Israel's Infidelity, Punishment, and Redemption
Hosea 2:2-23
2 Plead with your mother; plead with her, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband, but let her take away her fornications out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts.
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and leave her like a dry land, and slay her for thirst. 4 And I will have no pity upon her children, for they be the children of fornications. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them, hath done shamefully; for she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 6 Therefore behold, I will stoop thy way with thorns, and make an hedge, that she shall not find her paths. 7 Though she follow after her lovers, yet shall she not come at them; though she seek them, yet shall she not find them; then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for at that time was I better than now. 8 Now she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they bestowed upon Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax lent, to cover her shame. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no man shall deliver her out of mine hand. 11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me, and I will make them as a forest, and the wild beasts shall eat them. 13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burnt incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she followed her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord. 14 Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak friendly unto her. 15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for the door of hope, and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 16 And at that day, saith the Lord, thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall be no more remembered by their names. 18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them, with the wild beasts, and with the fowls of the heaven, and with that which creepeth upon the earth; and I will break the bow, and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to sleep safely. 19 And I will marry thee unto me forever; yea, I will marry thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy and in compassion. 20 I will even marry thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. 21 And in that day I will hear, saith the Lord, I will even hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, 22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel. 23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her, that was not pitied, and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people. And they shall say, Thou art my God.Steve
1 Corinthians 14:8
And also if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?
"Let not Geneva be forgotten or despised. Religious liberty owes it most respect." John Adams, the second president of the United States