I Will Be Your King

I Will Be Your King

Date: Jun. 11, 2025

Passage

Hosea 13:1-16 (ESV)

1   When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
    he was exalted in Israel,
    but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
2   And now they sin more and more,
    and make for themselves metal images,
  idols skillfully made of their silver,
    all of them the work of craftsmen.
  It is said of them,
    “Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
3   Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
    or like the dew that goes early away,
  like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
    or like smoke from a window.
4   But I am the LORD your God
    from the land of Egypt;
  you know no God but me,
    and besides me there is no savior.
5   It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
    in the land of drought;
6   but when they had grazed, they became full,
    they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
    therefore they forgot me.
7   So I am to them like a lion;
    like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
8   I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
    I will tear open their breast,
  and there I will devour them like a lion,
    as a wild beast would rip them open.
9   He destroys you, O Israel,
    for you are against me, against your helper.
10   Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
    Where are all your rulers—
  those of whom you said,
    “Give me a king and princes”?
11   I gave you a king in my anger,
    and I took him away in my wrath.
12   The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
    his sin is kept in store.
13   The pangs of childbirth come for him,
    but he is an unwise son,
  for at the right time he does not present himself
    at the opening of the womb.
14   I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
  O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15   Though he may flourish among his brothers,
    the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come,
    rising from the wilderness,
  and his fountain shall dry up;
    his spring shall be parched;
  it shall strip his treasury
    of every precious thing.
16   Samaria shall bear her guilt,
    because she has rebelled against her God;
  they shall fall by the sword;
    their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
    and their pregnant women ripped open.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 13:14

  I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
  O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

Despite God’s warning, Israel’s idolatry grew more and more. They worshipped Baal and then started making their own idols from silver. Their future was as precarious as smoke escaping through a window (3).

They ignored their God, who led them out of Egypt and guided them through the wilderness. He had been their Lord, who knew and cared for them (4,5). As he loved them dearly, his anger toward them was also great, as they had turned to idolatry. God’s anger will turn him to be like a lion and a bear to destroy them from their sinful ways of life. God has the power to raise a king and then take away the king (11). In the end, only He is our Lord and the true King. Even if their pride and stubbornness are like a child refusing to come out of a womb when the time of birth comes, which then will lead both the child and mother to death, God will deliver them with his power. And he did it through Jesus’ death and resurrection. He overcomes the power of sin and death (14).

Would you come before the Lord, who led you out of the grip of sin and death to have life, and confess him as your true King today?

Prayer: Father, you are my creator, Lord. You know me, and you love me. No grip of sin and death can cut me off from you. I am coming to you today. You are my King.

One Word: You are my King.

David’s Victories

1 Chronicles 18:1-17

Key Verse: 18:6b,13b

Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.

Today's Question

For what do we pray in the third request?

See answer and references

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT