THURSDAY, JANUARY 5
HOSEA 4:6-11
GENESIS 6:5

"… every imagination… of his heart
was only evil continually."

WILFUL IGNORANCE LEADS TO APOSTASY

In Hosea 4:6-11, the Prophet Hosea described how the people of God were destroyed. They were deceived to worship the gods of the heathens because of their lack of knowledge. This was not because they were not taught but because they wilfully rejected the knowledge of God given to them through the prophets in their days. They apostatized and the Lord rejected them, including their children.

They forgot the law of their God who had delivered them out of the bondage of Egypt. They embraced the laws and practices of the heathen religions. The Word of God was relegated to nothing but words of ancient men. They forsook and left off the keeping of His laws. They had a very low view of the Scriptures.

This led to increased sinfulness in the land. They committed sin as easily as they ate bread. They had no qualms and fears in committing sin. Their hearts’ object was iniquity. Lawlessness was in their minds. They made sin their way of life. They were likened to the days of Noah where the "wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen 6:5).

Woe to us if we reject the knowledge of God! We hear the Word preached every Lord’s Day. Do we listen to the preacher and the convictions of the Holy Spirit? Have we been attending Sunday school and other Bible studies in our church? Do we desire to learn God’s Word deeper? Are we doing our personal daily Bible reading and meditation faithfully? Do we seek God to personally teach us from His Word? Lord, please give us an intense hunger and thirst for Thy precious and Holy Word. May the Holy Spirit give us understanding as we read the Bible and grant us the love to keep and obey Thy Word.

THOUGHT: Do I hunger and thirst for God’s Word?
PRAYER: "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!" (Ps 119:4-5).