Thursday, September 20, 2012

"They Don't Know Me!"

  Here is Hosea, charging God's people because God is charging them that they have "rejected knowledge." (Hos. 4:6) They didn't reject just any knowledge but knowledge of God. They had pushed aside God's law and headed into a world of blindness and arrogance.
  The charges are laid out: "There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery." (Hos. 4:2) When people forget their God, there is only one path they head and things are done that are not shocking. When one reads carefully the book of Hosea, you see a message taught about his wife, Gomer, that she never came to know and love his worth and devotion to her. That's how God feels about us! We see it in our homes where family members look at one another day after day and never truly learn the worth, the value of the glorious people they are sharing their lives, their world with! I've known many a person to destroy relationships because their failure to walk with God, to know God and as a result, they do not value those close until they destroy them. That's too late and the price is costly!
  When we speak of knowing God, we aren't speaking of acknowledgement of God. The NIV version says that in Hos. 4:1. To know God is not a "formal" recognition of God. To know God is to recognize Him as the Almighty, the Redeemer, the Holy One and as Yahweh. (You need to take some time and learn that description of God and what it means. That would be good for your study.) Too many are making God into "warm fuzzies" and little acts of human kindness. Just as in the time of Hosea, the people cried out: "My God, we of Israel know You!" (Hos. 8:2) But they live in dismissing the teachings of God and learning of His holy ways.
  Today we speak of God and talk great about His character. We speak words of gratitude for what He provides in our daily needs. Our words come out smoothly that He redeemed us by the blood of His Son and all the work accomplished for us with the cross. We are content...for a while. Then something gets our attention and off we move to another provider, adding our own ideas and thoughts and the words will come back and haunt us: "My people perish because they don't know Me!"

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