Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Saturday, May 5, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 11
Scripture: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6
Note: Knowledge is the ability to acquire the needed skills in a particular field of endeavour that leads to heightened perception on the nuances involved in that particular field of interest. Acquiring the skills involves a concerted effort and investment of time to reach the level where one could be considered as having acquired the requisite knowledge to function in that expected capacity. Israel had made no such concerted effort to acquire knowledge of the law of God. Instead, Israel used all her cunning abilities and ingenuity in a negative concerted effort to avoid getting closer to Yahweh.
This intentional and disingenuous effort from Israel to distance herself from the presence of Yahweh was informed by other competing interests of this life that were at variance with the law of the Lord. Israel’s lack of knowledge of the law of God was not by accident or due to lack of teachers or available resources. Israel was running in the opposite direction to God. This obvious lack of understanding, wisdom and discernment in the virtues, security and privileges that come to people whose knowledge and destinies are tied to their trust in Yahweh, was to serve as a classic example of how to run away from the presence of God.
Running in the opposite direction to God is strange but very common among people. It’s a sign of rejection of the values, responsibilities and expectations of God concerning our lives. People who are running away from God don’t want the control that comes from being a follower of God. They desire an independent life that’s outside of the control of God. They desire unfettered liberty with no conditionality attached. The rejection of the law of God thus frees them from the guilt that would otherwise have haunted their conscience.
In the Hosea account, the prophet was providing the nation with the warning of destruction that would certainly follow the rejection of the law of God. Running away from the presence of God in the opposite direction is a childish prank that demonstrates one’s lack of understanding of the fact that God has got the whole world in His hands. We can pretend to be running away from God, but we can never pretend to be running away from our conscience. Our conscience lives with us, to keep reminding us that we are all answerable to the God of heaven and the earth.
Food for thought: Running away from God is a sad and vicious way of trying to play the ostrich with your life. It’s an exercise in futility that will lead to death and destruction.
Declaration: But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1:3
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
