Wednesday, September 20, 2023

 Hosea 13

¹When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. ²Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, "They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols." ³Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.

⁴"But I am the LORD your God, [who brought you] out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me. ⁵I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. ⁶When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. ⁷So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. ⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.

⁹"You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper. ¹⁰Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'? ¹¹So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away. ¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record. ¹³Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb.

¹⁴"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?

"I will have no compassion, ¹⁵even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures. ¹⁶The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open."

 

 

Psalm 78:1–35

¹A [maskil] of Asaph. O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. ²I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old-- ³what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. ⁴We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. ⁵He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, ⁶so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. ⁷Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. ⁸They would not be like their forefathers-- a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. ⁹The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; ¹⁰they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law. ¹¹They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. ¹²He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. ¹³He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall. ¹⁴He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. ¹⁵He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; ¹⁶he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. ¹⁷But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. ¹⁸They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. ¹⁹They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert? ²⁰When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?" ²¹When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, ²²for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance. ²³Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; ²⁴he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. ²⁵Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat. ²⁶He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power. ²⁷He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore. ²⁸He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents. ²⁹They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved. ³⁰But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths, ³¹God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel. ³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe. ³³So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror. ³⁴Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again. ³⁵They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

 

 

Romans 9:27-33

²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

"Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. ²⁸For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality."

²⁹It is just as Isaiah said previously:

"Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."

³⁰What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. ³²Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." ³³As it is written:

"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Romans 10:1-4

¹Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ²For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. ⁴Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.