I WILL BE YOUR KING
Hosea 13:1-16
“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, (14)
chapter 13
1. When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
2. Now 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 calf-idols!"
3. Therefore 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.
5. I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat.
6. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
7. So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8. Like 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.
10. Where 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’?
11. So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.
12. The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.
13. Pains 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,
15. even 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.
16. The 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."
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
1. Despite God’s warning, Israel’s idolatry grew more and more. They worshipped Baal and then started making their own idols from silver. Their future was as precarious as smoke escaping through a window (3).
2. They ignored their God, who led them out of Egypt and guided them through the wilderness. He had been their Lord, who knew and cared for them (4,5). As he loved them dearly, his anger toward them was also great, as they had turned to idolatry. God’s anger will turn him to be like a lion and a bear to destroy them from their sinful ways of life. God has the power to raise a king and then take away the king (11). In the end, only He is our Lord and the true King. Even if their pride and stubbornness are like a child refusing to come out of a womb when the time of birth comes, which then will lead both the child and mother to death, God will deliver them with his power. And he did it through Jesus’ death and resurrection. He overcomes the power of sin and death (14).
3. Would you come before the Lord, who led you out of the grip of sin and death to have life, and confess him as your true King today?
Prayer: Father, you are my creator, Lord. You know me, and you love me. No grip of sin and death can cut me off from you. I am coming to you today. You are my King.
One Word: You are my King