"DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE"

Hosea 4:6 I encourage the reader to read the book of Hosea in preparation for this devotion. The knowledge of God which the people lacked here in Hosea's writing was, of course, a knowledge of God by experience. However, even a knowledge by experience of God must come, first, from a knowledge of God's existence and God's Will as God has already revealed Himself. In other words, there is no way to come to an experiential knowledge of God except first to come to an intellectual knowledge of Him through His verbal and His natural revelation of Himself. That is, we must first know that He exists through the various proofs of His existence in both nature and His Word; then we must know what He is like and what it is He invites us to be, and what He promises we may become. Then, when we have trusted Him to be what He is, and able to do what He promises, and when we have done what He commands---it is then that we really begin to know Him as we ought to know Him! This Godly knowledge brings the peace, the joy, the forgiveness, the satisfaction, the fulfillment, the purpose and, ultimately the eternal life that mankind so desparately needs. As Jesus Said in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." However, to lack such knowledge of God through His verbal and His natural revelation of Himself, is to be lost in ignorance, despair, hopelessness, guilt, without purpose in this life and ultimately, eternal separation (death) from God. This should lead us to think of the terrible condition of the Gentiles described in Romans 1:18f when we see the knowledge of God being rejected. Paul says they "refused to have God in their knowledge"... "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie"..."and so God gave them up to serve the enslaving and degrading passions of their bodies." We are also reminded of II Thessalonians 2:10-12 where those who have no love of 'The Truth', God's Word, are given over by God to self-delusion and to believing a lie. And this is, for all practical purposes, the condition to which Israel had fallen in Hosea's writing; they were enslaved, degraded, and self-deluded! And so God has rejected this nation from being a priestly nation. God had chosen this nation for a special purpose, to be "a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). They were His covenant people but would not receive His blessing if they remained in an un-Godly, sinful lifestyle. They stood in a privileged position to both God and the rest of mankind. They were a "bridge" between God and all of creation over which the rest of mankind would eventually be reached by God through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But now, due to a lack of knowledge and sinful stubbornness, they were no longer fit for such a calling and God rejects them until they are purified and cleansed and made fit again for the bringing in of the Messiah. I encourage you, do not neglect the knowledge God offers in His Word. Study His Word to show yourself and others how important it is to be right in the Eyes of God.