Surely Paul could have made the gospel more palatable – and less dangerous – by saying it was about something else. Something cleaner and less ridiculous than the cross. Something more glorious. Less disgusting. He didn’t do that, though. “I decided,” Paul said, “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). In the face of the worst cultural prejudice imaginable, he fixed the entire gospel squarely and immovably on the fact that Jesus was tacked to a stauros and left to die. If he had been trying to find a surefire way to turn first-century people off from his “good news,” he couldn’t have done better than that! So why did he do it? It’s simple. He did it because he knew that leaving the cross out, or running past it with a glance, or making it peripheral to the gospel, or allowing anything else to displace it at the center of the gospel would make it, finally, no gospel at all.
Greg Gilbert

Bible – English_World – Hosea Chapter 5:1-15.

Index: World English Bible

 

Hosea 5

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5:1 “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.

5:2 The rebels are deep in slaughter; But I discipline all of them.

5:3 I know Ephraim, And Israel is not hidden from me; For now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute. Israel is defiled.

5:4 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.

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

5:6 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 He has withdrawn himself from them.

5:7 They are unfaithful to Yahweh; For they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

5:8 “Blow the cornet in Gibeah, And the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!

5:9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.

5:10 The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark. I will pour out my wrath on them like water.

5:11 Ephraim is oppressed, He is crushed in judgment; Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.

5:12 Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, And to the house of Judah like rottenness.

5:13 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.

5:14 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.

5:15 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.”