Daily Devotions · July 6
Reading for July 6
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Hosea 6–9 · Hebrews 3
Hosea 6–9 · Hebrews 3, Berean Standard Bible
Hosea 6
Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence. 3 So let us know—let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth. 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning. 6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me. 8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood. 9 Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities. 10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled. 11 Also for you, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore My people from captivity.
Hosea 7
When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed, as well as the crimes of Samaria. For they practice deceit and thieves break in; bandits raid in the streets. 2 But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face. 3 They delight the king with their evil, and the princes with their lies. 4 They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough. 5 The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him. 6 For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. 7 All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me. 8 Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is an unturned cake. 9 Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know. 10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him. 11 So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove—calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria. 12 As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them when I hear them flocking together. 13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me. 14 They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me. 15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me. 16 They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.
Hosea 8
Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law. 2 Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!” 3 But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him. 4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction. 5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6 For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria. 7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up. 8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers. 10 Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes. 11 Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning. 12 Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange. 13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt. 14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
Hosea 9
Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor. 2 The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them. 3 They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria. 4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD. 5 What will you do on the appointed day, on the day of the LORD’s feast? 6 For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents. 7 The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility. 8 The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God! 9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins. 10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved. 11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception. 12 Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them! 13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter. 14 Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up! 15 All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. 16 Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs. 17 My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Hebrews 3
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, set your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 And every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Now Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be spoken later. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast. 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first. 15 As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.” 16 For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
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Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
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Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
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Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
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Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
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Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.