Judgment against Enemy Nations
1*“At the time of those events,” says the LORD,
“when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2I will gather the armies of the world
into the valley of Jehoshaphat.*
There I will judge them
for harming my people, my special possession,
for scattering my people among the nations,
and for dividing up my land.
3They threw dice* to decide which of my people
would be their slaves.
They traded boys to obtain prostitutes
and sold girls for enough wine to get drunk.
4“What do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and you cities of Philistia? Are you trying to take revenge on me? If you are, then watch out! I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done. 5You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan temples. 6You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,* so they could take them far from their homeland.
7“But I will bring them back from all the places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done. 8I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the people of Arabia,* a nation far away. I, the LORD, have spoken!”
9Say to the nations far and wide:
“Get ready for war!
Call out your best warriors.
Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
10Hammer your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
11Come quickly, all you nations everywhere.
Gather together in the valley.”
And now, O LORD, call out your warriors!
12“Let the nations be called to arms.
Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I, the LORD, will sit
to pronounce judgment on them all.
13Swing the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.*
Come, tread the grapes,
for the winepress is full.
The storage vats are overflowing
with the wickedness of these people.”
14Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision.
There the day of the LORD will soon arrive.
15The sun and moon will grow dark,
and the stars will no longer shine.
16The LORD’s voice will roar from Zion
and thunder from Jerusalem,
and the heavens and the earth will shake.
But the LORD will be a refuge for his people,
a strong fortress for the people of Israel.
Blessings for God’s People
17“Then you will know that I, the LORD your God,
live in Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy forever,
and foreign armies will never conquer her again.
18In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and the hills will flow with milk.
Water will fill the streambeds of Judah,
and a fountain will burst forth from the LORD’s Temple,
watering the arid valley of acacias.*
19But Egypt will become a wasteland
and Edom will become a wilderness,
because they attacked the people of Judah
and killed innocent people in their land.
20“But Judah will be filled with people forever,
and Jerusalem will endure through all generations.
21I will pardon my people’s crimes,
which I have not yet pardoned;
and I, the LORD, will make my home
in Jerusalem* with my people.”
September 7 Reflection & Worship
Faithfulness through the Years
LOVE IS A FABRIC THAT DOESN’T FADE WHEN WASHED IN THE WATER OF ADVERSITY AND GRIEF.
LOOK BACK Daniel first appeared as a transplanted teenager. By chapter 4 of the book that bears his name, he was probably about seventy-six years old. And by the end of the book, he was a spry ninety-three!
Again and again Daniel demonstrated the power of God in the life of the child of God, enabling him to read strange writing on the banquet room wall, decipher the dreams of a king, and untangle beastly visions.
Daniel’s life of singleness and single-minded devotion contrasts with Hosea’s life as father of three and the husband of an unfaithful wife. Hosea’s fractured home became the backdrop for preaching to a fractured and faithless nation. God would heal and restore—if only Judah were interested in being cured. But her unrelenting disobedience and indifference left room for only one conclusion: “God will reject the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey” (Hosea 9:17).
In the wake of a devastating locust plague, Joel wrote his message of comfort and caution to the southern kingdom of Judah. Joy and gladness had evaporated from the house of the Lord, and the day of his vengeance was near. But the solution has always been the same, in Joel’s generation and in yours: “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Joel 2:32).
LOOK UP What’s in a name? If you’re a character in the pages of Scripture, the likely answer is “Plenty!” Here is a cast of characters from the book of Hosea and a suggested meaning for each name. Can you retell the story of the book of Hosea and his family experience just by using the names of his family members?
• Hosea means “salvation.”
• Gomer (his wife) means “completion.”
• Jezreel (his firstborn son) means “God plants.”
• Lo-ruhamah (his daughter) means “not loved.”
• Lo-ammi (his younger son) means “not my people.”
LOOK AHEAD There are no perfect families in the Bible because there are no perfect people. Regardless of your family background, you’ll find someone to identify with in the pages of the Bible.
Did you come from a home filled with jealousy and backbiting? You’re in good company. So did the shepherd boy David and the eleventh of twelve brothers, Joseph.
Were your parents unfaithful to one another? Join the ranks with Jephthah, whose mother was a prostitute (Judges 11:1).
Has one of your parents been married more than once? Welcome to the club. The Samaritan woman whom Jesus met one day by a well in Sychar had been married and divorced five times and at the time was living with a sixth man (John 4:16-18).
The Bible does not condone this behavior, but neither does it seek to conceal the real family situation. And the point is clear: Regardless of the family situation from which you have come, God has a wonderful family in mind for your future—the family of God. His unconditional, undying love for you is modeled in Hosea’s love for his unfaithful wife. It’s a love that doesn’t know when to quit. Do the members of your earthly family know about God’s love yet? They can, even without your saying a word (1 Peter 3:1-2).