Today is the 7th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.

I am Brian. It's great to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire

and take the next step forward together.

Our next step will lead us back into the Book of Hosea in the Old Testament.

Yesterday we read in its entirety 2 John. Today we will read in its entirety 3 John.

And we'll talk about 3 John when we get there. But first, Hosea, 6, 7, 8 and 9 today.

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. And just a short time he will restore us so that we may live in his presence.

All 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.

Oh Israel and Judah, what should I do with you asks the Lord? For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.

I send my prophets to cut you to pieces to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light.

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burn offerings.

But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust. Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood.

Priests form bands of robbers waiting in ambush for their victims. They murder travelers along the road to Shekum and practice every kind of sin.

Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim in Israel. My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods.

Oh Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you, though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.

I want to heal Israel, but it sins are too great. Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside.

It's people don't realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them and I see them all.

The people entertain the king with their wickedness and the princes laugh at their lies. They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust.

They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough. On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them.

Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue. Their plot smolders through the night and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.

Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another and no one cries to me for help.

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