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7  And now shall he lift up my head ♦︎
   above my enemies round about me;
8  Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation
      with great gladness; ♦︎
   I will sing and make music to the Lord.
9  Hear my voice, O Lord, when I call; ♦︎
   have mercy upon me and answer me.
10  My heart tells of your word, ‘Seek my face.’ ♦︎
   Your face, Lord, will I seek.
11  Hide not your face from me, ♦︎
   nor cast your servant away in displeasure.
12  You have been my helper; ♦︎
   leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
13  Though my father and my mother forsake me, ♦︎
   the Lord will take me up.
14  Teach me your way, O Lord; ♦︎
   lead me on a level path,
      because of those who lie in wait for me.

The Calling of Gideon

11 Now 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 favour 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.’

19 So 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.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷Therefore do not be associated with them. ⁸For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— ⁹for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. ¹⁰Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; ¹³but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
‘Sleeper, awake!
   Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.’