The people of Israel are not acknowledging God, and whilst they bear some responsibility, God plants the main blame squarely at the door of the religious and political leaders.

Read Hosea 4: 4-9

Leadership has very little to do with demanding that people do what you say. Primarily, it has to do with living as an example and backing up your life with teaching that helps others do the same. Example and teaching are the twin foundations of sound leadership.

The priests of Israel were messed up on both counts. They lacked in their personal relationship with God, by ignoring what they knew to be his way of doing things. They sold-out to idols to maintain their popularity and place in society. They actually rejoiced when people sinned, because they knew it would benefit them when the people brought their sin-offerings to the temple. If our leaders are dependent on the people they work with for their income, they will often be loath to upset them with confrontation and hard words. The same is true for political leaders with limited accountability… they get their pay regardless of their morality and competence, at least until the next election.

The priests were also clearly failing to teach the Torah, the law, otherwise the people would be aware of how far they were all slipping from God’s way.

Because of the failure of the leaders to lead by example and teaching, everyone was suffering.

So leaders are always the first to be scrutinised when things are going wrong. But here’s the thing…most of us exercise leadership in one sphere of influence or another, be it small or large, family, work or church, we all have responsibility as leaders somewhere. Are our example and teaching up to the task?

Pray for the people God has given you to lead. Pray that you will lead in such a way that they see your Godly lifestyle and want to find out how they too can live that way.

Remember God’s grace. God can use flawed leaders if their hearts are for him…remember leaders like Moses, King David and the apostle Peter, who all had major flaws but were still called, equipped and used by God.

Knowing all about God is one thing. Acknowledging who God is, and living as if your life depended on it is another thing entirely.

Read Hosea 4: 1-3

One of the problems for modern translators of the scriptures is that they do not live in the time or the culture of when the scriptures were written, and Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek are not their first languages. The English language often limits the richness of meaning of words in the original language and culture of the time. Generally translators are forced to choose one meaning of a word from many possibilities, and this may reflect their own theology and preferences as much as what the original actually means.

The Hebrew word ‘yada’ is one example. We find it in verse 1 of Hosea 4, where it is translated ‘knowledge’. And we immediately have a problem…

To most of us in the 21^st century western world knowledge is about knowing facts. However, as the OT scholar John Goldingay writes, “The Hebrew word for know implies that you’re recognising something by the way you live, not merely that you’re aware of some fact.”

One of the downfalls of Western, evangelical theology is that all too often it has been reduced to a set of facts about God, Jesus and Salvation. What often follows is that as long as you can tick off all the right things that you ‘believe’ (another word with richer meaning than we often give it) you must be in…in other words knowing about God often subtly replaces the original meaning of ‘yada’…to acknowledge something to the point that it affects your whole way of living.

Israel, God says through Hosea, knows all the facts about him, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they live. The people are breaking just about all of the Ten Commandments (verse 2), making life pretty bad for themselves. God also seems to say that human sin directly affects the natural world, spoiling the good and beautiful creation that God has made.

One of the promises of hope and restoration that God makes in Hosea 2: 20 is that Israel will finally know him in the ‘acknowledge him’ sense, and will live as if he is their Lord. God says:

Hosea 2: 20
“I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.”

Jesus had something to say about this too, in the story of the Wise and Foolish Builders in Luke 6: 46-49.
“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? [47] I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. [48] It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. [49] But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”

It’s not what you know but what you do as a result that makes you a follower of Jesus.

Rock or sand…what are your foundations like?

RECONCILED – REDEEMED – RESTRICTED – RESTORED…a prophetic picture of God’s constant and unchanging love for the people of Israel…and for each one of us too.

Read Hosea 3: 1-4

This is pretty amazing stuff. We return to the story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife, Gomer. By this time she seems to be in a whole lot of trouble…for some reason she has sold herself into slavery. God instructs Hosea be reconciled to her, to redeem her and to have her back in his home as his wife. When she comes home a restriction is placed on her…she is to abstain from sex for a while; maybe like an addict she needs to be removed from the thing that has enslaved her mind and attitudes – a sort of spiritual detox – before she can be whole again. This is not conditional love…it’s about healing and restoration for the relationship.

RECONCILED – REDEEMED – RESTRICTED – RESTORED…a prophetic picture of God’s constant and unchanging love for the people of Israel. God promises they too can be reconciled to God, that he will redeem them from exile, a time when their lives will be restricted by the absence of king, temple, priesthood and religious practices and they will long to be restored to their relationship with God as his people.

And it’s also a picture of what Jesus has done for the people that make up his church, redeeming them from slavery to a sinful life and restoring them to a full relationship with the God who loves them.

Is there someone you need to be reconciled to, someone to whom you need to show the same restoring love that Jesus showed to you?

Ask God to help you to love that person. Ask what that ‘love’ might look like. Consider the possible cost of loving that person in the way God wants you to.

If it’s possible, take the first steps towards renewing the connection and restoring the relationship.