Something To Look Forward To

A couple of Sundays ago, our Sunday Morning Life Group began a study of the Book of Hosea in the Old Testament.  This morning as I was reading in Hosea, a couple of verses jumped out at me.

In chapter 3 we read "the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household goods.  Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God......in the latter days." (Hosea 3:4-5 ESV).

Certainly it has been many "days", many hundreds of years since there was a king or a temple or priestly sacrifice in Israel.  But that's not what struck me about that verse.  It was the next sentence.  "Afterward".  "In the latter days".  "Seek the Lord their God."  That's what jumped out at me.

However, it's the next verse.....Hosea 3:6......that always grips at my heart every time I read it.  "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you......."  (Hosea 3:6 ESV).

That verse always makes me sad.  Sad for the people to whom it was originally written....the kingdom if Israel.  Sad because it could so easily have been written to the people of my own country, the United States of America.  Grieved in my heart because I live among a people who have rejected the knowledge of the Holy One, because we live in an era when every man does what is right in his own eyes.  In these really tough times, with trillion dollar deficits and fiscal cliffs and all sorts of other problems, everybody thinks they have the answer.  But more often than not, those "answers" are self-serving, focused more on reelection or on making more money or satisfying a political constituency than on what is right.  Because as a nation, we have rejected knowledge.

Thinking about that can be really depressing.  But there is hope!  There is something to look forward to!  There is coming a day when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea."  (Isaiah 11:9b ESV).

That's definitely something to look forward to!  But what do we do until then?
 
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people; training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age; waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.  Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority.  Let no one disregard you."  (Titus 2:11-13 ESV, emphasis mine)