Today's Readings and Stuff == Monday, 09 December 2013

and the work week begins again.
33 degrees here, or so the TV stations say.  They might be right.  What is observable is a thin layer of ice on all exposed surfaces; it appears we had (or are having) a light freezing rain here.  Had more of that yesterday but the temperature never got UP to freezing, so it made for tricky navigation to say the least.  We decided to stay in all day, which was apparently a sentiment shared by many.  Probably just as well.  Both Dear Wife and I have had to pick up "pieces of people" from the roadway before.  I promise you, it is neither fun nor funny, and there is not one good thing about it.  We've seen the personal consequences of mishap and careless stupidity, often on the part of someone other than the victims, and are hoping to avoid adding to the score any time soon.  Dar Wife has just gone next door to "watch" grand-niece for the day, and I have been informed we will be eating dinner over there this evening.  I am home alone, or at least with no humans -- three cats don't count, do they?
And so we start to see the end of one year and the beginning of another one on the horizon.  Not there yet, but if the Lord wills, it should be here in a few weeks.

The music for the day is here, I Know That My Redeemer Lives

This morning we begin the book of the "minor prophet" Hosea, the first four chapters. The name means "salvation", you can compare it to the Latinized name "Jesus".  He was a prophet back around the 8th century B.C., and is even respected by the Muslims, whatever that is worth.  His story is instructive in the way that his own story parallels the relationship between the Lord and His people.  Hosea's wife was unfaithful to him, and left him for another man or men.  In like fashion, the people had left their relationship to chase after the idols and false gods of the surrounding nations, wanting what they had and wanting to be like everyone else. Sadly, that impulse did not die out with them.  We see it today, and even in the church.  Yet, continuing the parallel, Hosea went out and reclaimed his wife and brought her home, rather than subjecting her to the stoning that the Law prescribed for infidelity.  In like fashion, the Lord sent a Savior, with a similar name in fact, to bring His people home.  For which, thank You Lord!  Also note in verse 4 of the first chapter the reference to Jezreel.  There is an area in Israel known as the Valley of Jezreel.  You may be more familiar with it as the Valley of Armageddon, or of Megiddo.  It's about 30 km SE of Haifa on the map.

Hosea 1

1	The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
2	The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
3	So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
4	And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5	And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel, in the valley of Jezreel.
6	And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
7	But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8	Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9	Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10	Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11	Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2

1	Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2	Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3	Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
4	And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
5	For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
6	Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7	And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8	For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
9	Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
10	And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
11	I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
12	And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13	And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
14	Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
15	And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16	And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
17	For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18	And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
19	And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20	I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
21	And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
22	And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23	And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

Hosea 3

1	Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
2	So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
3	And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
4	For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
5	Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Hosea 4

1	Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2	By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3	Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
4	Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
5	Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
6	My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
7	As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.
8	They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
9	And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
10	For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.
11	Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
12	My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
13	They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
14	I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
15	Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.
16	For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
17	Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
18	Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
19	The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

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The New Testament reading is the pistle of Jude.    For whatever it may be worth, he is sometimes identified in the Catholic church as the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes.  Some find the work interesting because it displays a knowledge of the writings and tradition of Enoch.

Jude 1

1	Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2	Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3	Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
4	For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5	I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
6	And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7	Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8	Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9	Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10	But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11	Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12	These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13	Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14	And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15	To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16	These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
17	But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18	How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19	These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20	But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21	Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22	And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23	And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
24	Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25	To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.