WILL KNOWLEDGE SAVE?
by Harrell Davidson
In
chapter four of Hosea, God condemns
God
says that the people have separated themselves by "swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing
adultery ..." (cf. Hosea 4:2).
In verse 6 the ancient prophet penned
words of destruction due to the malady of the time, hear him, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
be cause thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou
shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgot ten the law of thy God, I
will also forget thy children."
It
is the case that the people of Hosea's day had refused to acquire and live by
knowledge of the Word of God. They never
thought of the penalty for their neglect in all likelihood. They were going along to get along and
practicing the same sins as the people about them while God had commanded them to
be separate or different from those nations around them, but this seems to have
never entered their thought process. They
wanted to be like the nations about them when they desired a king. God granted them their wish, but their desire
led to great suffering and turmoil.
As
Hosea writes God is rejecting His priests and His people. He even for gets their children. A calamity exists in the land that does not
respect and know God. We are taught in
the Scriptures that eternal life is to "know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent" (John 17:3). It is rather obvious that there is trouble in
our land this day in the year of our Lord, 2009.
Unless
we come to a knowledge of God, man will be lost. We remember a classic passage in Judges
Are
we talking about an antiquated condition? No! A thousand times NO! We are describing
present day