Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 64
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
5:29–6:13
“Her wise women answer,
and she repeats these words to herself:
‘They must be dividing the captured plunder—
with a woman or two for every man.
There will be colorful robes for Sisera,
and colorful, embroidered robes for me.
Yes, the plunder will include
colorful robes embroidered on both sides.’
“Lord, may all your enemies die like Sisera!
But may those who love you rise like the sun in all its power!”
Then there was peace in the land for forty years.
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. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from
Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, camping
in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Isra
elites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys.
These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick
as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And
they stayed until the land was stripped bare. So Israel was reduced to
starvation by the Midianites. 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 Is
rael, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the
Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your 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 whose land you now live.’ But you
have not listened to me.”
Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Oph
rah, 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 where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t