Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you… The ungodliness of Israel in Hosea's time was in a great measure to be traced to ignorance of the true God; an ignorance for which they were responsible, because there was the light of God's truth in their land. It was peculiarly sinful, inasmuch as it was ignorance in God's professing people. And the ignorance involved their ruin. I. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE MISERY OF IGNORANCE OF GOD. No real earthly happiness can be enjoyed where there is ignorance of God. The pleasures of sin are not happiness, though they often pass for it. Nor is the pursuit of happiness, or the acquisition of wealth. Happiness must be sought in a knowledge of, and obedience to, the will and ways of God. Where there is the true knowledge of God, there is no real wretchedness, though there may be much tribulation II. THAT WHICH AGGRAVATES THE MISERY IS OUR RELATION TO GOD AS HIS PEOPLE. 1. It aggravates their sin, because it is the bounden duty of every man to seek the knowledge of God as the "one thing needful." We are not to wait to have this knowledge forced upon us, we are bound to seek it. If the guilt of God's people who remain in ignorance of Him be aggravated by their relation to Him, so likewise is the guilt of those aggravated who are bound to teach God's people. Civil government stands upon religious grounds, and has religious obligations. The Church is the bulwark of every Christian State. (W. J. Brodrick, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. |
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