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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Nancy: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 200 and 47
The Lord says, oh, Israel, when
I first found you, it was like
finding fresh grapes in the desert.
When I saw your ancestors, it was like
seeing the first ripe figs of the season.
But then they deserted me for Baal Peor,
giving themselves to that shameful idol.
Soon they became vile.
As vile as the God they worshiped, the
glory of Israel will fly away like a bird
for your children will not be born or
grow in the womb or even be conceived.
Even if you do have children who
grow up, I will take them from you.
It will be a terrible day when
I turn away and leave you alone.
I have watched Israel become
as beautiful as tire, but now.
Israel will bring out her
children for slaughter.
Oh Lord, what should I
request for your people?
I will ask for wombs that don't give
birth and breasts that give no milk.
The Lord says all their
wickedness began at Gilgal there.
I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my land
because of their evil actions.
I will love them no more because
all their leaders are rebels.
The people of Israel are struck down.
Their roots are dried up, and
they will bear no more fruit.
And if they give birth, I will
slaughter their beloved children.
My God will reject the people of Israel
because they will not listen or obey.
They will be wanderers,
homeless among the nations.
How prosperous Israel is a
luxurious vine loaded with fruit,
but the richer the people get,
the more pagan altars they build.
The more bountiful their harvests, the
more beautiful their sacred pillars.
The hearts of the people are fickle.
They are guilty and must be punished.
The Lord will break down their altars
and smash their sacred pillars.
Then they will say, we have no
king because we didn't fear the
Lord, but even if we had a king,
what could he do for us anyway?
They spout empty words and make
covenants they don't intend to keep.
So when Justice springs up among them
like poisonous weeds in a farmer's
field, the people of Samaria tremble
in fear for their calf idol at
Beth Aven, and they mourn for it.
Though its priests rejoice over it,
its glory will be stripped away.
This idol will be carted away to
Assyria, a gift to the great king There.
EAM will be ridiculed and Israel
will be shamed because its people
have trusted in this idol, Samaria
and its king will be cut off.
They will float away like
driftwood on an ocean wave.
The pagan shrines of Aven, the
place of Israel's sin will crumble.
Thorns and thistles will
grow up around their altars.
They will beg the mountains, bury us,
and plead with the hills, fall on us.
The Lord says, oh Israel.
Ever since Gibbon, there has
been only sin and more sin.
You have made no progress whatsoever.
Was it not right that the wicked
men of Gibbon were attacked?
Now, whenever it fits my
plan, I will attack you too.
I will call out the armies of the nations
to punish you for your multiplied sins.
Israel is like a trained heifer treading
out the grain and easy job she loves.
But I will put a heavy
yolk on her tender neck.
I will force Judah to pull the plow
and Israel to break up the hard ground.
I said, plant the good seeds
of righteousness and you
will harvest a crop of love.
Plow up the hard ground of your hearts.
For now is the time to seek the Lord that
he may come and shower righteousness upon
you, but you have cultivated wickedness
and harvested a thriving crop of sins.
You have eaten the fruit of lies.
Trusting in your military might
believing that great armies
could make your nation safe.
Now, the terrors of war
will rise among your people.
All your fortifications will fall just
as when shaman destroyed Beth Arbel.
Even mothers and children
were dashed to death.
There you will share that fate, Bethel,
because of your great wickedness.
When the day of judgment dawns the King
of Israel will be completely destroyed.
When Israel was a child, I loved him
and I called my son out of Egypt.
But the more I called to him, the
farther he moved from me, offering
sacrifices to the images of Baal
and burning incense to idols.
I myself taught Israel how to walk.
Leading him along by the hand.
He doesn't know or even care that
it was I who took care of him.
I led Israel along with my
ropes of kindness and love.
I lifted the yoke from his neck
and I myself stooped to feed him.
But since my people refuse to
return to me, they will return to
Egypt and will be forced to serve.
Assyria War will swirl
through their cities.
Their enemies will crash
through their gates.
They will destroy them, trapping
them in their own evil plans.
For my people are determined to desert me.
They call me the most high,
but they don't truly honor me.
Oh, how can I give you up Israel?
How can I let you go?
How can I destroy you?
Like Adah or demolish you like Zeum.
My heart is torn within me
and my compassion overflows.
No, I will not unleash my fierce anger.
I will not completely destroy Israel.
For I am God and not a mere mortal.
I am the holy one living among you,
and I will not come to destroy for
someday that people will follow me.
I, the Lord will roar like a
lion, and when I roar, my people
will return trembling from the
west like a flock of birds.
They will come from Egypt,
trembling like doves.
They will return from Assyria and I will
bring them home again, says the Lord.
Israel surrounds me with lies and
deceit, but Judah still obeys God
and is faithful to the holy one.
The people of Israel feed on the wind.
They chase after the
east wind All day long.
They pile up lies and violence.
They are making an alliance
with Assyria while sending olive
oil to buy support from Egypt.
Now the Lord is bringing
charges against Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob for all
his deceitful ways and pay him back
for all he has done even in the womb.
Jacob struggled with his brother.
When he became a man,
he even fought with God.
Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.
He wept and pleaded for a
blessing from him there at Bethel.
He met God face to face
and God spoke to him.
The Lord God of heaven's armies.
The Lord is his name.
So now come back to your God,
act with love and justice,
and always depend on him.
No, the people are like crafty
merchants selling from dishonest scales.
They love to cheat.
Israel boasts, I am rich.
I've made a fortune all by myself.
No one has caught me cheating.
My record is spotless, but
I am the Lord your God.
Who rescued you from slavery in Egypt?
And I will make you live in
tents again, as you do each year
at the Festival of Shelters.
I sent my prophets to warn you
with many visions and parables, but
the people of Gilead are worthless
because of their idol worship.
And in Gilgal too, they sacrifice bulls.
Their altars are lined up
like the heaps of stone along
the edges of a plowed field.
Jacob fled to the land of Arum,
and there he earned a wife by
tending sheep, then by a prophet.
The Lord brought Jacob's
descendants out of Egypt, and by
that prophet they were protected.
But the people of Israel have
bitterly provoked the Lord, so
their Lord will now sentence them
to death in payment for their sins.
When the tribe of Efram spoke, The
people shook with fear for that tribe
was important in Israel, but the people
of Efram sinned by worshiping Baal
and thus sealed their destruction.
Now they continue to sin by making
silver idols, images shaped skillfully
with human hands sacrifice To these,
they cry and kiss the calf idols.
Therefore, they will disappear like the
morning mist, like do in the morning sun.
Like chaff blown by the wind,
like smoke from a chimney.
I have been the Lord your God.
Ever since I brought you out of
Egypt, you must acknowledge no God
but me for there is no other savior.
I took care of you in the wilderness,
in that dry and thirsty land, but
when you had eaten and were satisfied,
you became proud and forgot me.
So now I will attack you like a lion, like
a leopard that lurks along the road like
a bear whose cubs have been taken away.
I will tear out your heart.
I will devour you like a
hungry lions and mangle.
You like a wild animal.
You are about to be destroyed.
Oh, Israel, yes, by me.
Your only helper.
Now where is your king?
Let him save you.
Where are all the leaders of the land,
the king and the officials You demanded
of me in my anger I gave you kings,
and in my fury, I took them away.
Efraim's guilt has been collected and his
sin has been stored up for punishment.
Pain has come to the people like
the pain of childbirth, but they are
like a child who resists being born.
The moment of birth has arrived.
They stay in the womb.
Should I ransom them from the grave?
Should I redeem them from death?
Oh, death.
Bring on your terrors.
Oh grave, bring on your plagues
for I will not take pity on them.
Efraim was the most fruitful of all his
brothers, but the east wind, a blast
from the Lord will arise in the desert.
All their flowing springs will run dry
and all their wells will disappear.
Every precious thing they own will
be plundered and carried away.
The people of Samaria must bear the
consequences of their guilt because
they rebelled against their God.
They will be killed by an invading army.
Their little ones dashed to
death against the ground.
Their pregnant women
ripped open by swords.
Return O Israel to the Lord your God,
for your sins have brought you down.
Bring your confessions
and return to the Lord.
Say to him, forgive all our sins
and graciously receive us so that
we may offer you our praises.
Assyria cannot save us,
nor can our war horses.
Never again will we say
to the idols we have made.
You are our gods.
No in you alone, do
the orphans find mercy.
The Lord says, then I will
heal you of your faithlessness.
My love will no, no bounds for
my anger will be gone forever.
I will be to Israel like a
refreshing dew from heaven.
Israel will blossom like the lily.
It will send roots deep into the
soil like the cedars in Lebanon.
Its branches will spread out
like beautiful olive trees.
As fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon.
My people will again live under my shade.
They will flourish like grain
and blossom like grapevines.
They will be as fragrant
as the wines of Lebanon.
Oh, Israel, stay away from idols.
I am the one who answers your
prayers and cares for you.
I am like a tree that is always green.
All your fruit comes from me.
Let those who are wise
understand these things.
Let those with discernment.
Listen carefully.
The paths of the Lord are
true and right, and righteous
people live by walking in them.
But in those paths,
sinners stumble and fall.
This concludes today's
Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.