Hosea 4:6-11

A Lack of knowledge -- Hosea 4:6-11: Religious ignorance is always sad. This is especially true when people have had the opportunity to know what is right. These people and these priests were destroyed because they had neglected knowledge. God said, "Now I will reject you and forget your children, because you have forgotten my Law." "No one is as blind as he who will not see, nor deaf as he who will not hear." Israel's priests rejected the knowledge of God and the knowledge of His word. The result of their rejection was that God likewise rejected them.

Good judgment would say that the more priests you have the better the people will be. Sadly the more numerous the priests and the people of God became the more they increased their ungodliness. Instead of trying to help the people avoid sin the priest encouraged them to sin. This allowed them to stuff themselves on their sin offerings. "They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity."

God treated both the people and the priest alike when He sent the promised punishment upon Israel. They were all to blame for the sinful condition of the nation. Jeremiah described this mutual guilt saying, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" (Jeremiah 5:31) The punishment included eating but not being satisfied, and having sex through whoredom but not being able to produce children. This would be devastating to a nation that depended on and bragged about physical strength. The people gave themselves up to revelry, lust and drunkenness. They left God out of their thinking.