12.12.2015 Old Testament: Hos 13.2–3

To read the Bible in a year, read Hosea 12–14 on December 12, In the year of our Lord 2015

By Don Ruhl

When people leave the Lord, they sin more and more, even doing such foolish things as worshiping what they have made, as Ephraim of old did,

Now they sin more and more,
And have made for themselves molded images,
Idols of their silver, according to their skill;
All of it is the work of craftsmen.
They say of them,
“Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”
Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud
And like the early dew that passes away,
Like chaff blown off from a threshing floor
And like smoke from a chimney.
(Hosea 13.2–3) 

Mighty Ephraim went the way of a morning cloud, or chaff blown from the threshing floor, all because they forgot their God and made gods in their own image.