“Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God.”
While I was reading in Hosea this morning, I thought that if one were looking for "feel good” theology, he/she was in the wrong book. In this verse, Hosea tells the Israelites that God has a “controversy with the inhabitants of the land.” It is not good news when a people are told that they have a controversy with God. Hosea listed three qualities that the “inhabitants” did not have that they needed: truth, mercy and knowledge of God. It occurred to me that these are three qualities that we need to have to be in good fellowship with God. The first thing that Hosea mentioned was “truth.” We already know what truth is without defining it, but the Hebrew word for truth has several shades of meaning. The best of these to me is “trustworthiness.” You have to agree that this is a quality that every Christian should have in order to be in good standing with God and people. Just as Hosea watched the lives of the Israelites and saw that they were not trustworthy, people are looking for that quality in our lives. Another word that comes to mind is “dependable.” Can people depend on us to keep our word or to be truthful in all of our dealings with them? The second quality that Hosea mentioned was “mercy.” There were also various meanings for the Hebrew word used here, but the main shade that I want to deal with is “kindness.” Mercy and kindness just seem to fit together. We will not be merciful in our dealings with people if we are not kind. Hosea saw that the quality of mercy was missing in the lives of the Israelites. It would seem to me that a church that carries the name “Christian” would be filled with merciful and kind people. This does not mean that we would have to compromise with sin in order to be merciful and kind. We should certainly be merciful and kind with each other. Would you say that you have this quality, and does the church of which you are a member have this quality? The third quality that Hosea mentioned was that there was no “knowledge of God in the land.” This means that the Israelite people did not acknowledge God in their daily lives. The problem was that their perception of God was of statues of wood, or perhaps statues of metal. How are you doing in your knowledge of God? I’m not asking whether or not you go to church. People can go to church every Sunday and still not acknowledge God, or have a deep understanding of Him. This takes some time in prayer, worship, and, yes, Bible reading. The Israelite people did not know that they were breaking God’s heart by their untrustworthiness or their unkindness. They didn’t remember that God loved them, and all that He had done in their history to deliver them. Take a few minutes today and consider the qualities of truth, mercy and knowledge of God in your life. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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