Homilist Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you… I. IT IS DESTRUCTIVE. It is not the mother of devotion, it is the mother of destruction. 1. What does it destroy? The growth of the soul in power, beauty, and fruitfulness. 2. How does it destroy? How can the lack of a thing destroy? The lack of heat and moisture will kill the vegetable kingdom; the lack of air will cause the extinction of all animal life. The soul without knowledge of God is like a plant without heat or moisture, an animal without the salubrious breeze. II. IT IS WILFUL. No culpability in a man being ignorant of some things. The knowledge of God comes to him whether he will or not. In nature, in reason, in intuitions of his moral being. Ignorance of God is a criminal ignorance. III. IT IS GOD-OFFENDING. He deals out retribution — 1. To themselves. 2. To their children.It is a Divine law springing from the constitution of society, that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited on their children. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. |
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