Nancy: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 200 and 46
immersed in Hosea.
Amos was not the only prophet who was rebuffed by the people of
the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Toward the end of Ome the Second's Reign, a man named Hosea also tried
to bring a warning from God against their injustice and idolatry.
The people called him crazy and a fool, and they plotted against him.
Despite this strong hostility and opposition, Hosea's messages
and prophecies were recorded and collected, and they have come
down to us today in this book.
The book of Hosea has two parts.
The first is said during the stable and prosperous years of Gerome II's rain.
Hosea refers to the grain, wine, olive oil, silver, and gold.
That were abundant in those years.
The second and longer part of a book describes the three chaotic decades
following Ome II's death when four of the Final six Northern Kings
were assassinated, creating social instability, economic distress, and
shifting dependence on foreign powers.
But both parts of the book deliver the same message, which is both
ominous and hopeful at the same time.
Israel has strayed so far from God plunging into immoral idol worship
and violating the requirements of justice from the law of Moses.
Nothing but a fresh start will restore its covenant relationship with the Lord.
And so the people must be taken into exile so that in their isolation, they
may come to know God once again, in the first part of the book, this scenario
is dramatized in hosea's own life.
God tells Hosea to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to him.
Just as the Israelites have been unfaithful to their covenant God, but
even though his wife abandons him, Hosea is told to take her back again.
He has to buy her back from slavery in order to accomplish this.
After a season of abstinence, Hosea then acts as her husband again.
In the same way, God will reclaim his role as Israel's true husband.
I will win her back Once again, I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
There she will give herself to me there, as she did long ago,
when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
The second part of the book opens with a stunning presentation
of a classic covenant lawsuit.
First Israel is called a court.
Hear the word of the Lord, oh people of Israel.
The Lord has brought charges against you.
Next, the charges are brought.
There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land.
You make vows and break them.
You kill and steal and commit adultery.
There is violence everywhere.
One murder after another.
Then the sentence is pronounced.
That is why your land is in mourning and everyone is wasting away.
Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky and the fish
of the sea are disappearing.
The people of Israel have failed to remain faithful in their covenant relationship
with God, and the consequences include the undoing of creation itself.
Part of Israel's failure involved embracing the Debauched
fertility cult of Baal.
Which the people had unfortunately become addicted to.
Instead of looking elsewhere for life and prosperity, the people should
have looked only to the creator himself as the true source of life.
But now in their disobedience, they would experience the
desert of exile and destruction.
Hosea highlights key events of Israel's earlier covenant
history, especially the Exodus.
To inspire the people to renew their relationship with God and begin
living out their story in the present.
At one point, Hosea takes a step back from delivering prophecies in God's name.
In order to appeal personally to his fellow Israelites, come
let us return to the Lord.
If the people would return, then the Lord's promises of restoration given
through Hosea would be realized.
I will heal you of your faithfulness.
My love will know no bounds for my anger will be gone forever.
The prophet Hosea,
the Lord, gave this message to Hosea son of Be I during the years
when Aya Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Judah and Jira.
Boem son of Jehovah was king of Israel.
When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said
to him, go and marry a prostitute so that some of her children will
be conceived in prostitution.
This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against
the Lord and worshiping other gods.
So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Dib, Liam, and she became
pregnant and gave Hosea a son.
The Lord said, name the child Jezreel for I am about to punish
King Gee Hughes Dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel.
In fact, I will bring an end to Israel's independence.
I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.
Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said
to Hosea, name your daughter, lo Ruhama.
Not loved for.
I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them, but I
will show love to the people of Judah.
I will free them from their enemies, not with weapons and armies or
horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.
After Gomer had weaned lo Ruhama, she again became pregnant and
gave birth to a second son.
And the Lord said, name him low.
Am I not my people for Israel is not my people and I am not their God.
Yet the time will come when Israel's people will be like
the sands of the seashore.
Too many to count.
Then at the place where they were told, you are not my people.
It will be said, you are children of the living God.
Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together.
They will choose one leader for themselves and they will return from exile together.
What a day that will be the day of Jezreel, when God will again
plant his people in his land.
In that day, you will call your brothers, am I my people?
And you will call your sisters Ruhama, the ones I love.
Now bring charges against Israel, your mother for She is no longer My
wife and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to remove the prostitute's makeup from her face and the
clothing that exposes her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born.
I will leave her to die of thirst as in a dry and barren wilderness,
and I will not love her children.
For they were conceived in prostitution.
Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way.
She said, I'll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food
and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.
For this reason, I will fence her in with thorn bushes.
I will block her path with a wall to make her lose her way.
When she runs after her lovers, she won't be able to catch them.
She will search for them, but not find them.
Then she will think I might as well return to my husband for I was
better off with him than I am now.
She doesn't realize it was I who gave her everything.
She has the grain, the new wine, the olive oil.
I even gave her silver and gold, but she gave all my gifts to Baal.
Now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine I generously
provided Each harvest season.
I will take away the wool and linen clothing I gave
her to cover her nakedness.
I will strip her naked in public while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able to rescue her from my hands.
I will put an end to her annual festivals, her new moon celebrations, and her
Sabbath days, all her appointed festivals.
I will destroy her grape vines and fig trees, things she
claims her lovers gave her.
I will let them grow into tangled thickets where only
wild animals will eat the fruit.
I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images
of Baal when she put on her earrings and jewels and out to look for her lovers,
but forgot all about me, says the Lord, but then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.
There I will return her vineyards to her and transform the valley
of trouble into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago, when she was young, when
I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
When that day comes, says the Lord, you will call me my
husband instead of my master.
Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you
will never mention them again.
On that day, I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of
the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you.
I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you
can live unafraid in peace and safety.
I will make you my wife forever showing you righteousness and justice,
unfailing love and compassion.
I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will
finally know me as the Lord.
In that day, I will answer says the Lord.
I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds and the sky
will answer the earth with rain.
Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines,
and the olive trees, and they in turn will answer Jezreel God plants.
At that time, I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself.
I will show love to those I called not loved, and to those I called
not my people, I will say, now you are my people, and they will reply.
You are our God.
Then the Lord said to me, go and love your wife again, even though she
commits adultery with another lover.
This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though
the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.
So I bought her back for 15 pieces of silver and five bushels of
barley and a measure of wine.
Then I said to her, you must live in my house for many days
and stop your prostitution.
During this time.
You will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me.
This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince,
and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols.
But afterward, the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God,
and to David's descendant, their king.
In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.
Hear the word of the Lord, oh people of Israel.
The Lord has brought charges against you saying there is no
faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land.
You make vows and break them.
You kill and steal and commit adultery.
There is violence everywhere.
One murder after another.
That is why your land is in mourning and everyone is wasting away.
Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky and the fish
of the sea are disappearing.
Don't point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame.
My complaint, you priests is with you, so you will stumble in broad daylight and
your false prophets will fall with you in the night and I will destroy Israel.
Your mother.
My people are being destroyed because they don't know me.
Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests.
Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.
The more priests there are, the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols when the
people bring their sin offerings.
The priests get fed.
So the priests are glad when the people sin and what the
priests do, the people also do.
So now I will punish both priests and people for their wicked deeds.
They will eat and still be hungry.
They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it for they have deserted
the Lord to worship other Gods wine has robbed my people of their understanding.
They ask a piece of wood for advice.
They think a stick can tell them the future.
Longing after idols has made them foolish.
They have played the prostitute serving other gods and deserting their God.
They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops.
They go up into the hills to burn incense in the pleasant shade of
oaks, poplars and Tarin trees.
That is why your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters in
law commit adultery, but why should I punish them for their prostitution?
And adultery for your men are doing the same thing, sitting with
whores and shrine prostitutes.
Oh, foolish people you refuse to understand so you will be destroyed.
Though you Israel are a prostitute, may Judah not be guilty of such things.
Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth Haven and do not
take oaths there in the Lord's name.
Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer.
So should the Lord feed her like a lamb in lush pasture, leave Israel alone
because she is married to idolatry.
When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking off, they
go to find some prostitutes.
They love shame more than honor.
So a mighty wind will sweep them away.
Their sacrifices to idols will bring them Shame here.
This you priests pay attention.
You.
Leaders of Israel.
Listen, you, members of the Royal Family Judgment has been handed down against you.
For you have led the people into a snare by worshiping the idols at MPA and Tabor.
You have dug a deep pit to trap them at Acacia Grove.
But I will settle with you for what you have done.
I know what you are like O efram.
You cannot hide yourself from me.
O Israel, you have left me as a prostitute.
Leaves her husband.
You are utterly defiled.
Your deeds won't let you return to your God.
You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the Lord.
The arrogance of Israel testifies against her Israel and Efraim will
stumble under their load of guilt.
Judah too will fall with them when they come with their flocks and herds
to offer sacrifices to the Lord.
They will not find him because he has withdrawn from them.
They have betrayed the honor of the Lord bearing children that are not his
now, their false religion will devour them along with their wealth sound.
The alarm in gibbon blow the trumpet in Rama.
Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven.
Lead on into battle a warriors of Benjamin.
One thing is certain Israel, on your day of punishment, you
will become a heap of rubble.
The leaders of Judah have become like thieves, so I will pour my
anger on them like a waterfall.
The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because
they are determined to worship idols.
I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool.
I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.
When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria
to the great King there, but he could neither help nor cure them.
I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah.
I will tear them to pieces.
I will carry them off and no one will be left to rescue them.
Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me.
For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me.
Come let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces.
Now He will heal us.
He has injured us.
Now he will bandage our wounds.
In just a short time, he will restore us so that we may live in his presence.
Oh, that we might know the Lord.
Let us press on to know him.
He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the
coming of rains in early spring.
Oh, Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?
Asks the Lord for your love.
Vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.
I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces.
To slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light.
I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings, but like Adam, you
broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.
Gilead is a city of sinners tracked with footprints of blood.
Priests form bans of robbers waiting in ambush for their victims.
They murder travelers along the road to shek him and practice every kind of sin.
Yes, I have seen something horrible in Efraim in Israel.
My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods.
Oh, Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you though I wanted
to restore the fortunes of my people.
I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great.
Samaria is filled with liars.
Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside.
Its people don't realize that I am watching them.
Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them.
All the people entertain the king with their wickedness, and
the princes laugh at their lies.
They're all adulterers.
Always a flame with lust.
They're like an oven that has kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough.
On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine carousing
with those who mock them.
Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders through the night and in the morning it breaks out like
a raging fire, burning like an oven.
They consume their leaders, they kill their kings one after another,
and no one cries to me for help.
The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners making themselves
as worthless as a half-baked cake.
Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don't even know it.
Their hair is gray, but they don't realize they're old and weak.
Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don't return to the
Lord their God or even try to find him.
The people of Israel have become like silly witless doves.
First calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
But as they fly about, I will throw my net over them and bring them
down like a bird from the sky.
I will punish them for all the evil they do.
What?
Sorrow awaits, those who have deserted me, let them die for
they have rebelled against me.
I wanted to redeem them that they have told lies about me.
They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.
Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.
They cut themselves begging foreign gods for grain and new
wine, and they turn away from me.
I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me.
They look everywhere except to the most high.
They are as useless as a crooked bow.
Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because
of their insense toward me.
Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them.
Sound the alarm.
The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord, for they have broken
my covenant and revolted against my law.
Now Israel pleads with me.
Help us for you are our God, but it is too late.
The people of Israel have rejected what is good, and now their
enemies will chase after them.
The people have appointed kings without my consent and princes without my approval.
By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have
brought about their own destruction.
Oh, Samaria, I reject this calf, this idol you have made my fury burns against you.
How long will you be incapable of innocence?
This calf you worship O Israel was crafted by your own hands.
It is not God.
Therefore it must be smashed to bits.
They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind, the stalks of
grain, wither, and produce nothing to eat.
And even if there is any grain, foreigners will eat it.
The people of Israel have been swallowed up.
They lie among the nations, like an old discarded pot, like a
wild donkey looking for a mate.
They have gone up to Assyria.
The people of Israel have sold themselves, sold themselves to many
lovers, but though they have sold themselves to many allies, I will now
gather them together for judgment.
Then they will rise under the burden of the Great King.
Israel has built many altars to take away sin, but these very
altars became places for sinning.
Even though I gave them all my laws, they act as if those laws don't apply to them.
The people love to offer sacrifices to me, feasting on the meat, but
I do not accept their sacrifices.
I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them.
They will return to Egypt.
Israel has forgotten its maker and built great palaces, and
Judah has fortified its cities.
Therefore, I will send down fire on their cities and will burn up their fortresses.
Oh, people of Israel do not rejoice as other nations do.
For you have been unfaithful to your God.
Hiring yourselves out like prostitutes, worshiping other
gods on every threshing floor.
So now your harvests will be too small to feed you.
There will be no grapes for making new wine.
You may no longer stay here in the Lord's land.
Instead you will return to Egypt.
And in Assyria you will eat food that is ceremonially unclean.
There you will make no offerings of wine to the Lord.
None of your sacrifices there will please him.
They will be unclean like food touched by a person in mourning all who present
such sacrifices will be defiled.
They may eat this food themselves, but they may not offer it to the Lord.
What then will you do on festival days?
How will you observe the Lord's festivals?
Even if you escape destruction from Assyria, Egypt will conquer
you, and Memphis will bury you.
Nettles will take over.
Your treasures of silver thistles will invade your ruined homes.
The time of Israel's punishment has come.
The day of payment is here soon.
Israel will know this all too well because of your great sin and hostility.
You say the prophets are crazy and the inspired manner Fools.
The prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God.
Yet traps are laid for him.
Wherever he goes, he faces hostility even in the house of God.
The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibby long ago.
God will not forget.
He will surely punish them for their sins.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.