A Way Out

 April 25, 2021

Whenever we imagine things have never been worse than they are today, a little history is helpful. In Hosea 4:1-3, Hosea looks around and sees a culture in decay. “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God; only cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery...They break all restraint, and there is bloodshed upon bloodshed.” If Hosea were alive today, he would be saying the very same things. As Solomon observed, “There is nothing new under the sun.” 

After describing the moral climate of the day, Hosea turns to the physical—the geologic and meteorological climate, but with a different perspective than we se in today’s news. He speaks of climate change, but links it to the moral decline: “The land mourns, people waste away, animals die.” Our modern obsession with climate change cannot explain nor cure our planet’s problems, which according to Hosea, are more spiritual and moral than physical.  Until we clean up our lives and culture, things will only get worse.

We are enamored with education, which unfortunately, has become polarized and politicized by media and politicians. We are told how we need to educate ourselves about these matters, but when people do so in a way that crosses the cultural narrative, the quest for knowledge is cut off at the knees. Hosea anticipates this as he says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...they have rejected knowledge, ignored the truth” (v.6). Knowledge is good unless we know a bunch of things that aren’t true.

There is good news in all this, however. At the end of the chapter (v. 15), he says, “Though you commit adultery, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty.” Israel was the northern kingdom that had originally been united with Judah under David and Solomon. A separate nation for generations, they plunged headlong into idolatry right from the start. Hosea speaks to his people in Judah. We don’t have to follow the evil and ill-advise ways of those around us. God in Christ gives freedom.