The prophet Hosea ministered to the Northern Kingdom of
Israel about 12 years before the capital Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722
b.c. (2 Kings 17). The majority of Jews
living in the Northern Kingdom were deported to Halan and Habor, West of Carchemish.
The king of Assyria then repopulated the Jewish cities with his people from a
number of cities including Babylon (2 Kings 17:24).
Like the prophet Amos (755
b.c.) before him, Hosea condemned Israel for its lack of faithfulness to
their God (4:2). And since Israel was God’s client nation on earth, with the
responsibility to demonstrate to all of the nations which lived in the region
regarding the reality of the one true God of the universe. In other words, just
like our country is a client nation for spreading the Gospel, the Israelites
were supposed to be doing the same.
They failed. It is instructive for us today to understand
why they failed.
In Hosea chapter 4, he states the reason for their failure.
Verse 1, the indictment is laid out:
Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has
a case against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness or
kindness, or knowledge of God in the land.
Verse 2, Hosea describes how these people of God were
occupied instead of undertaking their divine directive:
There is swearing, deception,
murder, stealing and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows
bloodshed.
Verse 3 divulges the unintended consequences of their
rebellion:
Therefore the land mourns, and
everyone who lives in it languishes along with the beasts of the field and the
birds of the sky, and also the fish of the sea disappear.
Note the phrase “everyone who lives in it languishes.” The
word languish means to become weakened or feeble. But here it doesn’t mean in a
physical sense, but in a moral and spiritual sense.
Verse 4, Hosea warns those who would attempt to
refute the case which the Lord has against His people:
Yet let no one find fault, and let
none offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with the priest.
In other words, God doesn’t want to hear their rationalization
for their sinful rebellious behavior, because they will be just as argumentative
towards Him as they are to their own priests.
Verse 5 explains their fate because of their
rebellion:
So you will stumble by day, and the
prophet also will stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother.
To destroy your mother is like cutting off the read of the
snake – the whole nation will be destroyed.
Verse 6 informs us in definitive terms why they have
been destroyed by the Assyrians:
My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from
being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will
forget your children.
But unlike verse 1 where he mentions ‘no faithfulness or
kindness or knowledge of God,’ Hosea now pinpoints the problem with the
Israelites: ‘lack of knowledge.’ I doubt if he is referring to the lack of
knowledge concerning the details of life (cooking, hunting, farming, caring for
the animals, etc.). But you can be certain that this has to do with their lack
of knowledge regarding the teachings of their God and the principles of the
doctrines found therein.
Knowledge of Biblical doctrine requires that it be learned,
which also suggests that it needs to be taught. Hosea takes to task the
priests, the religious leaders, for not doing their job of teaching the
Israelites the precepts of godly living. Therefore the people go about
committing all those overt sins mentioned in verse 2 – a perfect formula of
failure for God’s people who reject knowledge, leading to the removal of the
nation.
Application for the Twenty-First
Century Believer
What does this
have to do with believers in Jesus Christ in the 21st Century?
Specifically: the survival of our country and its status as a client nation for
God. For the moment, never mind the unbelievers who are under the control of
evil and are driving their social endeavors of anarchy and corruption. None of
these people and none of our present leaders will ever save our country. If we
believe (and we should) that Jesus Christ controls history, then we should understand
that He will allow our country to fail when there is evidence of the same
conditions as in Hosea’s day: the majority of believers who reject the
knowledge doctrine.
Knowledge of
doctrine means that you understand the principles of God’s Word, that you live
by them and that you apply them to the events of your life. It demands that
these principles become embedded in your consciousness so that you are able to
recognize every eventuality of life in order to determine its value upon divine
viewpoint – and then know how to respond.
And further, it
means influencing those around you, i.e. family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
When all believers are practicing their faith in this manner, it will result in
the reshaping and changing of the minds of the unbeliever – the culture as a
whole.
This is our
mission for the 21st Century. Not the endeavors of the social gospel
or the gospel of prosperity (whether personal or financial). Not the drive
towards a ‘feel good religion’ characterized by the mega-church movement with its
excessive emphasis upon praise bands and raised hands and sermonettes for
Christian-ettes. Not the Emerging Church movement with the heresy of its “generous
orthodoxy.”
To accomplish
this mission it is imperative that the apostasy in the name of Christianity be confronted
for what it is. This will take courage and total reliance on the Holy Spirit to
empower Biblical leaders from seminaries, Bible colleges and churches to teach from
the inspired, inerrant and ultimately authoritative source from God: Scripture.
Without this
mission, we as a nation will suffer destruction as did the Israel nations in
the time of Hosea. The destruction may take many different forms from how they
suffered. But one thing for certain, we will lose our ability to serve and
worship God freely.
So therefore, the
key to the future survival of the United States is not in the political
parties, Congress, Supreme Court or the President. It lies with the believers of
Jesus Christ to respond to the real mission of our age: to gain knowledge from
God’s Word in order to live lives that witness the reality of His existence.
And as Jesus stated in John 17:21 that if we as believers demonstrate unity “the
world may believe” that the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ.
