Judah and Ephraim symbolize all who may be saved “on the third day”.
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Question 1: “Can ‘Ephraim” and ‘Judah’, representing the 10 tribes of the Northern and 2 tribes of The Southern Kingdoms, find Jesus in Today’s Reading?”
Answer: “That’s what God wants in Hosea 6:1-6: ‘Come, let us return to The Lord, it is He Who has torn us from Him, but He will heal us; He has struck us, but He will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up, to live in His presence.’”
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Question 2: “Does the first of the ‘two days’ symbolize the two-thousand-year period between Abraham and Jesus and the second ‘day’ represent 2,000 years between Jesus and today, putting us in our time at the beginning of ‘the third day’ when Jesus returns to earth and saves His followers?”
Answer: “That is an interesting idea, and may be why God had Hosea tell us their ‘piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away’. God gives all believers a higher goal to seek in Psalm 51:3-4, 18-21: ‘It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.’”
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Question 3: “What do those who understand that do?”
Answer: “We read Psalm 95:8, ‘If today you hear His Voice, harden not your hearts.’ Then, we see the doubly-confused people to whom the ‘parable’ of Luke 18:9-14 is addressed: ‘Jesus addressed this parable to those who were (1) convinced of their own righteousness and (2) despised everyone else.
‘Two people went up to The Temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even like this tax collector.’
Then, the Pharisee bragged about how much better he was than other people: ‘I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ “
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Question 4: “Was God impressed?”
Answer: “God and His people knew that was a self-serving lie! Pharisees paid ‘tithes’ by donating small, inexpensive potted plants valued as much as donated cattle with actual values of thousands of dollars! The difference was clear in the sincerity of the tax collector’s ‘confession’: ‘But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to Heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’”
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Question 5: “Which ‘confession’ was rewarded with ‘absolution’?”
Answer: “Jesus tells us! ‘I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’”
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “The vainest people live the biggest lie. / “Be humble?” They won’t even try.”
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