Hosea 6

[Markinsa]

Hosea 6

A Call to Repentance

¹ “Come, let us return to the Lord.

He has torn us to pieces;

now he will heal us.

He has injured us;

now he will bandage our wounds.

² In just a short time he will restore us,

so that we may live in his presence.

³ Oh, that we might know the Lord!

Let us press on to know him.

He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn

or the coming of rains in early spring.”

⁴ “O Israel and Judah,

what should I do with you?” asks the Lord.

“For your love vanishes like the morning mist

and disappears like dew in the sunlight.

⁵ I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces—

to slaughter you with my words,

with judgments as inescapable as light.

⁶ I want you to show love,

not offer sacrifices.

I want you to know me

more than I want burnt offerings.

⁷ But like Adam, you broke my covenant

and betrayed my trust.

⁸ “Gilead is a city of sinners,

tracked with footprints of blood.

⁹ Priests form bands of robbers,

waiting in ambush for their victims.

They murder travelers along the road to Shechem

and practice every kind of sin.

¹⁰ Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel:

My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!

¹¹ “O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you,

though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.

[Bumper64]

Amen!

[rick25sandi]

[Sonnet]

Thank you, Markinsa . . . Amen!

[hoosier1470]

Great choice of scripture! Much needed right now! Thank You....and God Bless You!

[Metrious]

2 Chronicles 7:11-22 (NKJV)

"11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, 12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’

19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”

For those of us who are of the Church... Those true believers we are the ones that have to humble ourselves. God will take care of the rest. Including the economy and the laws. It starts with the Church. God takes us to task first cause we know better.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Metrious