[We begin this morning at the beginning of Part 2 of Hosea. Part 1 might be called “The Saga of Hosea, Gomer, and Their Children.” It takes place in chapters 1-3. Part 2 covers the rest of the book. Not only does it expand on Part 1, it fills us in with more detail—not detail about Hosea’s family, for they are not mentioned again, but the themes developed in those first three chapters are clearly built upon in what follows throughout the rest of the book. Hosea chapters 1-3 lay a foundation and the rest of the book builds upon it.
This second part of the book begins with something that sounds eerily like a lawyer making his case in a court of law. In fact, the language employed is exactly that. It is the language of covenant lawsuit.]
[It’s a three-fold charge. No faithfulness to God. No steadfast love for God. No knowledge of God. The whole of the breaking of the covenant is focused upon God. The knowledge spoken of in the third accusation is more than just a knowing of facts. It is a knowledge that cannot be gained from a newspaper, or an encyclopedia, or an exposè done on your favorite news channel. It is an intimate knowledge that can only come from relationship. We are to know God in an intimate, personal sense. This is what the law demands.
They don’t know me, God says—and that is the most damning indictment of them all. And so I ask you this morning to ask yourselves. Do you know God? How well? The God who made heavens and earth and revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ can only be known to us through special revelation, that is the Scripture of Old and New Testaments. How well do you know him? In two weeks we will come across these words from chapter six:
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;—Hosea 6:3a
How willing are you right now to press on to know him? Is there a longing inside you to know all that you can? It is this for which we were made. It is from this that we are fallen.]
To listen to all of this sermon just click the link below. God bless.
Click here: Mark 4:1-19 - God’s Case Against Israel
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