HOSEA 7-10

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Ephraim’s Iniquity7:1 When I would heal Israel,

The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,

And the evil deeds of Samaria,

For they deal falsely;

The thief enters in,

Bandits raid outside,

2 And they do not consider in their hearts

That I remember all their wickedness.

Now their deeds are all around them;

They are before My face.

3 With their wickedness they make the king glad,

And the princes with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers,

Like an oven heated by the baker

Who ceases to stir up the fire

From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

5 On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine;

He stretched out his hand with scoffers,

6 For their hearts are like an oven

As they approach their plotting;

Their anger smolders all night,

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7 All of them are hot like an oven,

And they consume their rulers;

All their kings have fallen.

None of them calls on Me.

8 Ephraim mixes himself with the nations;

Ephraim has become a cake not turned.

9 Strangers devour his strength,

Yet he does not know it;

Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10 Though the pride of Israel testifies against him,

Yet they have not returned to the LORD their God,

Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

11 So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense;

They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

12 When they go, I will spread My net over them;

I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.

I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.

13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me!

Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!

I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.

14 And they do not cry to Me from their heart

When they wail on their beds;

For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves,

They turn away from Me.

15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise evil against Me.

16 They turn, but not upward,

They are like a deceitful bow;

Their princes will fall by the sword

Because of the insolence of their tongue.

This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel Reaps the Whirlwind8:1 Put the trumpet to your lips!

Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD,

Because they have transgressed My covenant

And rebelled against My law.

2 They cry out to Me,

“My God, we of Israel know You!”

3 Israel has rejected the good;

The enemy will pursue him.

4 They have set up kings, but not by Me;

They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.

With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,

That they might be cut off.

5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying,

“My anger burns against them!”

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6 For from Israel is even this!

A craftsman made it, so it is not God;

Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.

7 For they sow the wind

And they reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

It yields no grain.

Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up;

They are now among the nations

Like a vessel in which no one delights.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

Like a wild donkey all alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10 Even though they hire allies among the nations,

Now I will gather them up;

And they will begin to diminish

Because of the burden of the king of princes.

11 Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,

They have become altars of sinning for him.

12 Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law,

They are regarded as a strange thing.

13 As for My sacrificial gifts,

They sacrifice the flesh and eat it,

But the LORD has taken no delight in them.

Now He will remember their iniquity,

And punish them for their sins;

They will return to Egypt.

14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;

And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,

But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.

Ephraim Punished9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations!

For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.

You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor.

2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,

And the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not remain in the LORD’S land,

But Ephraim will return to Egypt,

And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD,

Their sacrifices will not please Him.

Their bread will be like mourners’ bread;

All who eat of it will be defiled,

For their bread will be for themselves alone;

It will not enter the house of the LORD.

5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival

And on the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For behold, they will go because of destruction;

Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them.

Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;

Thorns will be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come,

The days of retribution have come;

Let Israel know this!

The prophet is a fool,

The inspired man is demented,

Because of the grossness of your iniquity,

And because your hostility is so great.

8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

9 They have gone deep in depravity

As in the days of Gibeah;

He will remember their iniquity,

He will punish their sins.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;

I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.

But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,

And they became as detestable as that which they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird--

No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!

12 Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them until not a man is left.

Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, as I have seen,

Is planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre;

But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.

14 Give them, O LORD--what will You give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15 All their evil is at Gilgal;

Indeed, I came to hate them there!

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of My house!

I will love them no more;

All their princes are rebels.

16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,

They will bear no fruit.

Even though they bear children,

I will slay the precious ones of their womb.

17 My God will cast them away

Because they have not listened to Him;

And they will be wanderers among the nations.

Retribution for Israel’s Sin10:1 Israel is a luxuriant vine;

He produces fruit for himself.

The more his fruit,

The more altars he made;

The richer his land,

The better he made the sacred pillars.

2 Their heart is faithless;

Now they must bear their guilt.

The LORD will break down their altars

And destroy their sacred pillars.

3 Surely now they will say, “We have no king,

For we do not revere the LORD.

As for the king, what can he do for us?”

4 They speak mere words,

With worthless oaths they make covenants;

And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria will fear

For the calf of Beth-aven.

Indeed, its people will mourn for it,

And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it,

Over its glory, since it has departed from it.

6 The thing itself will be carried to Assyria

As tribute to King Jareb;

Ephraim will be seized with shame

And Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel.

7 Samaria will be cut off with her king

Like a stick on the surface of the water.

8 Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed;

Thorn and thistle will grow on their altars;

Then they will say to the mountains,

“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9 From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;

There they stand!

Will not the battle against the sons of iniquity overtake them in Gibeah?

10 When it is My desire, I will chastise them;

And the peoples will be gathered against them

When they are bound for their double guilt.

11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh,

But I will come over her fair neck with a yoke;

I will harness Ephraim,

Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.

12 Sow with a view to righteousness,

Reap in accordance with kindness;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the LORD

Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

13 You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice,

You have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors,

14 Therefore a tumult will arise among your people,

And all your fortresses will be destroyed,

As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle,

When mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

15 Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness.

At dawn the king of Israel will be completely cut off.

MATTHEW 18

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Rank in the Kingdom  18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Stumbling Blocks    7 “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!
    8 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. 9 If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.
    10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 11 [For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]
Ninety-nine Plus One    12 “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14 So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.
Discipline and Prayer    15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
    19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Forgiveness    21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
    23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”