Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read 1 Kings 7, Hosea 10, and 2 Timothy 1. This devotional is about Hosea 10. Israel was a luxuriant vine, yielding fruit for himself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better he made the sacred pillars. Their hearts are devious. Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars. Surely now they will say, We have no king, for we do not revere the Lord. What can a king do for us? They speak mere words, with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field. The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-Avon. Indeed, its people will mourn over it, with its idolatrous priests, those who rejoiced in its glory, for it has been taken from them into exile. Yes, it will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be seized with shame. Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols. Samaria will be carried off with her king like a twig on the surface of the water. The high places of Avon will be destroyed. It is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us. Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not the battle in Gibeah overtake the sons of Iniquity? I will chasten them when I please. Nations will be gathered against them, to put them in bondage for their double transgression. Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to thrash, but I will place a yoke on her fair neck. I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, and Jacob will break the hard ground. Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion. Break up your unplowed ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain. You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice. You have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished, as Shaliman devastated Beth Arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children. Thus it will be done for you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness, when the day dawns the king of Israel will be utterly cut off. This is God's word. God's people in Israel and Judah committed many sins against Him. Chief among those sins was idolatry. If Israel had worshiped their God, He would have empowered them to keep the other commands and offer the sin offerings prescribed when they failed to keep His commands. But His people did not worship the Lord. Therefore, they were slaves to every other sin and wickedness that humanity can think of. But as we see throughout scripture, God always leaves room for repentance, although he is just in dealing out the judgments promised in his covenant. His prophets came to warn people to repent and return to righteous living. Here in Hosea 10, we see one of the most beautiful pleadings by a prophet to God's people. Verse 12 says, Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love. Don't those words give you hope? Righteousness, of course, means right living according to God's laws. Do what God says is right, and you will reap the fruit of unfailing love. Obedience to this command requires some heart work to prepare for it. Verse 12b says, Break up your unplowed ground, for it is time to seek the Lord. This is a visual way, this plowing is a visual metaphor for describing repentance. The unplowed ground refers to the hardness of the human heart. This hardness causes people to seek anything but the Lord. We seek the prosperity, or pleasure, or protection offered to us by idols. Our idols, in our day, are selfish desires for materialism, or for pleasure, or for recognition, or for whatever else competes with the Lord for our full attention. The Lord in this passage calls people to repent of these idols, to seek the Lord from a repentant heart. And how long should we do this? Verse 12b says, Until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. Even in the Old Testament, there are passages that show us that God's righteousness comes as a gift, like the rain showers of heaven that cause plants on earth to grow. God wasn't commanding his people to try harder to do right. He was calling them to turn to him in repentance and receive his righteousness as a gift, and then to sow righteousness for yourselves, to reap the fruit of unfailing love. Right here in Hosea, then, we find the basic outline of the gospel. The atonement of Christ is not spoken of here, but God's people knew from the law that their sins needed to be atoned for. We believe and speak the same truth that Hosea held out to Israel. Turn to seek the Lord in repentance, preparing the soil of your heart. Receive his righteousness like the gift of rain, and then plant the seeds of righteous living in your life. and watch how God grows them into the fruit of his unfailing love. Do you believe that in Christ, God has done all that you need to make this truth a reality? Are you living according to these truths, then, sowing those seeds of righteousness in your life? 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