Press on to Know the LORD, Hosea 6
Have you ever gotten up on January 1st with a resolution firm in your mind? You honor that resolution intently for the first couple days, maybe even the first couple of weeks. If y0u are like me though, you quickly fall back into old established habit patterns.
The Children of Israel behaved in a similar way. They would sin and stray from God, then repent and live “right” for awhile. But soon, those old established habit patterns would take hold over them again and they would be right back where they were – in sin again. ”
Hosea 6 starts off kind of encouraging. It seems that the Children of Israel are ready to return to the LORD (when in all caps, this is the covenant name Jehovah). They had experienced the judgment of God, but now they are ready to repent. Look at their resolve in verse 3: “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD”. If we just had the “stick-with-it-ness” to press on to know God, we would live victorious Christian lives. Unfortunately, this verse is kind of like our New Year’s resolutions – it didn’t stick.
Verses 4-11 tell us what really happens. Verse 4 says their loyalty is like a morning cloud or the dew – it just vanishes into thin air. I can remember a severe drought occuring during the summer of one my teen years. Each day, clouds would build and build…but then they would disappear without giving any rain. I remember how disappointed my dad was when this happened. This kind of vanishing act with God’s children’s repentance was a huge disappoint too.
Verse 6 is something that is repeated more than once in God’s Word. God tells them through the prophet Hosea that He delights in loyalty more than sacrifice. He would rather us KNOW Him instead of just bringing Him sacrifices in vain. Turn that on us friends. How many times do we show up for church because that is part of our “sacrifice” or duty to God and then we leave without getting to know Him better? We leave with an unchanged heart. That is not the preacher’s fault, it is ours.
What does it take to break old established habit patterns? It takes the power and presence of God. Are you stuck in a rut like the Children of Israel (don’t forget that Gomer, Hosea’s wife, was in this rut too)? Listen to what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
If we try to live out our resolutions and fight our battles with fleshly weapons (like will power), we will loose everytime. The only thing that can really change our habits, behaviors, and thoughts is to bring everything captive to the obedience of Christ. We have access to DIVINELY POWERFUL WEAPONS! Why in the world aren’t we using them?
That is what God was trying to tell the Children of Israel – if they had “pressed on to know the LORD” as Hosea 6:3 says, they would have been victorious in their private lives and as a nation. Instead, they suffered the judgment of God by being besieged by the Assyrians. They were doing battle with fleshly weapons instead of their divinely powerful ones. They could have destroyed fortresses with them for goodness sakes. What fortress needs to come tumbling down in your life friend? Access this power by bringing everything in your life under Christ’s obedience.
When God looks down on my life, I pray that He is seeing things that glorify Him. I certainly don’t want Him to look down and see what He speaks of in Hosea 6:10. God says He sees a “horrible thing”. You know what “horrible” means in Hebrew – exactly what it says – horrible. Harlotry (cheating on God) is a horrible thing. Lets repent and resolve to “press on to know the LORD” and access our divinely powerful weapons!!
