Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Monday, May 7, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 12
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: There were two cardinal attitudes about Israel which God wasn’t pleased with. The first accusation was that Israel had rejected knowledge of their God and His laws. The second accusation was that Israel had forgotten the law of God. Both accusations were significant in the sense that ordinarily, anyone would most likely reject anything that is considered repugnant or obnoxious, a nuisance or of least importance to the person’s life aspirations and beliefs. Rejection becomes the easier option if one wants to dispense with unnecessary weight in their lives, likely to slow them down or set them back.
If rejection of the knowledge of their God wasn’t serious enough, Israel had additionally forgotten completely about God and His laws. Israel had done their worse to convey to God what they think of His importance and that of His laws in their lives. From the way things were going, it was obvious that God had been actively relegated to the background in the life of Israel. In life anything that has been rejected as a nuisance isn’t likely to be on top of one’s mind. It’s actually considered irrelevant or the kind of knowledge that had outlived its usefulness in the life of the people. To put it politely, it is useless knowledge that’s of no value.
This vivid description of a smack in the face of God and His prophet, Hosea, understandably triggered the wrath of God against the nation. God’s love, faithfulness and provisions for Israel, just as any faithful husband would do for his beloved wife, had been spurned Israel in preference to her undying love for other gods. God had been humiliated by Israel in a most demeaning manner as an uncaring husband. Yet, what Israel had failed to realise was that her immense prosperity and peace that she enjoyed wasn’t because of other gods, who had become her lovers, but by the faithful hand of Yahweh whose love for His people is without limit.
God’s incessant calls to Israel to return from her unfaithfulness in playing whoredom with other lovers, had been met with refusal to return. Israel rejected the proposal of God for her to return to her first love. Israel dismissed the idea of a return to God. In her heart, she was no more in love with God. Israel had stopped thinking about God. She had completely banished that thought from her mind. She couldn’t remember the last time she got ravished with the love of God. Israel was shut out in her mind and conscience, and had blanked God out of her system. She was no longer in love with God.
Food for thought: Inspite of the unfaithfulness and stubbornness of man, God couldn’t stop loving man, offering His only Son to us for our redemption.
Declaration: But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
