The transgressors were given many opportunities to repent. In their hour of deepest apostasy and greatest need, God’s message to them was one of forgiveness and hope. “O Israel,” He declared, “thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help. I will be thy King: where is any other that may save thee?”Hosea 13:9, 10.
(PK 283.1)
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“Come, and let us return unto the Lord,” the prophet entreated; “for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”Hosea 6:1-3.
(PK 283.2)
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To those who had lost sight of the plan of the ages for the deliverance of sinners ensnared by the power of Satan, the Lord offered restoration and peace. “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely,”Hosea 14:4~8. He declared: “for Mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From Me is thy fruit found.
(PK 283.3)
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“Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, And the just shall walk in them: But the transgressors shall fall therein.”Hosea 14:4-9.
(PK 284.1)
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The benefits of seeking God were strongly urged. “Seek ye Me,” the Lord invited, “and ye shall live: but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.”Amos 5:4, 5.
(PK 284.2)
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“Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.”Amos 5:4, 5, 14, 15.
(PK 284.3)
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By far the greater number of those who heard these invitations refused to profit by them. So contrary to the evil desires of the impenitent were the words of God’s messengers, that the idolatrous priest at Bethel sent to the ruler in Israel, saying, “Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.”Amos 7:10.
(PK 284.4)
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Through Hosea the Lord declared, “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria.”“The pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for all this.”Hosea 7:1, 10.
(PK 284.5)
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