A Flame Will Wither His Shoots

Job 15:24-30 – Distress and anguish fill him with terror; troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack, because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty, defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield. “Though his face is covered with fat and his waist bulges with flesh, he will inhabit ruined towns and houses where no one lives, houses crumbling to rubble. He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land. He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.

Hosea 9:8-9,14-15 – 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. They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins…Give them, Lord—what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry. “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.

Application:

• ·         Israel showed only hostility toward the watchmen whom God sent to warn His people of the great dangers that threatened.
• ·         Sins unrepented of are remembered, as well as the accumulated sins of generations.
• ·         Hosea did not pray out of hateful vengeance against Israel but because he shared God’s holy wrath against her sins.
• ·         As the unfaithful wife was driven from her husband’s house, so Israel was driven from God’s “house”—i.e., His land.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV