Hosea 1, 2
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea’s Family
2 The beginning of the word of the Lord to Hosea. The Lord said to Hosea,
“Go, take to yourself a wife of fornication
And children of fornication;
For the land will surely go a-whoring
By departing from the Lord.”
3 So he went and took Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Again the Lord said to him,
“Call his name Jezreel;
For in a little while
I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
And I will make to cease the kingship of the house of Israel.
5 It shall be in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Then she conceived again and bore a daughter. So God said to him,
“Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,
For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
But will surely set Myself in array against them.
7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah
And will save them by the Lord their God.
I will not save them with bow,
Nor with sword, nor by war,
Nor by chariots, nor by horses or horsemen.”
8 Now after she weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived again and bore a son. 9 So the Lord said,
“Call his name Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I am not your God.
Israel Will Be Restored
10 “Yet the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which shall not be measured or numbered.
Then it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
Even then they shall be called
The sons of the living God.
11 The children of Judah and the children of Israel
Shall be gathered together.
They shall appoint themselves one head
And come up out of the land;
For great shall be the day of Jezreel.
1 “Say to your brother, ‘My People,’
And to your sister, ‘Pitied.’
Gomer and Israel Are Unfaithful
2 “Plead with your mother, plead,
For she is not My wife,
And I am not her Husband.
I will remove her fornication out of My presence
And her adultery from between her breasts,
3 That I may strip her naked
And make her again as she was at the day of her birth.
I will make her desolate and as a dry land,
And I will kill her with thirst.
4 “I will not have mercy upon her children;
For they are children of fornication.
5 For their mother went a-whoring.
She that bore them disgraced herself,
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
And my garments and my linen clothes,
My oil and my necessities.’
6 “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns.
I will stop the ways so she shall not find her path.
7 She will follow after her lovers
But not overtake them.
She will seek them but not find them.
She will say,
‘I will go and return to my former husband;
For it was better for me than now.’
8 For she did not know I gave her corn, wine, and oil,
And multiplied silver to her;
But she turned the silver and gold over to Baal.
9 “Therefore I will take back
My corn in its season,
And My wine in its time.
I will remove My raiment and My linen clothes
That she may not cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will expose her uncleanness before her lovers,
And no one shall by any means
Deliver her out of My hand.
11 I will take away all her gladness, her feasts,
And her festivals at the New Moon,
And her Sabbaths,
And all her solemn assemblies.
12 “I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
All things of which she said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
But I will make them a testimony;
And the wild beasts of the field, the birds of the sky,
And the reptiles of the earth shall devour them.
13 I will repay her For the days of Baalim,
Wherein she sacrificed to them,
And put on her earrings and her necklaces,
And went after her lovers;
But she forgot Me,” says the Lord.
God Has Mercy on His People
14 “Therefore, behold, I will lead her astray
And make her as desolate,
And I will speak to her heart.
15 I will give her possessions from there,
And the Valley of Achor to open her understanding.
She will be humbled there
According to the days of her infancy,
And according to the days of her coming up
Out of the land of Egypt.
16 “Then it shall come to pass in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That she will call Me ‘My Husband,’
And shall no longer call Me ‘Baalim.’
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth,
And their names shall be remembered no more.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the wild beasts of the field,
And with the birds of the sky,
And with the reptiles of the earth.
I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle from off the earth,
And will cause them to dwell safely.
19 “I will betroth you to Myself forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Myself
In righteousness and justice,
And in mercy and compassions.
20 I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.
21 “It shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord,
“That I will listen to heaven,
And it shall listen to the earth.
22 The earth shall listen to the corn,
And the wine, and the oil;
And they shall listen to Jezreel.
23 I will sow her to Myself on the earth,
And will love her that was not loved,
And will say to that which was not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say,
‘You are the Lord my God!’ ”
Psalm 82
1 An ode of a psalm for Asaph.
2 O God, who can be likened to You?
Be not silent nor appeased, O God,
3 For behold, Your enemies made a noise,
And those who hate You raised up their heads.
4 They devised a wicked judgment against Your people,
And they plotted against Your saints.
5 They said, “Come, and let us destroy them from among the people,
And let the name Israel be remembered no more.”
6 For they plotted together in unity;
They established a covenant against You:
7 The tents of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagarenes,
8 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
And foreigners with the inhabitants of Tyre;
9 And even Assyria joined with them;
They came to the aid of the sons of Lot.
(Pause)
10 Deal with them as with Midian and Sisera,
As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon;
11 They were destroyed at Endor;
They became like dung on the earth.
12 Make their rulers like Oreb and Zeeb,
And all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna,
13 Who said, “Let us inherit the holy place of God for ourselves.”
14 O my God, turn them like a wheel,
Like straw before the face of the wind,
15 Like fire that burns through a thicket,
Like a flame that sets mountains on fire;
16 Thus You shall pursue them with Your storm,
And You shall trouble them in your wrath.
17 Fill their faces with disgrace,
And they shall seek Your name, O Lord.
18 Let them be disgraced and troubled unto ages of ages,
And let them be shamed and destroyed;
19 And let them know Your name is the Lord,
That You alone are Most High over all the earth.
Proverbs 17:16–20
16 He who judges the unrighteous as righteous, and the righteous as unrighteous,
He is unclean and abominable before God.
17 Why do goods belong to a man without discernment?
For a heartless man is unable to gain wisdom.
18 He who makes his own house lofty seeks destruction,
And the one who turns away from learning will fall into evils.
19 Let a friend be with you on every occasion,
And let brethren be useful in necessities,
For they are begotten for this reason.
20 A man without discernment applauds and rejoices over himself,
As also the one who gives himself as surety for his friend.
Philippians 3:1-4:1
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,
4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing Toward the Goal
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
Our Citizenship in Heaven
17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.
18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.1 Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.