FBC Morning Light – November 12, 2022

Good morning, people of faith. Glad to be with you this morning. We are in Hosea chapter 4, and I'm going to read a verse that is often taken out of context and applied various ways. The verse is verse 6, and it says, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.

And sometimes it says, in other versions, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. And this has been taken out of context in many ways. Some people take it to mean that you don't have knowledge of certain gifts, and so you are perishing for that lack of knowledge.

I've heard it also taken out of context in kind of a playful way with professors of different sorts of calculus or physics saying you perish on this test because you don't know what you're doing. And so the setting here is that Hosea is preaching to or speaking to the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, as Assyria is starting to become a threat to the nation.

And so there's a couple of questions we need to answer here. First of all, who are my people? And second, what is exactly this lack of knowledge? So first of all, my people. The phrase is used frequently throughout scripture, hundreds of times.

Starting all the way back in Genesis, the patriarchs, Jacob and Joseph, when they were in Egypt, talked about being buried with my people back in the promised land. And so that's where that phrase started.

And if you remember in the book of Exodus, you hear the phrase often, let my people go. And the Lord had heard the cries of my people. And it's this a loving term of endearment of how the Lord sees those people that he claims as his.

And so here in Hosea, he's still referring to my people. And so it's important to know that he's viewing these wayward people as still his people. Well, what is this lack of knowledge? Well, I'm going to suggest to you very strongly that it's not for a lack of understanding of your giftedness or of certain sign gifts that some might claim.

And it's certainly not for not understanding calculus or physics or economics or anything like that. But we find what it is that is the lack of knowledge in verse 1. It says of chapter 4 of Hosea, hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel.

For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land. There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. So we see here that the problem is the lack of knowledge of God. And so why is there a lack of knowledge of God?

Back to verse 6, after it says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I also reject you from being priest for me. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

So the priests and the teachers of the law had a responsibility that they were not carrying out in the nation of Israel. And the hearers of that law were not following through either. There's certainly, that is a huge problem to go without the knowledge of God.

The Responsibility to Teach the Word of God

And so we have application for today for us here, first of all, if you are a teacher or a preacher of the word, you have a responsibility to teach and preach that word, not just from video or a lecture or from the pulpit, but with your life as well in your day-to-day activities.

Do you respond to questions based off of the word? Or do you base your responses off of the pop culture? Or where is your source of authority? It needs to be the word of God. And then also for those of us who are truly children of God in our daily lives, proclaim that message.

Let the people know that there is a God and that God has right and claim to this world and to your life. It reminds me of a verse that I was encouraged to memorize as a young man by my youth pastor. Awake to righteousness and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God.

I speak this to your shame. That is 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 34. That is our challenge today. Is there someone in your life who does not have knowledge of God that you may have opportunity to pray for, that you may have opportunity to speak to?

Speak to them based on the word of God and the knowledge of God that it might be imparted to them through the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray, people of faith. Heavenly Father, we come to you on the basis of what your son has done for us, that he has paid our penalty, that we might come boldly before your throne to present these requests to you.

Prayer for Boldness and Faithful Witness

Help us to walk with you today, that we may walk in such a way that our lives give testimony to your word and that our words give testimony to your word. Let us not be ashamed of what you've done for us, nor the word that you've given to us, but may we proclaim it boldly.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.