Every drunk knows the truth of what Hosea said.
Wine and new wine
take away the understanding. (Hosea 4.11)
The mind is the center of analytical thought and reflection. Drunkenness interferes with the mind and human understanding.
Earlier, the prophet said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!” (Hosea 4.6a).
He claimed that they lacked knowledge, “Because you have rejected knowledge” (Hosea 4.6b).
When they pursued wine, their knowledge and understanding diminished because they chose pleasure-seeking behavior over the knowledge of God.
Humans cannot find gold and diamonds just anywhere; discovering them demands serious effort and diligent work.
Similarly, acquiring God’s wisdom is not achieved through pleasure-seeking or mindless engagement with media. To understand God’s plan and purpose for our lives, we must invest time and energy in seeking it.
Evidence Presented
Hosea 4 depicts a courtroom scene where God acts as both the prosecuting attorney and judge, while humans stand as defendants. When He asserts that people lack knowledge and understanding, it becomes His responsibility to provide evidence.
He presents evidence against us in the verses that follow.
My people consult a piece of wood,
and their divining rod gives them oracles.
For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray,
and they have prostituted themselves, forsaking their God.
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
and make offerings upon the hills,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth
because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters prostitute themselves,
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. (Hosea 4.12-13)
God’s evidence shows that the people have forsaken Him in favor of consulting a piece of wood. They would flip a stick, and its falling direction was believed to show them what to do.
They chose a stick over the clear guidance provided by God’s teachings in the Ten Commandments and other writings available to them.
A spirit of prostitution, a word picture of their unfaithfulness, captivated entire families.
This force led them to high places to offer sacrifices to Baal instead of Jehovah. Under the shade of trees, they would cook and eat what they sacrificed.
It is believed that the “prostituting” Hebrew women did not engage in intercourse. Rather, they engaged in a blending of Jehovah’s worship with that of false gods.
Once again, they replaced a god they attempted to manipulate with the true God, who demands obedience.
Although it’s believed that Hebrew women did not engage in intercourse, evidence suggests that the men did.
Their involvement with temple prostitutes served as a means to seal a contract with Baal, the region’s fertility god.
I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves
nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery,
for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
and sacrifice with female attendants;
thus a people without understanding comes to ruin. (Hosea 4.14)
The people faced destruction due to their lack of knowledge and understanding.
They rejected God’s knowledge and tried to secure their lives by engaging with Baal and other false gods.
Rather than committing to God, they neglected the relationship established through the covenant of the Ten Commandments.
An Example
A guest speaker at Maywood Baptist challenged the congregation with Jesus’ teachings on worry from the Sermon on the Mount.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6.25).
Obeying Jesus’ teachings about worry becomes easier when we have a closet full of clothes, a home, and food in the refrigerator. However, when these things are scarce, worry will likely be present.
The age-old question, rooted in the teachings of the Old Testament prophets and still relevant today, asks: Will we trust in our own efforts to secure our lives, or do we believe that our Heavenly Father knows our needs and is willing to provide for us?
Believing that we alone must take care of our needs leads us to do everything possible to tip the scales in our favor. This will include bowing down to the current gods of our age.
A consequence of this mindset is that once we achieve our goals, we tend to indulge in pleasure-seeking activities, which further dull our understanding of God and His will for our lives.
Jesus and Hosea concur on the solution to the problem. They both state that if we prioritize seeking God, He, in His love and power, will provide for all our needs. He will also guide us in using the gifts He has bestowed upon us, steering us away from self-indulgence.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6.33).
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 