O priests and rulers, who have misled my people, and you, deceived ones, who have sinned so grievously that you have not only slain the offerings but have also cast them into the abyss: do not believe that your grave sins have utterly severed you from My presence. I am your instructor, aiming to guide, not to punish, to redeem, not to destroy. I know Ephraim, symbolizing Rehoboam, by whom the people were led astray, and all the kings who followed in his sinful footsteps, and Israel is not obscured from My sight, which refers to the inhabitants of the ten tribes, as they too have become corrupt under a king given to unfaithfulness. Initially, the king engaged in unfaithfulness, abandoning God’s service and choosing to worship golden calves, with the people eagerly following him into the same sin with equal fervor. They do not turn to the Lord, for they have found what they seek, and the spirit of unfaithfulness, which operates, as noted by the apostle (Eph. 2), in the children of disobedience, has taken captive their hearts. Thus, under its influence, they do not know the Lord and have forgotten their Creator. Consequently, the Lord observes those who lead perverse teachings, and the people, not due to their deserving it, are known to Him because nothing remains concealed from Him, whether perpetrated by the deceived or the deceivers. Those who continue to thrive in their destruction will not consider repentance; for the spirit of unfaithfulness, with which they have acted treacherously within the Church and abandoned true union, remains among them, and therefore, they have not recognized the Lord.
THEOSIS