[CS-FSLUG] TD: CS-BibleStudy: Hosea 4

[Brian Derr]

On Sun, Sep 05, 2004 at 10:42:19PM -0500, Timothy R. Butler wrote:
> Ice Breaker: If Hosea was alive today, how do you think he'd feel about  
> our society? What would you do to heed any warning he might give?

I think he may feel right at home.  According to God in verse 1 "for the
LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there
is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land."  Now I don't
know about you folks but I think that sounds almost exactly like us as a
nation and world.

Realizing how closely we as a people relate to Israel at the time this
was written might make my ears perk up.  We as a people do not believe
in truth, we believe that any path is the right one as long as it makes
you feel good.  We have no mercy.  Look at the situation in Russia a few
days ago.  Chechnyan rebels killed hundreds of children!  What a
cowardly thing to do.  Finally, we have no knowledge of God in our
lands.

> Study Questions:
> 
> 1.) What do you see as the most important part of this passage?

I think verse 6 is very important to pay attention to.  In Proverbs 1:7
it says: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools
despise wisdom and instruction."  Can we honestly look at ourselves as a
people and say that we can have any knowledge knowing that we don't fear
the Lord?  I'm speaking broadly here, I know that there are many, many
people across the globe that do fear the Lord and have knowledge and
widsom from God.

Back to verse 6, it states "My people are destroyed for lack of
knwledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject
thee..."  Knowing now that knowledge can only be present with the fear
of the Lord and that fools despise knowledge what does the make the
world.  A land of fools.  I don't particularly want to be foolish when
it comes to matters of eternity, nor be rejected by God for rejecting
knowledge.

> 2.) What do you suppose is meant by "I will not punish your  
> daughters..."? Won't everyone be punished acco to to Hosea?

The daughters will not be punished by God, their sin is punishment
enough.  The men, however, God does intend to punish because they are to
set the example of Godly living.  By committing whoredoms and adultery
themselves they can't tell the women to not do the same things.

This may or may not be an accurate answer to the question, I'm still
unsure what it is supposed to mean myself.

Brian

-- 
The just man walketh in his integrity:
his children are blessed after him.  -- Proverbs 20:7
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ofb.biz/pipermail/christiansource_ofb.biz/attachments/20040907/8a34e0b7/attachment.sig>