In Hosea 4:6, God spoke to the prophet Hosea about His unfaithful adulterous people of Israel and the consequences of their unfaithfulness and adultery for His people and the land. Ka mea te Atua, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Although God spoke these words to His people in the Old Covenant, we see the same thing happening with God’s people today. He maha nga Karaitiana, who despite their Bible knowledge have left the truth of God and have become unfaithful and because of that they are destroyed. How are God’s people perish for lack of knowledge? What can the church do to prevent God’s people from being destroyed?
There is no truth, Kaua hoki e tohungia, nor knowledge of God
Whakarongo ki te kupu a Ihowa, E nga tama a Iharaira: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, Na te mea kaore he pono, Kaua hoki e tohungia, Kaore hoki e mohio ki te Atua i te whenua. I te oati, me te teka, me te patu, me te tahae, me te puremu, ka pakaru ratou, Na ka pa te toto ki te toto. Na reira ka tangi te whenua, ko te hunga katoa e noho ana i reira, ka rere te hunga katoa e noho ana i reira, me nga kararehe o te parae, me nga manu o te rangi; āe, Ka tangohia ano nga ika o te moana. Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother (Hosea 4:1-5)
God’s people had become unfaithful to God and committed adultery with the pagan nations. They didn’t stay faithful to God and His law and did not separate themselves from the pagan cultures, engari i taupatupatu ratou, and allowed and embraced the pagan cultures in their land. They participated in their rituals and practices, whereby God’s people committed idolatry and adultery with the pagan nations.
Because God’s people had committed adultery with the pagan nations, who served strange gods, there was no truth in the land anymore, Kaua hoki e tohungia, nor knowledge of God.
By swearing and lying, kohuru, tāhae, me te puremu, they broke out and bloodshed followed bloodshed (Panuitia hoki: Te whakaheke toto me te kino i roto i te mara waina).
Na te (unrighteous) works of the inhabitants of the land, the land was burdened by sin.
The land mourned due to the lives and works of the inhabitants
The land mourned and everyone that dwelled in the land would languish with the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and even the fishes of the sea would be taken away.
And no one did something about it!
Everything was allowed, no one repented and no one was disciplined, whakatikatika, and chastened by the law, which represents the will of God and His Kingdom.
Everyone remained silent and continued their wicked works.
Their wicked works revealed their love for themselves and the devil and their rejection and hatred toward God.
The inhabitants of the land didn’t regret their actions and way of living. They refused to return to God and repent and remove the sins from their midst, whereby they and their land would be saved and restored (whakaorangia).
And so God’s people brought evil upon themselves and were destroyed by lack of knowledge. (Panuitia hoki: Ko te mahi kino ka kawea mai ki runga ki a ratou ano)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: therefore will I change their glory into shame
Hosea 4:6-7
Why were God’s people destroyed for a lack of knowledge?
God’s people were destroyed for lack of knowledge because they didn’t consider the knowledge of God as the truth. They didn’t believe and therefore they didn’t walk in the knowledge of God. God’s people rejected God’s knowledge and walked according to their own knowledge, tirohanga, and will in selfish love.
Because God’s people had not yielded to God and His law, but had rejected the knowledge of God, whereby they had rejected God, God would also reject His people. (Panuitia hoki: I whakakahoretia e te Atua mai i te tini o nga hahi).
The people would no longer be a priest to God, since the people didn’t live according to the law and didn’t walk in His commandments, but had forgotten the law of their God. No reira, God would forget their children (anauys).
The more sons would be born in the land, the more they would sin against the Lord, since they did not walk in His will. No reira, God would change their glory into shame.
Many churches have become unfaithful and committed adultery
But don’t we see the same thing happening around us? When we look at the state of God’s people and look at the state of the Church; Te tinana o te Karaiti, don’t we see the same things taking place in the Church?
The fear of the Lord is gone. Faithfulness is hard to find. Te love for God is waxed cold. The knowledge of God and His Word are gone and God’s commandments are rejected.
God’s truth has been turned into lies. And the sin (karakia whakapakoko, moepuku, moepuku, living together pōro mōhio, puremu (whakarere), teka, tāhae, kohuru (whai wāhi materoto, euthanasia, whakamomori, etc.) abounds and is tolerated and approved in the church.
It is obvious that all these things happen in the world, since the ungodly (te kino) have rejected God’s Word and don’t want anything to do with God. Therefore they live in darkness, I roto i te hara, and do those evil things, ko te mea whakarihariha ki te Atua.
They don’t know Jesus Christ and don’t serve God, but they serve their flesh by obeying their carnal will, tīweka, me nga hiahia.
And as the end approaches and wicked increase, sin will increase and as a result, the bloodshed shall come over the earth, and the earth and all there is within shall languish.
But Christians shouldn’t live like the world, since they don’t belong to the world and the ruler of darkness, but through regeneration in Jesus Christ, they belong to God the Father. A ano, we see the same things happening in many churches.
Why many churches are destroyed for lack of knowledge
We see the same things that are happening in the world happening in many churches. Rite noa, these things happened in the land of God’s people, only due to lack of knowledge.
He maha nga Karaitiana, including many leaders of the church, have a lack of knowledge, which means they have a lack of God’s knowledge and therefore they have a lack of spiritual insight and are not familiar with His will.
They don’t have the Spirit of God and don’t discern the spirits, but they have the spirit of the world, whereby they do the same works, have the same lifestyle, and bear the same fruit as the world.
They have not separated themselves from the world and are not faithful to God, but they are world-like and have rejected the words of God and His knowledge and His will and exchanged them for the carnal knowledge and words of man, which derive from the carnal mind that is controlled by the ruler of the world, and satisfy the will of the carnal man. (Panuitia hoki: Me haere tahi te Paipera me te Pūtaiao?).
They have not submitted themselves to God and are not led by what the Word of God says, but they are led by what the world says, and by what their feelings, kare-a-roto, and human intellect say, and because of that they don’t walk in the Truth but in lies.
And so God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Due to the fact that they don’t listen to God and are not willing to yield to Jesus Christ; the Word and do His will and keep His commandments and don’t want to remove the sins from their lives and from their midsts, but reject His words and commandments, God has rejected them and has given them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, and delights in sin and approve of sin and supports those who habitually live in sin, whereby sin and iniquity shall increase instead of decrease (Panuitia hoki: He aha te hinengaro whakataka?).
Rīpenetā, kua tata hoki te rangatiratanga o te rangi
Let the church not make the same mistake as God’s people in the Old Covenant. Let the church not deny Jesus Christ and reject Him by rejecting the words of God and His commandments. But let the church return to God and His Word and let the Word of God be the highest authorty in the church.
It’s not about what the world says, it’s not about what your feelings and your emotions say, it’s not about your opinion, it’s not about your findings and what you want, but it’s all about what God says in His Word! (Panuitia hoki: Ehara i taku whakaaro, Engari ko to whakaaro).
Jesus Christ is the Head of His Church and every local church that refuses to submit to the Head and don’t obey His words and don’t keep His commandments, don’t belong to Jesus Christ.
No reira, repent and remove the sins from your life and renew your mind with the Word of God, so that you will get to know the will of God and walk in His will.
Let the Word be the highest authority in your life and become a doer of the Word, so that you will not be destroyed for lack of knowledge, but shall stand.
'Kia tote mo te whenua’
