Hosea 8, 9
1 “He shall come into their midst like the land,
Like an eagle against the house of the Lord,
Because they broke My covenant
And acted impiously against My law.
2 They shall cry out to Me, saying,
‘O God, we know You.’
3 For Israel has turned away from good things;
They have pursued an enemy.
4 “They made kings for themselves, but not by Me.
They have ruled, but they did not make it known to Me.
They made idols for themselves with their silver and gold
That they might be utterly destroyed.
5 Get rid of your calf, O Samaria.
My anger is kindled against them.
How long will they be unable to purge themselves in Israel?
6 A workman made it, And it is not God;
Therefore your calf, O Samaria, was a deceiver.
7 “For they sowed wind-damaged seeds,
And their destruction shall await them;
A sheaf of corn cannot produce flour;
And even if the seeds should produce it,
Strangers would devour it.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now he has become as a worthless vessel among the nations.
9 For they have gone up to the Assyrians;
Ephraim has sprouted again against himself;
They loved gifts.
10 Therefore they shall be handed over to the nations.
Now I will receive them,
And they will stop awhile to anoint a king and princes.
11 “Because Ephraim has multiplied altars,
His beloved altars have become sins to him.
12 I will write a multitude of statutes for him,
For his statutes are considered as strange things,
As well as his beloved altars.
13 For if they should offer a sacrifice and eat flesh,
The Lord would not accept them.
Now He will remember their wrongdoings
And take vengeance on their sins.
They have returned to Egypt,
And they shall eat unclean things among the Assyrians.
14 “Israel has forgotten Him who made him.
They have built temples,
And Judah has multiplied walled cities;
But I will send fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour their foundations.”
Punishment for Israel
1 Rejoice not, O Israel,
Neither make merry, as other peoples,
For you have gone a-whoring from your God.
You have loved for hire
Upon every threshing floor of wheat.
2 The threshing floor and winepress did not know them,
And the wine disappointed them.
3 They did not dwell in the Lord’s land.
Ephraim dwelt in Egypt,
And they shall eat unclean things among the Assyrians.
4 They have not offered wine to the Lord,
Neither have their sacrifices been pleasing to Him,
But like the mourning bread to them.
All that eat shall be defiled
Because their bread shall be for their own life;
It shall not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do in the day of public festival
And in the day of the Lord’s feast?
6 Therefore, behold, they go forth from the trouble of Egypt.
Memphis shall receive them
And Machmas shall bury them.
As for their silver, destruction shall inherit it,
And thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of vengeance have come;
The days of your recompense have come;
And Israel shall be afflicted
As the prophet that is mad, as a man deranged.
By reason of the multitude of your wrongdoings
Your madness has abounded.
8 The watchman of Ephraim was with God,
But the prophet is a crooked snare in all his ways.
They have planted the madness firmly
In the house of God.
9 They have corrupted themselves
As in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember his wrongdoings;
He will take vengeance on his sins.
10 “I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness,
And I saw their fathers as an early guard at their fig tree.
They went in to Baal Peor
And were shamefully estranged;
And the beloved ones became abominable.
11 The glory of Ephraim has flown away as a bird:
Their glories from birth, birth-pains, and conception.
12 For even if they should rear their children,
Yet they shall be utterly bereaved.
For woe to them! My flesh is of them.
13 Ephraim, even as I saw,
Presented their children as a prey;
Ephraim was ready to bring out his children to slaughter.”
14 Give to them, O Lord!
What will You give to them?
A childless womb and dry breasts.
15 “All their evils are in Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of their evil practices,
I will cast them out of My house.
I will not love them any more.
All their leaders are disobedient.
16 Ephraim underwent trouble;
He is dried up at his roots;
He shall bear fruit no more.
Wherefore, even if they should beget children,
I would kill the desired fruit of their womb.”
17 God shall reject them
Because they have not hearkened to Him.
So they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Psalm 85
1 A prayer by David.
Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear me,
For I am poor and needy.
2 Guard my soul, for I am holy;
O my God, save Your servant, who hopes in You.
3 Have mercy on me, O Lord,
For all the day long I will cry to You.
4 Gladden the soul of Your servant, O Lord,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
5 For You, O Lord, are kind and good,
And very merciful to all who call upon You.
6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer
And heed the voice of my supplication.
7 In the day of my affliction I cried to You,
For You heard me.
8 There is none like You among the gods, O Lord,
And there are no works like Your works.
9 All the Gentiles You made shall come
And worship before You, O Lord,
And they shall glorify Your name;
10 For You are great, doing wonders;
You alone are the great God.
11 Lead me in Your way, O Lord,
And I will walk in Your truth;
Gladden my heart so as to fear Your name.
12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
And I shall glorify Your name forever;
13 For great is Your mercy to me,
And You rescued my soul from the lowest Hades.
14 O God, lawless men rose up against me,
And a gathering of strong men sought my soul;
And they did not set You before them.
15 But You, O Lord, are compassionate and merciful,
Longsuffering and very merciful and truthful.
16 Look upon me and have mercy;
Give Your strength to Your servant,
And save the son of Your handmaid.
17 Work a sign in my midst for good,
And let those who hate me see it and be disgraced;
For You, O Lord, helped me and comforted me.
Proverbs 18:1–5
1 A man seeks a pretext when he wishes to separate from his friends,
But he shall be reproached at every opportunity.
2 A man lacking understanding has no need of wisdom,
For he is rather led by lack of discernment.
3 When an ungodly man comes into the depth of evil things, he acts contemptuously,
But dishonor and reproach come upon him.
4 A word in the heart of a man is deep water,
And a river and a fountain of life spring up from it.
5 It is not good to admire the person of the ungodly,
Nor is it holy to pervert righteousness in judgment.
Colossians 2
1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Not Legalism but Christ
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—
21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.