“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” - Hosea 4:6
The Necessity of True Knowledge
The above indictments are tremendously severe, and are, quite frankly, very frightening and alarming, as I’m sure they were to those to whom they were directed. The severity of these indictments, though, are certainly neither unfounded nor unjust. The context which surrounds the above quotation is Israel’s infidelity to the covenant made with them at Mount Sinai, wherein they received God’s holy law, and swore to obey it. In the first chapter of Hosea, God commands the prophet to take to himself “a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom,” for, “...the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD” (1:2). Hosea is to find a woman of harlotry, an adulterous woman, and is to marry her and to have children with her, for the purpose of forming an analogy of Israel’s infidelity toward the Husband of her covenant. Israel, God’s covenant people, had forsaken Him and “went after her lovers,” and had in turn forgotten the Lord (2:13). This rejection and abandonment of their covenant, and the God of that covenant, as the above indictments in Hosea 4:6 imply, began within the priesthood. As God states just two verses prior, His contention is with the priests of Israel (4:4), and yet, in verse nine of chapter four, God extends this contention beyond the priests to the people, stating, “And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.” The rejection of the knowledge of God and the forgetting of His law trickled down from the priests to the nation as a whole, and thus would result in God enacting His justice upon them in the form of the destruction of the land and the exile of the nation (5:13; 8:8, 9). This punishment would last, God asserts, “until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me” (5:15). It is directly following God’s assertion that Hosea exhorts and encourages the nation of Israel, saying,
“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” - Hosea 6:1-3
Hosea, in the face of God’s judgment, calls the nation to repent, to return to their God, and to press on toward knowing Him. For, God declares shortly afterward, “...I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (6:6). God’s desire is for His people to exhibit covenant faithfulness, or “steadfast love,” and instead of rejecting their knowledge of Him, and forgetting His law, to know Him truly, and to therefore obey Him. God does not desire only outward adherence to His holy standard, a bare obligatory servitude, but desires a love for and a knowledge of Him in the inward man (Rom. 7:22-23; 2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 3:16). The biblical witness supports the fact that faithfulness to God and true knowledge of His character are intimately related and are in fact inseparable. Where one exists, the other will be present, and where one is absent, the other will not be found. Therefore, because true knowledge of God is so crucial, it is important that we understand just what this true knowledge is, and what it is not, in order that we may, as God’s covenant people, “press on to know the LORD,” and to do so rightly, and in a way which is pleasing to Him (2 Cor. 5:9).
What True Knowledge Is Not
It is important in this brief study of the knowledge of God, that we distinguish true knowledge from what I will be referring to as “bare knowledge.” Bare knowledge of God is a mere knowledge of the facts of God’s character. For one to have a bare knowledge of something is simply for one to be able to compile a list of characteristics about that thing, and then to organize those characteristics in such a way as to make that thing definable. For example, one is exhibiting a bare knowledge of God when one asserts that God is an eternal, infinite, self-existent, and self-sufficient Being. Bare knowledge does not necessarily have to be exhaustive, and bare knowledge, by itself, does not constitute true knowledge. In fact, God in His word declares that all men, even the unregenerate, possess a bare knowledge of God. Paul, in Romans 1:18-23, declares that God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made...” (v. 20a-b). Paul says that God has made His existence and aspects of His character plain to all men, and has Himself shown these things to them (v. 19). The issue is that, as Paul states, unregenerate men “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (v.18b), and exchange the glory of God for idols (v. 23). These men, and the Israelites of Hosea’s day, had a bare knowledge of God, they knew Him factually, and yet they did not know Him truly. It must be understood, then, that a mere bare knowledge of the facts does not constitute a true knowledge of God. If bare knowledge alone does not, then what does?
What True Knowledge Is
In answering this, lest we draw mistaken conclusions regarding the distinction between “bare” knowledge and “true” knowledge, it should be made clear that just because bare knowledge does not constitute true knowledge, it does not follow that true knowledge is devoid of bare knowledge. On the contrary, true knowledge of God is filled to the brim with factual knowledge about God and His character, and is even strengthened and increased by those facts, but true knowledge goes further; true knowledge runs deeper.
Whereas bare knowledge is a strict informing of the mind, true knowledge takes what is in the mind and brings it to the heart and hands. True knowledge is affectionate and has “feet,” so to speak. True knowledge is salvific, and leads to eternal life (Jn. 17:3). True knowledge results in a love for God and neighbor (1 Jn. 4:7-12). True knowledge is filled with hope and confidence in God’s promises, and produces purity (1 John 3:2-3). And finally, true knowledge is the acquisition of Christian maturity, unity, and faith through belief in right doctrine and the right application of that doctrine (Eph. 4:11-16). True knowledge is taking bare knowledge (right doctrine), absorbing it, believing it, loving it, and living in light of it. It is crucial that we understand this thoroughly.
True Knowledge: Pressing Onward
In the beginning of the article we saw that a lack of knowledge, a lack of true knowledge, destroys. As we’ve progressed through the article, we’ve discovered that although bare knowledge is necessary, if found alone, it is not enough. True knowledge, salvific knowledge, is “bare knowledge,” which, by the regenerating power of the Spirit, is brought to bear in the heart, and then is applied to all of life. True knowledge is encountering God in His word, believing what one has encountered, and then applying it rightly. Therefore, if you and I are to live in accordance with the knowledge which we have received in Christ, it is important that we learn who God says that He is in His word, and that we live in accordance with what we know and learn of Him. May God, by His Spirit, grant us such gracious and joy-filled knowledge of Himself in Christ, in order that our joy may be made complete.
Soli Deo Gloria