The Wednesday after the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 9, 2024 by under
Scripture: Hosea 14:1-9 (NKJV)
14:1 O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
2 Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.
3 “Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’ For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”
4 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him.
5 “I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
6 “His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 “Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’ I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me.”
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
Devotion
We live in a world filled with idolatry. It is difficult at best, and agonizing at worst, to see a world so fallen that it flaunts debauchery, which is simply the idolatry of pleasing oneself. How are we to withstand the onslaught of such evil?
God has already given us the answer in the opening words of today’s reading from Hosea: “O Israel, return to the Lord your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.” “Return to the Lord,” that is, repent of your sins and trust in His forgiveness. It is as St. Peter wrote: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’” (1 Pet. 4:17-18).
When we are reassured of our salvation in Christ Jesus, we understand that we face nothing less than what Jesus faced when He walked this earth: a world filled with evil. It is evil toward Him and, thus, evil toward us. However, our hope and our eternal life are secure in Him, because He has overcome the world by His cross.
Collect: O Almighty and most Merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready, both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
