NIPTO, Day 254

Hi.

Between my last blog and now: I've slept and done school. I ate lunch. And now I'm watching Bride Wars. School was good. I got everything I needed to do before lunch. Yup :)

Not a whole lot has happened.

NIPTO?
Hosea 9:1-17
¹ Do not rejoice, O Israel;
       do not be jubilant like the other nations.
       For you have been unfaithful to your God;
       you love the wages of a prostitute
       at every threshing floor.


This is Israel's punishment for not being repentant. 
God tells them not to be happy. Not to rejoice. Because they were unfaithful to God. They loved their sins.




 ² Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
       the new wine will fail them.
 ³ They will not remain in the LORD's land;
       Ephraim will return to Egypt
       and eat unclean food in Assyria.
 ⁴ They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD,
       nor will their sacrifices please him.
       Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
       all who eat them will be unclean.
       This food will be for themselves;
       it will not come into the temple of the LORD.


The threshing floors and winepresses themselves wouldn't feed the people. Their wine would be no good. The people wouldn't stay in the land that God gave them. They would go back to Egypt where they had to work hard for what they got.
They wouldn't offer sacrifices to God, but they would to other gods. Their sacrifices would be no good because they weren't to God. They would keep their food for themselves and not give any in sacrifice to God.



 ⁵ What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts,
       on the festival days of the LORD ?
 ⁶ Even if they escape from destruction,
       Egypt will gather them,
       and Memphis will bury them.
       Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,
       and thorns will overrun their tents.


They had these feasts at appointed times to celebrate what God had done for them. But they weren't following God, so they couldn't really have those feasts, could they? God says that even if they escape from the destruction that he is going to cause, they'll be gathered and buried. What they have will be overgrown and overrun by thorns and briers.



 ⁷ The days of punishment are coming,
       the days of reckoning are at hand.
       Let Israel know this.
       Because your sins are so many
       and your hostility so great,
       the prophet is considered a fool,
       the inspired man a maniac.


Their punishment was coming. God was telling them that, because they sinned so much and they were such an angry people, the prophets would be considered fools and the inspired person a maniac. (Don't we think inspired people today are slightly manic? Yeah. I think so. And we think the prophet is a fool. Innnnteresting parallels.)



 ⁸ The prophet, along with my God,
       is the watchman over Ephraim,
       yet snares await him on all his paths,
       and hostility in the house of his God.
 ⁹ They have sunk deep into corruption,
       as in the days of Gibeah.
       God will remember their wickedness
       and punish them for their sins.


The prophets were the watchmen of Ephraim. BUT even though they had a watchman, there would still be snares and traps. 
Ephraim was very corrupt. And God wouldn't forget it.



 ¹⁰ "When I found Israel,
       it was like finding grapes in the desert;
       when I saw your fathers,
       it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.
       But when they came to Baal Peor,
       they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
       and became as vile as the thing they loved.


Israel was... rare when God "found" them. When he saw their ancestors they were like the first fruits on a tree. But when they traveled, they became corrupt. They gave themselves away to idols "and became as vial as the thing they loved." Not God.



 ¹¹ Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird—
       no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
 ¹² Even if they rear children,
       I will bereave them of every one.
       Woe to them
       when I turn away from them!


Ephraim's glory would be fleeting. Their children would not be happy.



 ¹³ I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
       planted in a pleasant place.
       But Ephraim will bring out
       their children to the slayer."
 ¹⁴ Give them, O LORD—
       what will you give them?
       Give them wombs that miscarry
       and breasts that are dry.


Ephraim, like Tyre, was in a good place, but they messed it up. So Hosea is kind of asking God what he's going to give them and God answers.

 ¹⁵ "Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
       I hated them there.
       Because of their sinful deeds,
       I will drive them out of my house.
       I will no longer love them;
       all their leaders are rebellious.

Because they were wicked, God hated them. Because they were sinful, God would drive them out and would no longer love them. They were rebellious.

 ¹⁶ Ephraim is blighted,
       their root is withered,
       they yield no fruit.
       Even if they bear children,
       I will slay their cherished offspring."

 ¹⁷ My God will reject them
       because they have not obeyed him;
       they will be wanderers among the nations.

Ephraim was rotten. Wilted. Yielding no fruit. Even if they had fruit (read: children), God would kill them.
God rejected them because they rejected God. They would be left to wander.




A'ight. Now.

This. Is. Amazing.

The end.