Thursday, September 21, 2023

Hosea 14

¹Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! ²Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. ³Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion."

⁴"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. ⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; ⁶his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. ⁷Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon. ⁸O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me."

⁹Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

 

 

Psalm 78:36–72

³⁶But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; ³⁷their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. ³⁸Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. ³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. ⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland! ⁴¹Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. ⁴²They did not remember his power-- the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, ⁴³the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. ⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams. ⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. ⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust. ⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet. ⁴⁸He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. ⁴⁹He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility-- a band of destroying angels. ⁵⁰He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague. ⁵¹He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham. ⁵²But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert. ⁵³He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies. ⁵⁴Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken. ⁵⁵He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes. ⁵⁶But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. ⁵⁷Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. ⁵⁸They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols. ⁵⁹When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely. ⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men. ⁶¹He sent [the ark of] his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. ⁶²He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance. ⁶³Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs; ⁶⁴their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep. ⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine. ⁶⁶He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame. ⁶⁷Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; ⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. ⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever. ⁷⁰He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; ⁷¹from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. ⁷²And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

 

 

Romans 10:5–21

⁵Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." ⁶But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷"or 'Who will descend into the deep?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ¹¹As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." ¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

¹⁴How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

¹⁶But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" ¹⁷Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. ¹⁸But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:

"Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

¹⁹Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

"I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."

²⁰And Isaiah boldly says,

"I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."

²¹But concerning Israel he says,

"All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."