There is a storm coming. All things happen for a reason. We are often unable to see the purpose until later events show us. For some reason, it isn’t my time to be in DC.
Hosea 4
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you children of God’s chosen people (Israel); for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 “By swearing and lying, and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwells therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
4 Yet let no man strive with, nor reprove another; for this people are as they that strive with the priest.
5 Therefore shalt you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shalt be no priest to Me. Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
7 “As they were increased, so they sinned against Me; therefore will I change their glory into shame.
8 They eat up the sin of My people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
9 And it shall be: like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
10 For they shall eat and not have enough; they shall reject God for another (whoredom) and shall not increase, because they have left off taking heed of the LORD.
11 “Rejecting God for another (whoredom) and wine and new wine take away the heart.
12 My people ask counsel from their stocks, and their staff declares unto them; for the spirit of rejecting God for another (whoredom) has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from their God.
13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good; therefore your daughters shall reject God for another (whoredom), and your spouses shall reject God in the same way (adultery).
14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery; for the men themselves consort with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: Therefore the people that do not understand shall fall.
15 “Though you, God’s chosen people (Israel), play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not you unto Gilgal, neither go you up to Bethaven, nor swear, ‘The LORD lives.’
16 For God’s chosen people (Israel) slides back as a backsliding heifer; now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
17 “Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.
18 Their drink is sour; they have rejected God for another (whoredom) continually; her rulers with shame do love, ‘Give you.’
19 The wind has bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
2 Peter 2
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the LORD who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evilly spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you — they whose judgment now for a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.
4 For if God spared not the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment;
5 and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example unto those who thereafter should live ungodly;
7 and if He delivered righteous Lot, vexed with the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, having dwelt among them seeing and hearing, was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their unlawful deeds)—
9 then the LORD knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished,
10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise governance. Presumptuous are they and self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities,
11 whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the LORD.
12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption,
13 and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceptions while they feast with you,
14 having eyes full of adultery and who cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls; their hearts they have exercised with covetous practices; accursed children!
15 They have forsaken the right way and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
16 but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with a man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried by a tempest, for whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh and through much wantonness those who had clean escaped from those who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for by whom a man is overcome, by the same is he brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the LORD and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb: “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and, “the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
The place Gilgal mentioned above in Hosea 4:15 is the word meaning wheel. It is used as the name 41 times and only once as the word (gilgal) – translated as wheel. Hosea 9:15 tells of the place and gives the context. Judah as representing the leaders of God’s people is told not to come to this place. The name Bethaven also describing the place these leaders are told not to come to literally means the worthless house.
Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary definition: Strong’s #205: ‘aven (pronounced aw-ven’) from an unused root perhaps meaning properly, to pant (hence, to exert oneself, usually in vain; to come to naught); strictly nothingness; also trouble. vanity, wickedness; specifically an idol:–affliction, evil, false, idol, iniquity, mischief, mourners(-ing), naught, sorrow, unjust, unrighteous, vain ,vanity, wicked(-ness).
Hosea 9
7 The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad because of the multitude of your iniquity and great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. Therefore He will remember their iniquity; He will visit their sins.
10 “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe of the fig tree at her first season. But they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and their abominations were according as they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left; yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.”
14 Give them, O LORD — what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 “All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of Mine house. I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters.
16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.”
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
The one time gilgal is used as “wheel” is in Isaiah 28:28. The chapter begins by addressing the “drunkards of Ephraim.” This is the same context as ends Hosea 4.
Isaiah 28
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet;
4 and the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower and as the early fruit before the summer, which when he that looks upon it sees; while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people,
6 and for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little.”
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people,
12 to whom He said, “This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing” — yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken.
14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem,
15 because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.”
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in Mount Perazim; He shall be wroth as in the Valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consuming even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear and hear my voice; hearken and hear my speech.
24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the dill and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place?
26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27 For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is beaten, because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
Isaiah 28:14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem, 15 because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” 16 Therefore thus says the LORD God: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it. 19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.”
2 Peter 3
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both of which I stir up your purity of mind by way of remembrance,
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”
5 For of this they are willfully ignorant: that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
6 whereby the world as it then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
7 But the heavens and the earth which now are, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing: that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy manner of living and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening unto the coming of the Day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things. Therein are some things hard to understand, which those who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing that you know these things beforehand, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
