Sermon Central
Hosea 13-14
The LORD’s Anger Against Israel 1When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
2Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss
3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.
4“But I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.
5I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat.
6When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
7So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them— a wild animal will tear them apart.
9“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.
10Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?
11So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.
12The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.
13Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.
14“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? “I will have no compassion,
15even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.
16The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”
Repentance to Bring Blessing
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2Take words with you and return to the LORD . Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
3Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
4“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
5I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;
6his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine— Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8Ephraim, what more have I