Hosea 4: 6 New Living Translation
My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.
Hosea witnessed the division among God’s people and their unrestrained ways. He understood that the people were ignorant of God and His ways and tried, in vain, to teach them that God loved them and that they should return to Him. Hosea is fighting an uphill battle, though, because even the priests had lost their communion with God.
Whenever we see churches or the church splintering we know that the love of God is not ruling there. The love of God draws people together rather than splits them asunder. God says, through Hosea, that the problem is that the people don’t know Him.
To know God is to live in the blessing. The priests no longer knew God so of course they did not teach His people about Him. The people, in turn, did not seek God and without God there is no peace.
This is a message for us today. If we want a life of peace, stability and blessing we must seek the face of the Lord, our God. Our ministers have an important role to play. They must teach about God. We are suffering and are being destroyed in this time because we do not know God. In the presence of God is security, tranquility and all provision. Without God, we suffer continually with division, strife, turmoil, lack, sickness and despair. To know God is to know love, the two are inseparable because God is love. Where love is in operation, there is peace and every form of prosperity. You have only to look around to see that we have been operating without God. Even when we look in our churches we find that many are characterized by their infighting rather than by a spirit of cooperation and affection.
We are now the chosen people of God and if we would see our children blessed and our lives anointed then we must continually turn our faces toward God. We must seek God in our private capacities but we must also insist that those appointed by God as our ministers and leaders teach us about Him and the life we are to live in Him. We are being destroyed by the lack of knowledge of God much less a personal revelation of Him so if we are to avoid destruction then we must come to know this God both personally and corporately. The gospel of our Lord is the good news. Let us preach it and receive it with open hearts.
