Righteousness

Hosea 2:19 - I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.


2 Corinthians 11:2 - I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

Hosea 10:12 - Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.

Jeremiah 23:6 - In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.

Hosea 4:1 - Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

Hosea 6:4 - “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.

Application:

· Am I engaged to Christ and bethrothed to God?
· Do I do what is right? Am I blessed by God? Am I repentant? Am I productive and fruitful? Am I loyal to Him?
· Has God rescued me from danger? Even danger my sin has caused? Has He given me a flourishing, faithful life?
· Do I have a genuine knowledge of God in my heart? Am I faithful? Is my love steadfast?
· Is my repentance superficial? Is my love temporary?


All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Make a Covenant

Hosea 2:12,17-18 - I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them…I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.


Psalm 46:9 - He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

Zechariah 9:10 - I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Jeremiah 23:6 - In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.

Ezekiel 34:24-26 - I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.

Hosea 1:2 - When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.”

Hosea 4:1 - Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

Application:

· God rules! He will make wars cease!
· Jesus will rule the whole earth, from sea to sea. And there shall be peace.
· Has God rescued me from danger? Even danger my sin has caused? Has he given me a flourishing, faithful life?
· I will some day experience fullness of life enjoyed in complete security!
· Do I attribute all things to the Lord?
· Have I been unfaithful to the Lord?
· Do I deal rightly with men?
· The Lord is my God and King!!!
· Have I been showered with abundant blessings?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Valley of Achor

Hosea 2:14-15 - “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.


Exodus 15:11 - Who among the gods is like you, LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Jeremiah 2:2 - “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the LORD says: “‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.

Joshua 7:9,15 - The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”… Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!’”

Application:

· Bringing me to repentance is a reason for punishment in my life.
· There is no one like the Lord. There is none holy like the Lord. None. God is our Rock.
· Am I loyal, faithful and committed to the Lord?
· Are my probing questions of God misdirected?
· Do I do willful, outrageous things that defile the church and those closest to me?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Baals

Hosea 2:13 - I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the LORD.


Jeremiah 7:9-10 - “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?

Hosea 4:5-6,13 - You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children…They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

Hosea 8:14 - Israel has forgotten their Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will send fire on their cities that will consume their fortresses.”

Hosea 13:1 - When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

Jeremiah 2:23-24 - “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving—in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.

Application:

· Have I repented of the commandments I have broken?
· Does my conduct match my religious beliefs?
· Failing to teach God's law results in the people lacking knowledge of God's ways.
· Do I trust in my power or religion for security? That is futile. I need to remember my Maker!
· The wages of sin is death.
· Do I obey the Lord, or do I run after other things?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Pay

Hosea 2:12


Jeremiah 3:1

Micah 1:7

Application:

· Do I attribute my provisions to be from the Lord?
· Do I try to alternate between God and idols? Have I committed myself exclusively to God?
· Have any of my possessions or finances been obtained through idolatry or spiritual unfaithfulness?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Bare

Hosea 2:3-4 - Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.


Ezekiel 16:6 - “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”

Hosea 1:2 - When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.”

Hosea 11:1 - “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Application:

· God's basic desire for me is to Live in Him!!!
· Have I been unfaithful to the Lord?
· God's love is the basis for Him choosing me to be His!!!

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Not My WIfe

Hosea 2:1-2,9,12,23 - “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’ “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.… “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body…I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them…“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her..…I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”


Hosea 1:2

Isaiah 1:21

Application:

· Do I respond to His promise? Have I returned to my God?
· Do I respond to God's graciousness?
· Do I respond to God's provision for restoration?
· Have I been unfaithful to the Lord?
· Departing from faithfulness is a more shocking sin than I realize.
· Am I blindly stubborn in the face of God's goodness?
· Do I attribute what I have been given to the Lord?
· God continually shows love in the midst of judgment?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Jezreel

Hosea 1:11 - The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.


Jeremiah 23:5-6 - “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.

Jeremiah 30:9 - Instead, they will serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

Ezekiel 37:18-19,24,26 - “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’…“‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees…I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.

Hosea 2:23 - I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Application:

· Jesus embodies insightful decision making, fairness and correct dispensing of justice.
· Has my sin subjected me to danger? God rescues me from it and provides conditions for a flourishing, fruitful life.
· Do I respond to God's deliverance by serving Him?
· Do I have doubts about the plausibility of being reunited with Christ?
· Have I been divinely enabled to live rightly? Am I morally vigilant?
· Am I established with God?
· Do I respond to God's graciousness?


All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Sand On The Seashore

Hosea 1:2,10 - When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.” …“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’


Jeremiah 33:22 - I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’”

Hosea 2:23 - I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Application:

· Will I be one of the innumerable? Will I share in the Messiah's inheritance?
· Do I respond to God's graciousness?
· Have I been unfaithful to my Lord?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Remember Me With Favor

Nehemiah 13:26-31 - Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me. Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me with favor, my God.


Nehemiah 1:8-9 - “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

Genesis 8:1 - But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Application:

· Have I or do I ask humbly for wisdom from the Lord?
· Have I been unfaithful to God? What have been the consequences?
· Is my motive in my ministry to please and to serve my divine Sovereign?
· Do I express concern for others? Do I act with loving care toward others?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Pulling Out Your Hair

Nehemiah 13:23-25 - Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.


Ezra 9:2 - They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

Malachi 2:11 - Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god.

Isaiah 50:6 - I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

Application:

· Have I led or do I lead in the wrong direction?
· What gods in my life can cause me to break faith?
· Do I take action to prevent taking courses in the wrong direction? (Guardrails!!!)


All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Desecrating

Nehemiah 13:16-22 - People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.” When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.


Malachi 2:11 - Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god.

Genesis 8:1 - But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Nehemiah 1:8-9 - “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

Application:

· Do I turn what is sacred into common use? Do I profane what is sacred?
· What gods in my life cause me to break faith?
· Do I express concern for others? Do I act with loving care for others?
· Have I been unfaithful to my God?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Sabbath

Nehemiah 13:14-15 - Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services. In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day.


Genesis 8:1 - But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

2 Kings 20:3 - “Remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Exodus 20:9-10 - Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.

Isaiah 56:2,6-7 - Blessed is the one who does this—the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”… And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

Application:

· Do I express concern for others? Do I act with loving care for others?
· Do I realize the Lord graciously favors those who earnestly serve Him?
· Do I observe a Sabbath rest in my service of God in the creation?
· Do I obey God fully?
· Is my house a house of prayer?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Thirty-Second Year Of Artaxerxes

Nehemiah 13:6-8 - But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.


Mark 11:17 - And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Nehemiah 5:6,14 - When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry…Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.

Application:

· Do I sacrifice even what is normally mine in order to serve as an example?
· Do I express my indignation by taking action?
· Do I interfere or make it difficult for people to use what God has provided?
· Do I express indignation toward social injustice?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Storerooms

Nehemiah 12:43-13:5 - And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. At that time men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms for the contributions, firstfruits and tithes. From the fields around the towns they were to bring into the storerooms the portions required by the Law for the priests and the Levites, for Judah was pleased with the ministering priests and Levites. They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did also the musicians and gatekeepers, according to the commands of David and his son Solomon. For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the musicians and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the musicians and the gatekeepers. They also set aside the portion for the other Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron. On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent. Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.


Nehemiah 13:13 - I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.

Numbers 22:8 - “Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the LORD gives me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with him.

Application:

· Am I considered honest and trustworthy?
· Am I a believer in the only true God? Am I morally, ethically and religiously faulted?


All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Purified

Nehemiah 12:25-30 - Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon and Akkub were gatekeepers who guarded the storerooms at the gates. They served in the days of Joiakim son of Joshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest, the teacher of the Law. At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. The musicians also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem—from the villages of the Netophathites, from Beth Gilgal, and from the area of Geba and Azmaveth, for the musicians had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem. When the priests and Levites had purified themselves ceremonially, they purified the people, the gates and the wall.


Leviticus 4:11-12 - But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the internal organs and the intestines—that is, all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap.

Leviticus 16:29-30 - “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you—because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.

Application:

· Am I learning God's holiness and moral purity?
· Have I become clean by transferring my sins to Jesus?
· Am I repentant? Am I assured of sins forgiven?


All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Book Of The Annals

Nehemiah 12:12-24 - In the days of Joiakim, these were the heads of the priestly families: of Seraiah’s family, Meraiah; of Jeremiah’s, Hananiah; of Ezra’s, Meshullam; of Amariah’s, Jehohanan; of Malluk’s, Jonathan; of Shekaniah’s, Joseph; of Harim’s, Adna; of Meremoth’s, Helkai; of Iddo’s, Zechariah; of Ginnethon’s, Meshullam; of Abijah’s, Zikri; of Miniamin’s and of Moadiah’s, Piltai; of Bilgah’s, Shammua; of Shemaiah’s, Jehonathan; of Joiarib’s, Mattenai; of Jedaiah’s, Uzzi; of Sallu’s, Kallai; of Amok’s, Eber; of Hilkiah’s, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah’s, Nethanel. The family heads of the Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan and Jaddua, as well as those of the priests, were recorded in the reign of Darius the Persian. The family heads among the descendants of Levi up to the time of Johanan son of Eliashib were recorded in the book of the annals. And the leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their associates, who stood opposite them to give praise and thanksgiving, one section responding to the other, as prescribed by David the man of God.


Esther 6:1 - That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.

Application:

· Do I recognize seemingly trivial coincidences that testify to the sovereignty of God?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV