Thursday, February 7, 2013

Left Alone


Left Alone

 

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.“ – Hosea 4:6

Hosea was a prophet in a time when Israel needed to visibly see their sins.  For that reason God had Hosea live out his marriage to Gomer as an example of Israel’s relationship with God.  When Gomer became unfaithful to Hosea, her infidelity gave Israel an example of idolatry, chasing after other gods instead of Almighty God.  When Hosea bought Gomer back after she had prostituted herself, God was giving an example of how He forgives all sin, and does not want His children to be slaves of sin. 
But the book of Hosea was delivered not only Israel, but to us in this present day.  God foresaw our unwillingness to follow His will, and gave us the book of Hosea as a visual example of what rejecting God costs.

In Hosea 4 we read of the destruction of sin.  Hosea 4:6 is often misused by educators and those promoting secular education.  It begins “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”.  The verse does not refer to knowledge from books and education.  Lack of book knowledge will not destroy you.  It refers to knowledge of God, His nature, His hatred of sin, His punishment of sin.  Surely knowledge does not destroy us, but our disobedience to the moral and ethical ways of God does.  The nightly news gives example after example of destruction through our lack of knowledge of God.  When we read the complete verse, it continues, “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.“
This is a sad verse!  Because God’s people have turned a deaf ear to God’s will and His word, He will forget our children.  Look around at the generations that have lived outside God’s word.  They have rejected Him, and chased “self” religions, modern day idols, and other gods.  Do we not see the destruction?  Do we not see generations that have foregone the idea of family? Do we not see that they have turned to the liberal media and “political correctness” to find knowledge of good and evil? They have closed their minds to the existence of God, to His commands given for our good and His morality. And in return, they live the destructive lives of sin, broken, depressed, addicted, poverty stricken, bringing harm to themselves and the children they raise.

We have heard the word of Almighty God and believed it to be mild suggestions of how to live.  God isn’t suggesting we live according to His will – He commands it – and for our good.  Yes, God grows weary of our sin.  He punishes us for a season, and then when our obstinacy continually rejects Him, He forgets our children. 
In Hosea 4:17 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible, which says Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.” God grew tired of the tribe of Ephraim’s continual disobedience and chasing after idols.  He quit sending a message to them by the prophet Hosea.  He stopped talking to them.  He left them alone.

In Romans 1:28 Paul is talking about those that live homosexual lives, and he says And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;”   God “gave them over”, stopped trying to teach them and punish them.  He left them alone in their sin.  He still leaves them alone in their sin today, with their seared conscience toward the natural use of the body of man and woman, and God’s will.  But He also leaves alone those that continually reject Him, knowing those that will not follow Him and those that will.
Matthew 15:13-14 talks about the Pharisees, which believe because of their religious wisdom that they are righteous and don’t need Jesus.  Jesus says of them “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Again, He will leave them alone in their self-righteousness.  How sad it is that those that believe they can live perfect enough to be righteous through their works will one day find that they did not.

In Genesis, before the flood of Noah, God speaks of the depravity and sinful state of man on the earth.  He says in Genesis 6:3, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever”.  God then destroyed the world. Only eight aboard Noah’s ark escaped His wrath, and those because as Genesis 6:8 tells us “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Today God is preparing to once again destroy the world.  He is turning over generations of people to their own ways, leaving them alone in their sin.  Yet, He still provides grace for those that will submit to His will and accept Christ as the sacrifice of their sins.  On the day of His return, those that are His will be taken from this earthly life to eternal life with Him.  But those that have chosen not to follow Him will once again be left alone.  His Holy Spirit will not struggle with man forever.

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