Disobedience & Destruction

This week we will continue to move through the book of Hosea. Beginning in chapter 4, we are faced with an extended section that deals with sin and judgment. Our tendency might be to skim over these difficult passages, or maybe to skip them altogether. But why is understanding Israel’s sin important for us today? How do we think about our own sin in light of God’s perfect holiness? Our prayer is that thinking seriously about sin will bring us to repentance, and that repentance reminds us once again of the tender mercy of God.  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; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

Hosea 4:1-3