HOSEA PAINTS THE FINAL PORTRAIT OF ISRAEL’S DEPRAVITY
June 7, 2015
Hosea 13
The LORD’s Relentless Judgment on Israel
[1] When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
he was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
[2] And now they sin more and more,
and make for themselves metal images,
idols skillfully made of their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
[3] Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
or like the dew that goes early away,
like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
or like smoke from a window.
[4] But I am the LORD your God
from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no savior.
[5] It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
[6] but when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
[7] So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
[8] I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
[9] He destroys you, O Israel,
for you are against me, against your helper.
[10] Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
Where are all your rulers—
those of whom you said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
[11] I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
[12] The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
his sin is kept in store.
[13] The pangs of childbirth come for him,
but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
at the opening of the womb.
[14] I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
[15] Though he may flourish among his brothers,
the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come,
rising from the wilderness,
and his fountain shall dry up;
his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
of every precious thing.
[16] Samaria shall bear her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open. (ESV)
1 Corinthians 15:50–57
Mystery and Victory
[50] I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. [51] Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, [52] in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. [53] For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. [54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
[55] “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)