LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
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(By Pastor Larry Burkholder)
Hosea 4:6-11
INTRODUCTION: A lack of knowledge is always detrimental to a cause or the mission of a given local church ministry. Our text verse reveals the horrible cost of a "lack of knowledge". It reads: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…" This is very telling to say the least.
In the Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, "knowledge" is defined this way: "acquaintance with facts, truth, principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition." "Erudition" meaning, "knowledge acquired by study, research, etc."
So, God is telling his people, through Hosea, that they are not "into the Word of God studying, researching, crossing reference with reference, and thus they are not acquainted with fact, truth, principles of which He desires of them." His people, of all people, ought to be well-acquainted with what God says, what God-means, and then translate all that "study" into a livelihood producing actions or lifestyles that truly honor and glorify Him. Familiarity is not knowledge. Familiarity will not count for much as far as God is concerned. The local church today needs people who have a genuine knowledge of His Word and are living it out as a result of that knowledge.
Let's consider a couple of questions at this juncture:
(1) What people are in view here? These are the northern kingdom of Israel - a nation of people whom God loved, nurtured, and wanted to save.
(2) What knowledge do they lack? True knowledge of the God of redemption. They were turning their ears away from the truth, determined to go their own way, to trust in themselves, and deliberately reject the very God who could and wanted to deliver them.
Hosea 4:6 states, "...because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Jehovah is rejecting His own people. Turning away their ears from the truth, they determined to go their own way, to trust in themselves, and to reject God's knowledge found in His Word. They not only lacked knowledge, but they deliberately rejected the very God who could and who wanted to deliver them. The most horrendous thing, I believe about this situation, is Jehovah's own denunciation of His people: "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject you … seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children" (4:6).
Their actions caused their children to suffer under God’s hand of judgment. This is a very serious charge by God against His own people. If we read this and are finding ourselves in this category or group of people, lack and deliberately reject God’s Word, perhaps paying attention to what we are reading and ask God to work His Word into our hearts would pay large dividends for us and our families! God’s Word is so powerful … powerful enough to change our life patterns to bring honor to His name.
A number of verses come to mind here as I bring this to a close. But I believe it only proper to end it with a verse from the text of Hosea 4. We read: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." (4:6) The remainder of Hosea 4 is a tragic event which His people chose to live and refused the knowledge of God.
God certainly had ''a controversy with the inhabitants of the land" as recorded in Hosea 4:1. Why? "... because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." (4:1b)
May, I pray, this never to be said of God of our families and our local church ministry!
Remember: Knowledge entails responsibility! And God holds us responsible. Let's walk with God as did Enoch of old! AMEN!!
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