My People Perish for Lack of Knowledge - Part 1180

"They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God, for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them and they have not known the Lord. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him. He hath withdrawn Himself from them." (Hosea 5:4-6)

Put another way, Hosea (whose name means salvation) is revealing how far the Lord's chosen people had moved away from seeking the Lord's counsel in their day to day, so that in the end their very deeds prevented them from turning to the Lord their God. (Hosea 5:4)

Herein, the Word of the Lord is speaking specifically to Israel, but I believe the message the Lord is making here through Hosea is equally instructive to our world today. Why? Because in many ways, we too have lost our way. Similar to Hosea's time, the Lord is saying, "My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares unto them ... for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God." (Hosea 4:12)

Why is this critical? Because then, like now -- the Lord is observing that we do not even recognize Him for His abundance of blessings. And sadly, we do not know that it is He who gives us the corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplies our silver and gold, which we in turn "prepare for Baal." (Hosea 2:8)

Isaiah, in his vision makes a similar observation. "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, [but] Israel doth not know. My people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters -- they have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward." (Isaiah 1:3-4)

When John the baptist full of the Holy Ghost from birth, went crying in the wilderness -- preaching repentance and baptizing with water -- saying, "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" what did he observe? There were those who willingly obeyed the Word and were baptized, cleansing their outer selves according to the customs of the time.

But there was also another group -- the Pharisees and Sadducees. To them John said, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance, and think not within yourselves -- "we have Abraham to [our] father." For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore, every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire."(Matthew 3:1-10)

In this context, how often the Lord has cried out to us -- His creation, His chosen people -- to return to Him? Throughout the old covenant, and into the new testament, our Lord God -- who willingly becomes our Saviour ushering in this current dispensation of grace -- is calling us to Him. Inviting us to come to the feast that He is preparing for His church. His bride.

Yes, He is calling us to worship and praise Him, and to seek His counsel and wisdom in our day to day. In fact, He just isn't some Spirit out there in the universe somewhere. No, this same God who created the world in the beginning, and knew us as we were formed in our mother's womb, loved us enough to take on a sin-prone flesh and shed His holy blood on a cross so that our sins could be forgiven.

"Though our sins be crimson, they will be as white as snow." (Isaiah 1:18)

As a consequence of Jesus costly sacrifice on the cross, the Word of the Lord has been written for our benefit, so that we do have a choice. That is, we do not have to perish for lack of knowledge. Our world does not need to spiral further into darkness as it is now. Indeed, the Bible from beginning to end tells us that Jesus the Christ -- the Word of God clothed in human flesh -- is the final authority in all matters of doctrine and practice.

"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the Word of God which ye have heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth -- the Word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe." (I Thessalonians 2:13)

Who was the Word? JESUS.

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

Not "He" as newer revised biblical publications state, but "the SAME" was in the beginning with God.

Indeed, Almighty God manifest in the flesh "being the brightness of [His] glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:1-3; I Timothy 3:16; John 1:1-18)

His work of salvation finished on the cross. He paid the price for our sin. JESUS -- whom Peter (standing with the eleven apostles on the day of Pentecost) declared "both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:1-42)

Jesus -- whom Thomas, after putting his hands into Jesus side rightly recognized Him for who he rightly was -- "My Lord and my God."

So why don't we put our trust in the Lord? Why do we believe that our worldly counsel is more insightful than that of the Lord who knows the very number of hairs on our head? Moreover, why do we strive to be successful in man's worldly constructs rather than embraced by the heavenly? Our Lord God and Saviour who desires to cuddle us, and bless us with His love and peace?

Apostle Paul asked, "Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some [others], epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men, for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God (not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart) and such trust have we through Christ to God-ward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency [is] of God -- who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (II Corinthians 3:1-6)

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God -- who hath made us able ministers of the new testament. The apostles recognize who was the giver of all wisdom and knowledge, and were willing to put everything on the line (including their lives) so that we could have this gospel -- wherein every man, woman and child could be set free to stand fast in His liberty.

In other words, we do not have to perish for lack of knowledge. We do not have to wander in the wilderness looking for that blessed hope. The new testament is the better covenant which was established upon better promises -- of which Jesus is the mediator. (Hebrews 8:6)

"Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in My covenant." (Hebrews 8:8-12)

In that He saith, a brand new covenant making the first covenant old. "Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8:13)

This is why Paul wrote: "But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of His countenance; which [glory] was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation [be] glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels. For if that which is done away [was] glorious, much more that which remains [is] glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished -- but their minds were blinded -- for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ." (II Corinthians 3:7-14)

Again, what happens when we continue reading the old testament? "Their minds were blinded for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament." (II Corinthians 3:14)

The vail of blindness still clothes us because we have not recognized that the vail was (and is) done away with once and for all in Christ Jesus. Just like them Pharisees and Sadducees who stood on the banks of the shore, doing anything but get into the water under John's baptism of repentance. 

But it doesn't have to be this way. Rather, we have the awesome privilege of stepping into His liberty by repenting and being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as Peter instructed on the day of Pentecost, when the first 3,000 were saved in this current dispensation of grace. (Acts 2:37-42)

As did they, so can we be clothed in His righteousness. Therefore, seek His Word and counsel in every thing that you do. Read the new testament that was purchased through His precious holy blood, and don't let a man-made religious culture keep you in the bondage that is inherent in the old covenant. In other words, remove the whoredoms from our life that are only of this world, and offer nothing toward eternal life.

As Paul wrote, "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord." (II Corinthians 3:15-18)

Turn your heart to Jesus today. Let the scales of blindness fall from your eyes. 

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:28) 

Stand in the offering plate.