Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
The above is Hosea 14:9, the final verse of the book whose name means deliverer and savior. Friends, I speak to you as the wise, we are in the midst of the culmination of the greatest event of all human history. I ask you to realize the magnitude and simplicity of the course laid out before us, and in it, the way of the LORD, walk. The above verse tells us of these aspects, that it is the way of the LORD’s, Jehovah’s, delivering and saving His people (Jehovah’s Hosea = JESUS).
Hosea tells of this deliverance, the LORD’s way, as he, in Hosea 12:13, refers us to Deuteronomy 18:15 thru 18. The contrast begins earlier in Hosea 12, when in verse 2 the LORD speaks of the controversy He has with Judah, and all of Jacob, who have degenerated away from Him into following their own ways. The LORD speaks of Ephraim, which we have seen describes God’s people in this later time, as the descendants of Joseph, from whom comes Shiloh (tranquility – the one who leads beside still waters, as in Psalms 23:2), as in Genesis 49:22 thru 26.
These ideas are telling us of when God’s people, in the pattern shown us in Isaiah 8, rejected the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and instead joined in a confederacy that followed the advice of the dead, and walked in the ways that are its cause. Isaiah 8 tells us it is into this condition the LORD’s presence is manifested among us, O Immanuel. In Hosea, the LORD says He comes to lead us out and back to Himself, by the prophets and a prophet. In our time the prophets leading us are those who have written His word in many parts in times past. The prophet leading us is the LORD alive in us, first unknown as the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth, and to the final culmination, the revelation that God has never left or forsaken us. Or as Hebrews 13 says, to the end of our conversation, the realization, which is what we are experiencing, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
Hebrews 13
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
6 So that we may boldly say, The LORD is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
16 But to do good and to communicate [this word of God] forget not: for with such sacrifices [communicating, teaching and preaching, the knowledge of God – as in Hosea 6:6, which says, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”] God is well pleased.
17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
19 But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our LORD Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hosea 6
1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth [this word of God sent from heaven].
4 O Ephraim [this generation, all God’s people at large], what shall I do unto you? O Judah [the elect remnant, leaders He has now, first, raised up], what shall I do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are as the light [understanding] that goes forth.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
8 Gilead [the heap of testimony, His written word, left with us] is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood [this speaks of the degeneration of knowledge by reckless and self-interested interpretation, which drained the life from God’s people, from where we must return].
9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim [the unfaithfulness, in following others, men who put themselves in God’s place], Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah [the elect remnant], he has set a harvest for you, when I returned the captivity of my people.
The above-referenced passage in Deuteronomy 18 begins by warning us, when we come into the land the LORD God has given us, not to learn the abominations of those nations (which destroy them). These ways, the abominations, are described as men who use their words and ways to deceive, manipulate, and control others into serving them and doing their evil will. They are the abominations, put in the place of the Holy, which cause ignorance and the complete desolation of God’s people. This is the darkness in which the wicked exist, in which God’s people no longer know Him and think He is a Ghost.
Deuteronomy 18
9 When you are come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that use divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you.
13 You shall be perfect with the LORD your God.
14 For these nations, which you shall possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for you, the LORD your God has not suffered you so to do.
15 The LORD your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; unto him you shall hearken;
16 According to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well-spoken that which they have spoken.
18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21 And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you shall not be afraid of him.
Hosea 12
12 Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind [a counterfeit spirit – that is antichrist, denying, opposing, and resisting the LORD]: he daily increases lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians [communists], and oil is carried into Egypt [their teaching leads men into captivity].
2 The LORD has also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
3 He took his brother [Esau] by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:
4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel [in the house {as the family} of God], and there he spoke with us;
5 Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial [we should remember He is the LORD, Jehovah, the leaders, and commander of the armies of heaven].
6 Therefore turn you to your God: keep mercy and judgment and wait on your God continually.
7 He [God’s people in this generation, who have joined with the Assyrian in a confederacy] is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.
8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
9 And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.
10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.
11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
13 And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his LORD return unto him.
Hosea 13
1 When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal [when he followed the ways and ideas of the world], he died.
2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen [all men’s creations]: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves [put in God’s place – in Bethel, in the house of God].
3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
4 Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.
5 I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion [as in Jeremiah 49:19, saying, “Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?”]: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
9 O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help.
10 I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?
11 I gave you a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction [quoted in 1 Corinthians 15, speaking of our resurrection, when we have put off corruption and put on immortality]: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD [the authentic Spirit] shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
Hosea 14
1 O Israel, return unto the LORD your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity.
2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
3 Asshur [communism] shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in you [only in God] the fatherless find mercy.
4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon [purity as the foundation of the upright].
6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree [from where comes teaching, oil that feeds the light: gives understanding], and his smell as Lebanon [purity].
7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon [changing, purifying, the mind].
8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is your fruit found.
9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
The fruit spoken of in verse 8 above, coming from Ephraim, is referring to the “calves of our lips” in verse 2, which is quoted in Hebrews 13:15, and refer to verses 15 & 16 there saying, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate [this word of God] forget not: for with such sacrifices [communicating, teaching and preaching, the knowledge of God – as in Hosea 6:6, which says, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”] God is well pleased.”
1 Corinthians 15
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners [habits and practices].
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 You fool, that which you sow is not quickened, except it die [cannot be brought to life from the dead if the corruption causing death is not put off] :
37 And that which you sow, you sow not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. [We are men and we are raised into the seed of man, human flesh – in the image and likeness of the living God, dwelling in human flesh forever as we are raised with Him here in heaven.]
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit [the Spirit of One God in us raising us to life].
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the LORD from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the LORD, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the LORD.
Jeremiah 15
9 She that has borne seven languishes [the church]: she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day [her understanding is gone, even while the LORD is here with His understanding]: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies [the weaponized words of the enemies], says the LORD.
10 Woe is me, my mother [Proverbs 6:20, the word of God, His law], that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury [I have made no gain from giving this word, which God has freely given me]; yet every one of them does curse me.
11 The LORD said, Truly it shall be well with your remnant; truly I will cause the enemy to entreat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel [will human strength break the stronghold of the enemies]?
13 Your substance and your treasures [these treasure of heaven, found in the book] will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
14 And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not [and here we are]: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.
15 O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.
16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.
17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
19 Therefore thus says the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before me: and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: let them return unto you; but return not you unto them.
20 And I will make you unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD.
21 And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.
The fires now “kindled” here, in this strange and unknown time and place, where the LORD has caused us to cross over to, are the fires Peter speaks of in 2 Peter 3, which we know quite well. The word rendered “kindled” in verse 15 above is the Hebrew word qadach, which only appears four other times, all giving us the greater context of this moment. These are the fires kindled when men put their trust in men, and following their advice instead of God’s, causes their corrupt ideas to melt away, and brings in the new heaven and earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
Deuteronomy 32
15 But Jeshurun [God’s people in prosperity, became comfortable and complacent] waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock [Christ] of his salvation.
16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 Of the Rock that begat you you are unmindful, and have forgotten God that formed you.
19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation [who twist and pervert truth], children in whom is no faith.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities [their worthless ideas and ways]: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled [qadach] in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains [the element, the foundational ideas that have been elevated in this world].
Isaiah 50
1 Thus says the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s [God’s law] divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother [is God’s word] put away.
2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and dies for thirst [without His word].
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness [in ignorance], and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The LORD God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he waken morning by morning, he wakens mine ear to hear as the learned.
5 The LORD God has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the LORD God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He is near that justifies [validates, makes full proof of my ministry] me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the LORD God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walk in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
11 Behold, all you that kindle [qadach] a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall you have of mine hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down [zalal – shake, by the wind] at your presence,
2 As when the melting fire burns [qadach], the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you did terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, the mountains flowed down [zalal] at your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him.
5 You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways: behold, you are wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: behold, see, we beseech you, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Will you refrain yourself for these things, O LORD? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?
Jeremiah 17
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled [qadach] a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.
5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
2 Peter 3
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition [apoleia] of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD 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 to us-ward, 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 the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [stoicheion – the foundational ideas of corrupt men] 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 conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [stoicheion – corruption] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of 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 has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction [apoleia – perdition].
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, 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 forever. Amen.
Psalms 66
1 Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands:
2 Sing forth the honor of his name: make his praise glorious.
3 Say unto God, How terrible are you in your works! through the greatness of your power shall your enemies submit themselves unto you.
4 All the earth shall worship you, and shall sing unto you; they shall sing to your name. Selah.
5 Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.
6 He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.
7 He rules by his power forever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.
8 O bless our God, you people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:
9 Which holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be moved.
10 For you, O God, have proved us: you have tried us, as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net; you laid affliction upon our loins.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but you brought us out into a wealthy place.
13 I will go into your house with burnt offerings: I will pay you my vows,
14 Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth has spoken, when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer unto you burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.
16 Come and hear, all you that fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me:
19 But truly God has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God, which has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.
Psalms 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
