Study From the Book of Hosea,4

                              Study From the Book of Hosea

In this fourth part of the series, we study the judgement of the Northern kingdom of Israel by God because they disobey Him. The description of that judgement is from chapter 4 till chapter 13. At chapter 14, we will see the restoration of Israel at the end of the age when the Lord Jesus will reign at the millennium.

Principle 7 (4:6): “ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge---“

Lesson 7:  This part of the verse is true, a lot of sins that even Christians do are because of lack of knowledge of God. For example they do not know that God is holy and the Holy Spirit who dwells in them is pure, so they commit all such sins of lust and fornication.  But this only half of the verse here, the other half says “because you have rejected knowledge.” So the story here is different, they have sources from the Bible, but they simply they do not want to know.

We might find some excuses in the first case, but in either case the lack of knowledge of God leads to destruction.

The lesson here is that if only in the Lord, we find life, and then the priority to learn as much about Him as possible. - And that means spending prayerful and extended time in His presence. 

Principle 8 (4:10): “For they shall eat, but not have enough; they shall commit harlotry, but not increase; because they have ceased obeying the Lord.”

Lesson 8: Here is the result of not obeying the Lord: destruction as in the above verse but also lake of blessing in this verse. They eat but still hungry. They get married or even commit adultery outside marriage but they have no children. This picture is completely opposite when obeying the Lord. The Lord can take little and make it stretch a long way. The choice is ours.

Principle 9 (5:11):“Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement, because he willingly walked by human precept.”

Lesson 9 : Disobeying God’s commands does not only make destruction and lack of blessing but also make us stupid, lack of good judgement on things and situations, so we open ourselves  to unnecessary hardship. .