son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge. He went to war against King Cushan-rishathiam of Amran, and the Lord gave Othiniel victory over him. So there was peace in the land for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died. (vv. 7-11, NLT)