Hosea 4

 

 

I realized at this, the start of my third post on the book of Hosea, that I have yet to recommend that you read it. Here is a link to do so. The book is not very long and since I'm not commenting on each chapter, I don't want you to miss anything that God's Spirit may want to whisper to your heart.

 

 

In Hosea chapter 4, I found a few verses that may sound like someplace we all know:

 

"Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel,

For the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land,

Because there is no faithfulness or kindness

Or knowledge of God in the land.

There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery.

They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore the land mourns,

And everyone who lives in it languishes..." (Hosea 4:1-3)

 

 

Hmmm? Sounds familiar if you live in the U.S., doesn't it? Again, as I said in my post on Hosea 2, there 'is nothing new under the sun'. But aside from all of the deception that people and businesses work out everyday and as horrific as the next story of a middle schooler attempting to kill someone is and even as unbelievable inane as the proposition that somehow more bloodshed will stymie bloodshed rather than producing more...the land mourns.

 

If you've been hanging out with me on here very long, you know my love for God's Creation. It doesn't take a climatologist, meteorologist or seismologist to educate you...if you just look...our land is mourning.

 

Sadly, this is not the worst of it though. No..."everyone who lives in it languishes."

 

We are a languishing people.

 

Why?

 

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6a)

 

He's not talking Common Core or algebra in 4th grade or becoming a neuroscientist here. No...God goes on to say in that same verse that His people "have forgotten the law of your God."

 

Since I first read this a few days ago, my thoughts keep returning to Martin Luther and the Reformation away from the Catholic church. What started it? If you don't know this part of history, the "nutshell" version is that the church only allowed Holy Scriptures written in Latin which only some priests could read and comprehend. Luther translated the Bible into German, the common language of his people and when they read it for themselves, they discovered a personal God who loved them deeply and with a passionate fervor that they could not ignore.

 

Here's what this naturally leads me conclude...when we meet God's Spirit regularly over His Word and open our hearts and minds without reservation to what He wants to teach us...He just might begin a little reformation (aka revolution) in the midst of us.

 

If not...I know that at the very least...we won't be languishing. Any. More!