Hosea 6:1-11

Is there someone you’ve been following on Instagram for so long you feel like you know them personally? You could name all of their kids; you know what their house looks like, what happened to them last summer, and what their vacation plans are. It sounds weird to know all of these things about a person and not know them in real life, but such is the nature of social media.

But I think, in a sense, we do the same thing with God. We read about him, we talk to our friends about him, maybe even go to church and learn about him, but do we really know him?

In chapter six of Hosea, God is fleshing out his frustrations with the Israelites, and one of his biggest arguments against them is that none of them really knows him. He tells them their “love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away (Hosea 6:4, ESV). In essence, they act like they love him, but when really tested in the heat of the moment, that love disappears. It’s conditional. If they truly knew God, however, that love would last.

Just a few verses later, God tells him what he wants from them:

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (6:6).

This might have come as a bit of a shock to those Old Testament Israelites. I mean, just read a few pages in the Old Testament and it looks like everything is about sacrifice and the Law. But God is telling them it’s not actually about their works. He wants their hearts. He wants a relationship with them. He wants to be known by them!

The word knowledge here is the same word used for the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Creation story in Genesis. When Eve took the bite of the fruit, she gained a total understanding of the things she had been innocent of before. She understood fully how far she could go not only in goodness but in evil. Shame was introduced into Adam and Eve’s world when they had a full understanding of both good and evil. In other words, the knowledge being spoken of here and in Hosea is a TRUE understanding, not just a reference point.

So why does God want his people to know him with this deep level of understanding? Because he knows that when we truly know who he is, we cannot help but love him, and that love forms the foundation for true faith and obedience, which leads us to righteous living and true love in action. And then it becomes a cycle. When we live righteously and love the way God intended, it spurs us to love him even more, to want to know him more, which leads to deeper faith and obedience. See how that works?

True love seeks to know and understand the source of Love. It’s not works that give us knowledge of God, but love. God didn’t want a “morning cloud” kind of love from his people. He wanted them to reflect the love he had for them, steadfast and lasting.

And he wants the same for you, my friend! He wants you to experience that love and to come to a full knowledge of who he is, so that you cannot help but want to stay in a faithful relationship with him. Why? Because he loves you so much!!

So go out, and be bold in that love today!