Study Desk

And you have brought this upon yourselves by rebelling against the Lord your God, even though he was leading you on the way!

Your wickedness will bring its own punishment. Your turning from me will shame you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to abandon the Lord your God and not to fear him. I, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven's Armies, have spoken!

"O my people, listen to the words of the Lord ! Have I been like a desert to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness? Why then do my people say, ‘At last we are free from God! We don't need him anymore!'

And yet you say, ‘I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn't angry with me!' But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned.

Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the Lord , have spoken!

Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains, the weeping and pleading of Israel's people. For they have chosen crooked paths and have forgotten the Lord their God.

"My wayward children," says the Lord , "come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts." "Yes, we're coming," the people reply, "for you are the Lord our God.

Our worship of idols on the hills and our religious orgies on the mountains are a delusion. Only in the Lord our God will Israel ever find salvation.

Let us now lie down in shame and cover ourselves with dishonor, for we and our ancestors have sinned against the Lord our God. From our childhood to this day we have never obeyed him."

Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Heaven's Armies says: "Because the people are talking like this, my messages will flame out of your mouth and burn the people like kindling wood.

"And when your people ask, ‘Why did the Lord our God do all this to us?' you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.'

They do not say from the heart, ‘Let us live in awe of the Lord our God, for he gives us rain each spring and fall, assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.'

This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: "‘Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land.

This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves!

This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!'

Say to them, ‘This is the nation whose people will not obey the Lord their God and who refuse to be taught. Truth has vanished from among them; it is no longer heard on their lips.

"Then the people will say, ‘Why should we wait here to die? Come, let's go to the fortified towns and die there. For the Lord our God has decreed our destruction and has given us a cup of poison to drink because we sinned against the Lord .

So now, this is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.

But the Lord is the only true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King! The whole earth trembles at his anger. The nations cannot stand up to his wrath.

But the God of Israel is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including Israel, his own special possession. The Lord of Heaven's Armies is his name!