Lack of Knowledge?

“Cut off are my people for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have ignored the instructions of your God, I also will ignore your children.” (Hos 4:6)

This is an interesting verse, used many times in various ways to promote one idea or another.

We want to take a moment and look more closely at this passage, and specifically the word ‘knowledge’.

Many of our brothers and sisters today are drowning in a sea of ‘information’. We need and must have the Right Hand of our Father, Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth that came in the flesh, by and through the work of the Holy Spirit, to reach down and raise us above this overwhelming flood.

Isaiah 5:13 and Hosea 4:6 both speak of ‘suffering of the people due to a lack of knowledge’. The ‘knowledge’ spoken of in these passages is not mere ‘information’. It is the Hebrew word ‘da’at’, which comes from the Hebrew root ‘yada’- to know. This word carries the connotation of personal knowledge on a deep and intimate level. It is the same word used in Genesis 4:1, ‘And the man knew (yada – had knowledge of) Eve his wife, and she conceived and brought forth . . .’ We all need and must a relationship with our Father; a spiritual version of the deeply intimate relationship that exists between a husband and wife; a relationship that ‘conceives and brings forth life’. And this relationship with our Father can only come through Messiah Yeshua.

The type of knowledge spoken of in Isaiah and Hosea relates to a deeply personal and intimate relationship (a knowing) with our Father Creator YHVH (and no one comes to the Father except through The Son). And because His people have ignored Him, they are ‘cut off’ because of that lack of personal relationship. But how do we ‘ignore’ the Creator of the Universe? I mean, He’s always right in front if us. All creation declares His Glory. So how do we come to the point that we don’t ‘see’ The One Who is everywhere?
Well, we get enamored with facts and figures and traditions and customs and trappings and our own agenda and, and, and . . . and all of a sudden we find ourselves paying attention to everything but the Prize set before us. And because we have lost that first love and become occupied with the wrappings and the box, we miss the Gift inside and are ‘cut off’ by our lack of intimate relationship.

You see, doing ‘things’ does not establish relationship. Whether one is Messianic, Baptist, Charismatic or Confused, doing ‘things’ does not give us relationship with our Heavenly Father. It doesn’t matter if you eat clean and observe Sabbath or teach Sunday school and sing in the choir or lay on hands and cast out demons. Necessary is the personal acceptance and personal confession of the death, burial, resurrection and 1st ascension of Yeshua/Jesus. Necessary is the personal acceptance and confession that He IS the Promised Messiah and that God raised Him from the dead. Then and ONLY then do we have the opportunity for that intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father YHVH. At that point is when we are to do ‘things’ (hopefully the things He has instructed and requested) because we love Him and want to please Him, because we are now related to Him by Blood – The Blood of The Lamb. ‘For this is the love of God, that we keep His commands, and they are not a burden.’ (John 5:3)

There would not exist a very good relationship between a husband and wife if there were no daily communication and interaction. It would not be a good marriage if the only time we spoke was when there was a want or need by one from the other. There would not exist the strong bond needed for the marriage to prevail if we failed to listen or respond to one another’s voice. It is the same with our Father. We must not only talk to Him, but listen to Him daily. We must lavish our praise on Him and show by our actions that we believe He is worthy of our praise, adoration and service. This is all part of this relationship, and it only can exist through Yeshua and the work of the Holy Spirit on and in our hearts.

There is another thought that comes to mind as we look at the words. In the Hosea passage, it also speaks of being ‘a priest to Me’. We must ask ourselves, was He speaking specifically to the Levites and the sons of Aaron, or is there another priesthood to which our Father is making reference and has called us to?

So what’s The Word say?
‘And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation’ (Exo 19:6)
But you, a chosen generation (aggregate of many of the same nature), a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;’ (1Pe 2:9)

We are not all of the Levitical line, but every born-again believer in Messiah Yeshua is of the higher, eternal priesthood of Melchizedek,The One Who Is Yeshua/Jesus. Once we have been grafted in, we are no longer ‘cut off’ as it were, but rather now we ‘know God or are known by God’ (Gal 4:9) by the work of our High Priest Who gave Himself for us on the cross of Calvary. It is and always has been about relationship . . . relation-ship . . . to be related.

There are only two methods by which I can be related to a parent or as a parent. That relation-ship comes either by a blood and water birth, or by adoption. As children of the Most High, we are granted relation-ship by both methods. For by the Spirit of Adoption we can now cry ‘Abba Father’ and be heard, because the payment for the adoption and ‘First-Born’ privilege is made in full by the broken Body and shed Blood of The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

‘To the making of many books there is no end, and excessive study is weariness to the flesh.’ (Ecc 12:12)
‘There has never been a law written that will make a man righteous before God.’(Gal 3:11)
‘For no one comes to the Father, except by the Son.’ (John 14:6)
‘And when He (The Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Of sin, because they do not believe in Me;’ (John 16:8-9)
‘And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;’ (Eph 5:18)