Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Bible in a year podcast

where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture.

The Bible in a year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.

Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation,

discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 91, and today we are reading from Judges, chapters, 7, and 8, as well as from the book of Ruth, chapter 3. Ruth is only four chapters long, so we are three quarters of the way through it at the end of today. And we're also praying Psalm 135. As always, I'm reading from the revised standard version, second Catholic edition, reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com and order it or Amazon or wherever they sell Bibles. You can also download your Bible in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. If you haven't yet done that, you can also subscribe to this podcast. You can also rate it. You can also give it one star, up to five stars, and you can also give a review, which is really helpful for a lot of people, because the more people review, the more people get to see it, and maybe more people start reading the Bible, which could be pretty awesome. Anyways, as I said, today is day 91. We're still

traveling with the judges. Today we're going to be following the judge whose name is Gideon.

You might know his story, but by the end of today, he will definitely know his story. As always,

we are praying for each other. Usually I save that to the end, but gosh, I think we need to

begin to this day,

just knowing that we belong here, you belong here, and the Lord does want to speak to you today.

He is proud of you, and he loves you very much.

The Book of Judges, Chapter 6. The Midianite oppression.

The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midianite oppression. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,

and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed over Israel,

and because of Midian, the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains and caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and

the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up and attack them.

They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land as far as the neighborhood of Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey.

And they would come up with their cattle and their tents coming like locusts for number.

Both they and their camels could not be counted so that they wasted the land as they came in. And Israel was brought

very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried for help to the Lord. When the sons of

Israel cried to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel,

and he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you

...