“Hear this, you priests. Pay attention, you leaders of Israel. Listen, you members of the royal family. Judgment has been handed down against you. For you have led the people into a snare by worshiping the idols at Mizpah and Tabor.
For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?
When they come with their flocks and herds to offer sacrifices to the Lord, they will not find Him, because He has withdrawn from them. They have betrayed the honor of the Lord, bearing children that are not His. Now their false religion will devour them along with their wealth.
Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces; now He will heal us. He has injured us; now He will bandage our wounds. In just a short time He will restore us, so that we may live in His presence.
Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know Him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.
I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know Me more than I want burnt offerings.
And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”
{Hosea 5:1; 1 Peter 4:17; Hosea 5:6-7; Hosea 6:1-3, 6; John 17:3}