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Hosea 5

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1 "Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.

2 The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I discipline all of them.

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute. Israel is defiled.

4 Their deeds won't allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don't know Yahweh.

5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity. Judah also will stumble with them.

6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; but they won't find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.

7 They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

8 "Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!

9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.

10 The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark. I will pour out my wrath on them like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.

12 Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness.

13 "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

14 For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.

15 I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly."

   

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Mercy

  
‘Brother Juniper and the Beggar,’ by Spanish Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Juniper, one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assissi, was renowned for his generosity. When told he could no longer give away his clothes, he instead simply told the needy, like the beggar in the painting, that he couldn’t give them his clothes, but wouldn’t stop them from taking them.

In regular language, "mercy" means being caring and compassionate toward people in poor states. That's a position we are all in relative to the Lord, all the time. Without Him we would be unable to choose what is good; without Him we would be unable to formulate a reasonable thought. Without Him, in fact, we would instantly cease to exist; we have life only because He constantly gives us life. So we are, quite literally, at His mercy. Fortunately, the Lord is caring and compassionate to a degree we cannot fathom. He is the source of all caring and all compassion, and of love itself. His mercy toward us never lessens, never abates, never ends; His whole purpose is to bring each of us, individually, to heaven. The meaning of "mercy" in the Bible is closely tied to this idea: it represents love in a general sense, and the desire for good that comes from love. It can also represent the desire for good and the ideas that describe it when those thoughts and desires are inspired by love of the Lord.