The Justification of Judgment
Text: Hosea 4:1-6 Date: 5-3-26
The nation is morally corrupt, spiritually bankrupt, and politically collapsing. The people had failed to follow the covenant, the terms, or the Maker of it.
**God is justified because there is no truth found among His people.
When truth disappears or is removed in a county, the citizens have no anchor to live by, no path to set their lives upon, nor any standard with which to guide the nation.
Truth is whatever God speaks or commands His people to follow. Truth is His directions, His laws, and His covenant stipulations.
Truth had not only been lost, it had been forsaken.
Truth is our guidebook. Truth leads us as we adhere to it. Truthfulness acts as stability in an otherwise unstable world.
As we love truth, we give light in this dark world pointing them to the Light of the world.
**God is justified because there is no mercy found among His people.
The word mercy (hesed) means loyalty, faithfulness, goodness, favor, loving-kindness.
This is God’s covenantal love for His people. They had rejected God’s loving–kindness.
**God is justified because there is no knowledge found among His people.
The people failed to acknowledge the God of the land. Why? Because the nation had rejected the knowledge shared with them by God.
He had blessed them with the knowledge of how to live, and He directed their paths. He loved them and taught them. He warned them when they strayed. He lovingly guided them back when they sinned. Yet they gave themselves over to following people, nations, and idols that were in direct opposition to God.
God had been merciful to the people in giving them His word. Of all the nations in the world that had the knowledge of God, it was the nation of Israel. God had revealed Himself through the Law, Moses, the prophets, and His Word.
The problem with the nation was not a lack of knowledge of God, but a lack of responding to that knowledge.
Israel had all the knowledge they needed, and they were about to be destroyed because they failed to take that truth they knew of God and how He felt about idols and apply it to their lives, and we are no different today.
God spells out the consequences for this grave lack of knowledge:
2. The justification of an abhorrent societal collapse (Hosea 4:2-4) – broken relationships
The knowledge of God had been turned into knowledge of multiplied wickedness.
Look at this list: cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery.
When God is forsaken, people become lawless, full of all sorts of evil, without boundaries to limit the extent of their sinfulness.
Where are the people and leaders to stand in the gap? Where are the truth-seekers and truth-protectors?
Due to their depravity, God the Judge would bring about a severe drought which would sweep over the land.
No one will be able to find fault in God’s indictment or His punishment. No one can bring a lawsuit against God for this isn’t His fault. No one can truly oppose God’s charges, for He is righteous and absolutely justified in His actions.
3. The justification of abominable prophets (Hosea 4:5) – broken leadership
Who were the people that led the nation in this path? God makes it clear that it wasn’t just the people or priests. This downfall and moral decay was led by false prophets. We know they were false for they contended against the true prophets and these people were condemned by the godly prophets.