Hosea 12-13 offer scathing rebuke and more judgment against Israel. Judah is also included in the condemnation. The LORD tells them they will both live in tents once again, meaning they will wander as they did for forty years in the wilderness after He delivered them from Egypt. This time the wandering would be for seventy years, before some of them returned to Israel to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. The LORD’s judgment is sure, and in ferocious terms He tells the people He will carry it out upon them.
Hosea 14 closes out the book with a call to repentance. We see no evidence of that repentance, nor do we hear of a return to mercy. We know the LORD has told us He will show mercy in the future in other chapters, and in other books of prophecy, but Hosea ends with no emphasis on that.
As we return to Mark 11, we read of the second time in Jesus’ life when He was acknowledged for the King He is: His Triumphal entry. The first time was when the wise men came from the east and worshiped Him when He was only two years old. The Triumphal entry offers us the opportunity to see the people gathered from many lands for Passover in Jerusalem shout, “Hosanna!” to Him. While the same crowd would shout, “Crucify!” in just five days, in this moment they called out to Him in exultation. The next day, Jesus pronounces a curse on a fig tree, and cleanses the money changers out of the Temple. This altercation was a direct attack on the religious leaders’ ways, and Jesus knew where it would lead. It didn’t matter, because His zeal for His Father’s house, would not let the religious leaders make a travesty of it. When the disciples saw the fig tree Jesus cursed was withered from the roots, they were amazed. Jesus used it as an opportunity to point out the importance of faith in our lives. Finally, the religious leaders challenged Jesus’ authority. This would be the first of a number of tests they would put before Jesus. Each time they would be the ones who looked foolish, not Him. In this case, when they asked Him where He received His authority to say and do what He did, He turned the tables by asking whether John the Baptist’s authority was from God or people? The leaders knew if they said from God, Jesus would ask why they didn’t listen to him, but if they said from people, the people would riot, because they thought John was a prophet. Thus, they said they didn’t know, and Jesus said then He wouldn’t tell them where His authority originated either. This standoff was only a foreshadowing of what would take place over the next couple of days, but in the end Jesus knew where the path was leading–to the cross. Thankfully, He was fully prepared for it, because that’s why He came to the world. He came to die, so we can live life in abundance now, and in eternity with Him when this life ends!