Journey through the book of Hosea with Allen J. Huth in today’s episode of ADDBIBLE as we delve into Chapter 7. Reflecting on God’s discipline and redemption, Alan shares insights from his personal journals spanning several years. Whether you’re close to God or feel distant, today’s discussion offers a pathway to renew your relationship through the timeless lessons of scripture.
Welcome to ADDBIBLE, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we are passing the halfway point of the book of Hosea. We’re in chapter 7 and we’ll listen to Faith Comes by Hearing’s reading of the 16 verses of Hosea chapter 7. Hosea 7
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when i would heal israel the iniquity of ephraim is revealed and the evil deeds of samaria for they deal falsely the thief breaks in and the bandits raid outside but they do not consider that i remember all their evil Now their deeds surround them. They are before my face. By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery. They are all adulterers. They are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. On the day of our king the princes became sick with the heat of wine. He stretched out his hand with mockers. for with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue. All night their anger smolders, in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me. Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples. Ephraim is a cake nocturned. Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not. Gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not. The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Yet they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. As they go, I will spread over them my net. I will bring them down like birds of the heavens. I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. Woe to them, for they have strayed from me. Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me. I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds, for grain and wine they gash themselves. They rebel against me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. They return, but not upward. They are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
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Back in 1999, I read Hosea 5 through 8 on one day, so I don’t have a journal entry concerning this chapter. So we’ll move on to my journal in 2007. In 2007, I wrote, God sees our rebellious heart. Our pride keeps us from seeking God. We stray from God, yet he would redeem us if we would cry out to him, but some won’t. In 2012, I wrote, On our wayward way, God disciplines us. And I quote verse 14, they do not cry to me from their heart. Chapter 7 of Hosea continues the indictments of God against the nation of Israel. In verse 2 he says, I remember all their evil. In verse 4, they are all adulterers. In verse 7, And none of them calls upon me. And then in verse 10, The pride of Israel testifies to his face, yet they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. Verse 12 says, I will bring them down like birds of the heavens. I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. Verse 13, Woe to them, for they have strayed from me. Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me. I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. And finally, verse 14, they do not cry to me from their heart. I don’t know what your life experience has been. I don’t know if you’ve had a relationship with the Lord and then slipped away. I don’t know if you’ve fallen away from your first love of God and chased after idols. I don’t know if you are currently close to the Lord or far from Him. I do know that I have had a fairly consistent walk with God since my salvation experience at age 15. I don’t recall a time when I backslid or strayed from God for an extended period of time in my life. Surely I’ve had my spiritual battles over my lifetime. But I believe I have not come off the rails because of my consistent daily time with the Lord in His Word and in prayer. It’s not a bulletproof formula for Christian living, but I believe it has helped me. If you need help today, I encourage you to become consistent in Bible reading and prayer. Lord, we again thank you for challenging us through the book of Hosea to come back to you. If we are far from you, forgive us, Lord, and reach out and bring us back. If we are caught up in the ways of the world and we’ve walked away from the ways of God, help us repent and again, Lord, forgive us and call us back to you. And if we are close to you in our walk with you right now, we give you praise, we give you thanks for keeping us close to you. In whatever condition we find ourselves in, we are thankful that you are a God of love and that you will receive us back if we bring our hearts back to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Today I want to encourage you in your Bible reading with three scriptural reasons and various methods you can try so you can vary the way you read the Bible each year. I believe varying your daily Bible reading routine from time to time keeps Bible reading fresh and exciting. So first, those three scriptural reasons for reading the Bible. Number one, it’s guaranteed. Isaiah 55, 8 through 11 say, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish, bring forth and sprout spiritual growth. that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. So the first scriptural reason for reading the Bible each day is it’s guaranteed. It always comes back and bears fruit. The second reason is the Bible tells you to. Now does the Bible really tell you to read the Bible? Let’s look at Acts 17 11. Now these Jews, which were the Bereans, were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. So there was a good example in the Scriptures of the Bereans who read the Scriptures daily. And that’s a second scriptural reason to stay in your Bible each and every day. And the third reason is, actually, you still can. You can still read the Bible, but that day may come to an end. Amos 8, 11-12 say, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. That day will come, friends. So take advantage of your Bible right now by staying in it each and every day. So those are three spiritual reasons from the Scriptures to stay in Bible reading. So now, how about some methods? How do you read the Bible? How many of you want to read the Bible every day but struggle to do so? The number one reason people say they don’t stay consistent in their daily time in God’s Word is we get too busy. So let’s tackle that issue. Make time for Bible reading. Psalm 55, 17 says, Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. How many of you are morning people? How many of you are night owls? How many of you are neither? But you got to find time in your day that’s best for you. I started reading at the end of each day when I was a teenager. But I couldn’t control the end of my day. What time it ended, how tired I was, what condition I was going to be in. So I changed to first fruits. I can control when my day begins, even if I have a 7 a.m. breakfast in the morning. I can still decide to get up early enough to read my Bible. I even know a friend who reads his Bible over lunch hour every day. So decide today when is the best time for you for Bible reading and prayer. Is it evenings? Is it morning? Is it noon? Then also consider tithing your free time. The free time is about six hours after work and sleep. So that’s 360 minutes a day. If you tithe 10% of that, just 10% of our discretionary time, that would be about 36 minutes a day with God in Bible reading and prayer. So round it off to a half an hour a day. Drop the excuse of no time and decide to give God about 30 minutes a day. Now, how to read the Bible. I’m going to offer you 10 different ways to read the Bible. All these methods are listed in Ezra Project Bible reading journals found at ezraproject.net. So here’s the various methods you could choose of how to read your Bible so you can vary your Bible reading each year. Number one, like any other book, you can read the Bible from beginning to end, a chapter a day. And if you do that, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish the Bible. Number two, daily Bible reading calendars and daily devotions. I know as a member of the Gideons International, we have a daily Bible reading calendar. And there are many such products available on the internet or at your Christian bookstore. So use daily Bible reading calendars or daily devotions. Number three, get a one-year Bible. Yes, there’s something called a one-year Bible. Divides the Bible up into Old Testament passage each day, a New Testament passage each day, a psalm and a proverb. So There’s 365 sections, and you just read one a day. So get a one-year Bible. That’s number three. Number four, you could read the Bible chronologically. And we have an Ezra Project journal that you can find on our website to do that. And that’s an exciting way to read the Bible. reading it chronologically because it’s not in the order of your Bible. But it’s fun to read the Bible and see how things actually happened and the timing of it by reading the Bible chronologically. Number five is read a book at a time. Select a book and read it. Then select another and another. Vary between Old and New Testament books. So just read a book at a time throughout the year until the year’s over. Number six, read a book a month. Now, that’s an interesting one. You can select 12 books and stay in that book for the entire month. So if it’s a short book, you read it over and over. If it’s a long book, you figure out how many chapters you need to read each day. And I know when I did it this way, one month, I just read Psalm 119 the whole month because that’s the longest chapter in the Bible. Number seven is just read the New Testament. Number eight is just read the Old Testament. And our Ezra Project Trio Journal has those schedules in it. So it has a New Testament schedule each day or an Old Testament schedule each day. But if you want to read the whole Bible, then you do both. So you can either read just the New Testament one year and just the Old Testament another year. Number nine is let it fall open. Now, this is a method I don’t really encourage, but if you haven’t read your Bible at all through the whole day, at least before you go to bed, open your Bible, put your finger down, and see what God will say to you. Number 10 is read it with commentaries, or in other words, study the Bible. Johnny Cash is credited with saying, the Bible sure does throw a lot of light on those commentaries, so don’t spend all your time reading about the Bible. Spend time in the Bible. Number 11 is use some of our daily devotional books from the Ezra Project. It’s called Day by Day Through the Bible, our 11-book series of daily devotionals covering all 66 books of the Bible, chapter by chapter. So those are various methods that you can incorporate so you can have energy and excitement in your Bible reading for years to come.
