Loyal Week 6 Day 4
Hosea 9:1
[1] Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on all threshing floors.
Sin is fun for a time. Living life with no boundaries. Doing what feels pleasing and desirable to yourself. Sin can be full of excitement and extremely enticing. Ultimately, sin brings the opposite of rejoicing and exultation; hell.
Hosea 9:2–5
[2] Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
[3] They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
[4] They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the LORD.
[5] What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the LORD? (ESV)
The LORD gave Israel this land, and in response Israel has turned their back to Him. Not fully or immediately, but in a slow fade over generations, straddling the fence between the One True GOD and false gods. The One True GOD responds with disgust at their meager attempts of sacrificial bread. Yuck! This does not please the LORD.
Jeremiah 2:7
[7] And I brought you into a plentiful land
to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, you defiled my land
and made my heritage an abomination. (ESV)
GOD’s heritage is an abomination because of Israel’s choices.
GOD and His Law is regarded with disgust and hatred because of Israel’s choices.
Jeremiah 16:18
[18] But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” (ESV)
Leviticus 18:24–30
[24] “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, [25] and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. [26] But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you [27] (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), [28] lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. [29] For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. [30] So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.” (ESV)
Isaiah 10:1–3
[1] Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
[2] to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
[3] What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the ruin that will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth? (ESV)
Woe to those who make wicked and sinful laws.
Woe to the authors of unjust and cruel exercise of power.
Woe to those who rob and steal, creating the vulnerable to then exploit.
Punishment is coming. Who will Israel trust with their wealth? Who will Israel go to for help?
Do any of these judgements apply to you? Can you see these in your culture right now? Who will you trust with your most precious earthly things? Who will you go to for help?
Works Cited
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.
“Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's Most-Trusted Online Dictionary.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/.
Green, Jay P. “Hosea.” The Interlinear Hebrew-Aramaic Old Testament: With Strong's Concordance Numbers above Each Word, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, MA, 1985
Publishing, Rose. Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines. Rose Publishing, 2015.
Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of Th. Hendrickson Publishers, 1990.