My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge – Hosea 4:6 properly understood
Many people, including professing Christians, use the words of the prophet Hosea in 4:6:
“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (ESV)
This bible verse is often (mis)quoted by those looking to enforce their own agendas, theories or plans and it is also used to motivate or scare others into learning something new about a situation.
It is true that people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. But what does that actually mean?
First of all, as a basic rule when trying to understand the scripture, we need to understand the words of the Hosea in its proper context.
Hosea was a prophet instructed by God to marry a prostitute and have children with her. The names of the children then communicated a specific message of God to the people of Israel. God had viewed their ongoing rejection of Him and their continuous following of idols as adultery against Him. He had made a covenant with Israel and they were not keeping their part of it.
In the story, Hosea’s wife Gomer leaves him and continues her immoral activities. Hosea is then instructed by God to buy her back as his wife. It is this act by which God illustrates His mercy to His people and His faithfulness to His covenant with them, despite their unfaithfulness. In the rest of the book, there is a continuous plea by the prophet for the people to return to their God, and there is a love declaration by God to His people while at the same time a proclaimed judgment against them because of their sins.
Then the accusation comes in chapter 4.
It starts with Hosea 4:1:
“Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.”
God then lists their wrongdoings and makes it clear that they can’t blame anyone else for His anger and His rejection of them.
Then in verse 6 He says:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
It’s clear that the people have rejected knowledge in verse 6 and in verse 1, and even in verse 12, where it says they inquired of a piece of wood instead of God himself.
The people of Israel are not just rejecting knowledge (as in information), but they are specifically rejecting the words of knowledge given by God. The same kind of language is used in verse 6 where knowledge almost seems to be addressed as a person.
To understand what this relates to, we need to look further in the book of Hosea. See chapter 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
The knowledge of God is what the prophet is looking for in the people of Israel.
How does scripture define wisdom?
Proverbs 1 speaks a lot about the wisdom of God and speaks of wisdom as a person that moves, that calls out, and that people can respond to by either accepting or rejecting it/her.
Proverbs 1:22-25 speaks about a continuous rejection of God’s words, His counsel, His knowledge which really culminates in a rejection of Him.
How does the writer here define wisdom? Verse 7 shows us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
The fear of the Lord is to obey Him, follow Him and trust in Him.
How has God provided His wisdom and how do we accept and follow it/Him?
The apostle Paul makes it clear in 1 Cor.1:26-2:16 – specifically in verse 30:
“And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
Jesus, the Word of God (John 1;1,14), personifies the wisdom of God, the spoken and written words of scripture. To have wisdom means to embrace and receive and surrender to Christ as the revealed wisdom from God.
One thing we know for sure are Jesus’ words in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Clearly, you can (and will) perish by having lots of human, earthly knowledge without knowing the revealed wisdom from heaven – Jesus Christ. You won’t perish, however, if you have knowledge of Him, because you are saved and know Him as your personal Lord and Savior, promising you eternal life. You will perish on this earth and for eternity if your sins are not forgiven and if you have not believed in the wisdom of God – His Son, Jesus Christ.
We don’t have to know everything to be fully equipped to handle every new thing and every crisis that happens on this earth.
What and who we do need to know is Christ and Him crucified as Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:2 as he contrasts intelligent speech with the powerful gospel he proclaims.
The knowledge of God is for all who believe, not limited to smart people or those who have an intellectual understanding, but for all who put aside human wisdom and fully surrender their lives to Him.