Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 05 December 2020

 Well, no snow today.  That's good, really.  Not May-type weather, unfortunately, but not sub-zero nor under half a foot -- or more - of that evil white powder.  We'll take it, lacking an option.

Heading toward the end of the year.  None of us really have any idea what the next phase will bring to us.  Tempting, very, to be discouraged and drear.  I hope we realize that the Lord is still in charge, and that He loves us, a miracle in itself.  But the road before us may be bumpy.  Was for Moses and David and Paul and many others.  They thought it was worth it.  We should as well.

Today's reading has us still in the book of Hosea.  The world around him, and the events that were unfolding in his life, were rough as well.  The Lord passed warnings through him, ones that were largely ignored or scorned.  And that came to pass.  It can happen again.

HOSEA 9

Punishment for Israel

1Do not rejoice, Israel;

do not be jubilant like the other nations.

For you have been unfaithful to your God;

you love the wages of a prostitute

at every threshing floor.

2Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;

the new wine will fail them.

3They will not remain in the Lord’s land;

Ephraim will return to Egypt

and eat unclean food in Assyria.

4They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord,

nor will their sacrifices please him.

Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;

all who eat them will be unclean.

This food will be for themselves;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

5What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,

on the feast days of the Lord?

6Even if they escape from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,

and Memphis will bury them.

Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,

and thorns will overrun their tents.

7The days of punishment are coming,

the days of reckoning are at hand.

Let Israel know this.

Because your sins are so many

and your hostility so great,

the prophet is considered a fool,

the inspired person a maniac.

8The prophet, along with my God,

is the watchman over Ephraim,

yet snares await him on all his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.

9They have sunk deep into corruption,

as in the days of Gibeah.

God will remember their wickedness

and punish them for their sins.

10“When I found Israel,

it was like finding grapes in the desert;

when I saw your ancestors,

it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.

But when they came to Baal Peor,

they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol

and became as vile as the thing they loved.

11Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

12Even if they rear children,

I will bereave them of every one.

Woe to them

when I turn away from them!

13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,

planted in a pleasant place.

But Ephraim will bring out

their children to the slayer.”

14Give them, Lord—

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry

and breasts that are dry.

15“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,

I hated them there.

Because of their sinful deeds,

I will drive them out of my house.

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.

16Ephraim is blighted,

their root is withered,

they yield no fruit.

Even if they bear children,

I will slay their cherished offspring.”

17My God will reject them

because they have not obeyed him;

they will be wanderers among the nations.

HOSEA 10

1Israel was a spreading vine;

he brought forth fruit for himself.

As his fruit increased,

he built more altars;

as his land prospered,

he adorned his sacred stones.

2Their heart is deceitful,

and now they must bear their guilt.

The Lordwill demolish their altars

and destroy their sacred stones.

3Then they will say, “We have no king

because we did not revere the Lord.

But even if we had a king,

what could he do for us?”

4They make many promises,

take false oaths

and make agreements;

therefore lawsuits spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

5The people who live in Samaria fear

for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.

Its people will mourn over it,

and so will its idolatrous priests,

those who had rejoiced over its splendor,

because it is taken from them into exile.

6It will be carried to Assyria

as tribute for the great king.

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.

7Samaria’s king will be destroyed,

swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

8The high places of wickedness will be destroyed—

it is the sin of Israel.

Thorns and thistles will grow up

and cover their altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,

and there you have remained.

Will not war again overtake

the evildoers in Gibeah?

10When I please, I will punish them;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bonds for their double sin.

11Ephraim is a trained heifer

that loves to thresh;

so I will put a yoke

on her fair neck.

I will drive Ephraim,

Judah must plow,

and Jacob must break up the ground.

12Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

and showers his righteousness on you.

13But you have planted wickedness,

you have reaped evil,

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your own strength

and on your many warriors,

14the roar of battle will rise against your people,

so that all your fortresses will be devastated—

as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

15So will it happen to you, Bethel,

because your wickedness is great.

When that day dawns,

the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.