01/25/2009

• Sunday School: Proverbs 29:20 ...speaking in haste.
• Scripture reading: #629
• Vespers - 5 p.m.: Spirituality - "Satan kills, steals, and destroys."
• Wednesday @ 7 – Paul’s understanding of a ‘Christ-centered’ theology: such stuff as being a child of God; baptism; mysticism in spirituality; and, communion.

Destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea)

(Circa 760-720 B.C.) Hosea was quite a wordsmith. He is quoted several times by various New Testament authors. He could really ‘turn a phrase.’ It is said of Hosea that he prophesied during a very rotten time in Israel’s history. Isaiah was a ‘fellow’ prophet during that time. Hosea wasn’t hesitant to lay it on Israel that their sins had brought on themselves the great and terrible national disasters. Hosea ministered for some sixty years. It is thought by most experts that his ‘book’ is the only truly, completely, authentic, totally personally written prophecy left by any prophet of Israel.

Hosea 4:1. Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. 2. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying. 4. "But let no man bring a charge, let no man accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. 5. You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—

6. my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. 7. The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.

8. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. 9. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

“…and repay them for their deeds.” Deeds - that is what this passage is all about.

Let’s go back to verse 4: 'Don't be accusing someone else, because you folks are all alike...' That's my paraphrase of Hosea 4:4. Basically, things are quite similar today to those of Hosea's day, almost 2800 years ago.

We saw it - Hosea said (4:1b&2) "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. 2. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed."

And then we find the very difficult, pivotal verse - verse 6; Hosea said "...my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge."

It kind of reminds me of the 'Know Nothing' politics of the mid 19th Century in the United States. It wasn't that the priests and people of Hosea's day didn't 'know' what was right...they found all sorts of excuses to do anything other than the fruits of righteousness that God's law demanded. The result, as Hosea pointed out, was "...no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land...only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; break(ing) all bounds, and bloodshed follow(ing) bloodshed."

Undoubtedly the priests and people were complaining about his exaggerated statements, "We aren't all always like that..." Those protests are heard from the self-righteous today. The point Hosea was making wasn't one of degrees of hyperbole, it was one of emphatic awareness intended to bring repentance.

- If we fail to recognize even a part of our personal and national guilt then we fall into the category of being 'condemned already.'

For those still wanting to protest that 'there is therefore (now) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' I would hasten to remind them of the great caveat - 'for those who are in Christ Jesus.' That demands of us a repentance that 'brings forth deeds (in keeping with the repentance).' It also reminds us that if we 'know to do good and do it not, it is sin.'

Paul's writings to Titus are quite in keeping with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount...we are compelled to 'do good deeds in order for mankind to glorify our Father in heaven.'

It IS the responsibility of those who consider themselves to be God's people, regardless of the century or nation. 'Do good and don't grow weary.'

Did the people of Hosea's day really not know? Were they really destroyed because they didn't know? It appears that

- they chose to 'know' what they wanted to know.

- They chose their own spiritual 'reality.'

- Ignorance never was, still isn't, a valid excuse.

It IS written. The choice is, and always has been, one's own. Is our 'reality' lacking 'knowledge?' What are our ‘deeds’ saying about what we have chosen to ‘know?’ “He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”