AP

Hosea 9:17 My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

What a warning there is in this for us today!  The Northern Kingdom of Israel (‘often referred to as ‘Ephraim’ after the younger son of Joseph, who became more prominent than his brother Manasseh in accordance with the blessing of their dying grandfather, Jacob – Genesis 48:8-22) was particularly disobedient to God’s word, having broken away from David’s royal lineage and followed the wicked ways of Jeroboam, whom they had made their King in place of Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

Now, some two centuries later, they were still ignoring God’s word and refusing to conform to its teaching – and were about to suffer the dire consequences under God’s righteous anger, losing their way completely – ‘wandering among the nations [with all their Godlesss cultures]’!  The Apostle Paul would have had this sort of thing in mind when he warned the Church in Corinth: “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.  Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:11-14)

We now have God’s inspired, infallible Written Word readily available to us in countless forms, with countless commentaries equally available to us in order that we might gain a better understanding of it as a firm foundation for our lives.  So how dangerous it is when many professing ‘theologians’ in the Church today are fulfilling the prediction of the Apostle Paul to Timothy: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3); and that of the Apostle Peter “that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.  They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’  For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:3b-7)!

Let us, in all we think and do and teach, be committed to remaining faithful to every inspired ‘word’ from God as we have it, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, consistently with Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and all the other Reformed Confessions.

– Bruce Christian