“my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. ‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.”
~ Hosea 4:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you a narcissist? Kids who are growing up on planet Earth today are being described as being narcissistic. A Greek myth has it that there was once a young guy who became so in love with the young guy who he saw in his reflection that he spent the rest of his life obsessing about and pining for that young guy. Do you love yourself? Are you one hundred percent happy with how God has designed and hardwired you? Being in love with oneself is very different than being one hundred percent happy with how God has designed and hardwired you. Being in love with oneself is being narcissistic. Narcissism has pervaded mankind from the moment that Adam bit into a fruit that a beautiful snakelike creature had convinced Eve that it was fine to eat – which God had very clearly instructed Adam that he was not to eat, to today. Since the time when God had Adam and Eve living on planet Earth – which was over 5,000 years ago, planet Earth has been filled with all kinds of vain, egotistical, self-absorbed, conceited and selfish guys, gals and kids – with each guy, gal or kid thinking that he or she is the center of why planet Earth exists today and that everything that exists on planet Earth is revolving around him or her. Do you have any idea of what happens to a guy, gal or kid when the guy, gal or kid thinks that he or she is the absolutely most important guy, gal or kid who is living planet Earth? When a guy, gal or kid falls in love with himself or herself by the way that he or she looks and/or by the way that he or she thinks and/or by the way that he or she is able to do things, this guy, gal or kid is on a very slippery slope to pouting, sulking, brooding, bitterness and self-destruction. Is obeying your dad and ma, helping other kids and spending time with God always evident in what you say and do or is obeying your dad and ma, helping other kids and spending time with God being totally overridden by your inner ego as to what it wants to be and do?
Hosea was asked by God to deliver a message from Him to the guys and gals who He had chosen to be His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, who had become narcissistic. God had led His specially chosen guys, gals and kids to where He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – who were the forefathers of the Israelite people group’s nation of guys, gals and kids, that their extended families – descendants, would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . by the time that God’s unfolding plan had Hosea on the scene, God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, had compromised their new belief paradigm – which God – through Moses, had given to them along with the Ten Commandments. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had allowed themselves to become influenced by a belief paradigm that was being observed by the Canaanite people group’s guys and gals. The Canaanite people group’s guys and gals were on God’s list of enemy people groups of His specially chosen guys and gals. Hosea – in Hosea 4, begins to really focus on the involvement that God’s specially chosen guys and gals had with the Canaanite people group’s guys and gals. Because he had been told by God to marry a prostitute – a prostitute being a gal who has illicit relationships with different guys to make money, Hosea married Gomer. God had Hosea marry Gomer so that Hosea could use the marriage that he had with Gomer as a visual of what God’s specially chosen guys and gals were doing when they were compromising their new belief paradigm by opting to worship a different belief paradigm than the belief paradigm that God was expecting them to adhere to as His specially chosen guys and gals. What God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals as a new belief paradigm to be obeyed was designed to worship only Him versus a belief paradigm that was centered on worshiping dumb, inanimate idol gods handmade from wood, stone or metal.
Hosea was asked by God to deliver a message from Him to the guys and gals who He had chosen to be His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, who were now into using disparaging language when they talked about God, who were now lying to give them a ‘one up’ over other guys or gals, who were now not hesitating to kill another guy or gal if . . . who were now stealing from other guys and gals as a way of life and who were now getting caught up in different illicit relationships. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had even gone to burning their kids on altars as a sacrifice to a god who was nothing more than a dumb, inanimate chunk of wood or piece of rock or molded animal form. As God watched His specially chosen guys and gals turn from the belief paradigm that He expected them to faithfully and obediently follow to a belief paradigm that . . . God had the land where He was allowing His specially chosen guys and gals to live to dry up so that the land would be unusable. God also had the animals, birds and fish that inhabited the land die. Verse 6 states the culprit for the abject failings of God’s specially chosen guys and gals, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. ‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.” God’s priests were failing God by not teaching God’s specially chosen guys and gals knowledge of God. Is it possible that preachers are failing God today by not teaching God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids knowledge of God? If it is true that today’s kids are now more self-indulgent, self-centered and narcissistic, it may be because today’s church leaders everywhere around planet Earth are more focused on having power, prestige and position than they are about teaching truth about God. To not live a life for God is a recipe to be burned in God’s ire.
Hosea 4 (419)