BECAUSE THEY LACK UNDERSTANDING
Key verse 4 :6
God calls for a case against His people. The
words : ignorance, wasting away , ignominy and prostitution are frequently
repeated in this text. This reveals the spiritual condition of His people. Nowadays
the World is turning 100 times faster that it did a century ago. However, its
inhabitants are not as wise as those who were around a century ago. Where is
our World going ?
1. They will perish as they lack understanding (1-10). Israel gives itself over to prostitution and it rallies itself with idols that have no value before God. The
Israelites offer quite a number of sacrifices and the appoint a number of
priests but in reality they give their real devotion to the idols on the
mountain tops. Given their compromised lifestyle, Bethel (The House of the
Lord) has become Beth Haven (The House of nothing) (15). The country is filled
with wickedness and violence. Their morality is so degraded that one cannot
even find someone who is faithful and loyal. Everbody each other and curse each
other. God pronounces His sentence upon them : they will all die. They
forgot God's law and that's why they have become so ignorant. They however
pretend to be wise and because of this they have become mad. They have
remplaced God's infaillible glory with that of and beasts who are faillible
creatures (Rm 1 :23) However, they still aren't satisfied. God's judgement
will fall on them all at once (5,9).
2. Their double life exposed (11-19)
Their lifestyle is luxurious,
adulterous and excessive. The sons and the daughters have become corrupted due
to their mothers' influence. From generation to generation they have become
more and more corrupted. They seeks wisdom from trees and they speak to their walking
sticks. Then during the festive periods they go into the sanctuary and offer
sacrifices to God and they do this with they concubines (14). They carry these offerings
to God in order to ease their consciences. However, God says that He will not
work in their favour and thus their daughters and their step-daughters will all
perish. They ought to be ashamed of these offerings as even though they are
numerous they aren’t worth anything because of their double lifestyle. Their
confession « God is alive » (15) is just a meaningless saying like
« the good God loves us » that many say today. The most important thing
before God is when we live according to His Word (Rm 12 :2). The prophet,
knowing the destruction that sin produces, hopes that at least the nearby
country Juda will be saved (15).
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