Background
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Today’s study is a verse many love to quote the very first phrase. A verse we use implying the ignorance of people posing spirituality without applying the much-needed knowledge. However, when we regard the issue of the priesthood as part and parcel of the believer knowledge is extremely crucial. Let’s get into the Word…
Knowledge for priesthood
In the previous message on The Royal Priesthood, we learn from 1Peter 2:9 of how we have been called into a royal priesthood. As people of God we ought to reckon ourselves as priests to offer priestly sacrifices, how can we offer what we do not know? A priest is to be a custodian of the principles of God and embody the much-needed wisdom in honoring God. In the Bible, we realize that prophets were closely engaged with kings, to give them Godly counsel but mostly had to be in alignment to know what God is saying to His people, in a particular period. Hosea 4 was a rendition of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, they departed from the ways of God for pleasure and sorted to serve other gods. For that reason, the wrath of God was upon them.
In verse 4 of Hosea chapter 4, the Lord makes known his contention with the priests. As demonstrated in Deuteronomy 17:8-12 the authority of priests was very important, the Levitical priests and judges were set to judge the most grievous offenses and pronounce decisions and instructions, which were to be followed accordingly. This shows that priests were to be custodians of a level of knowledge and principles in God, to be able to carry out this mandate. Today’s duty of priesthood goes beyond the Levitical priests and stretches forth to everyone who has come to believe in God(Romans 9:25-26 & Hosea 2:23). Further to be noted in Deuteronomy was that the priest had to convey what God had said, in order to do so you need to know what God is saying. A priest without knowledge cannot offer the sacrifices as he ought to, pleasing to God.
Consistently seeking God
To know the things pleasing to God, we are to consistently be in alignment, in a place to constantly hear from Him and yearn to know Him. In the second verse of today’s study, Jeremiah 29:13, it takes diligence, consistency and hunger to know God. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. This verse leaves no gaps for ignorance, seeking and knowing God takes time and takes diligence (Read more on Intimacy with God has priority over an assignment ).
The desire of David in Psalms 27:4, is to seek and dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, in this, the Psalmist was confident that even in his affliction he sought to know God and to know his principles. The Psalmist was keen on meditating on the excellencies of the principles of God, Psalm 119 encapsulates how the principles of God makes a man, verse 9 and 105 entails how can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Fulfilling the will of God lies also in fulfilling His principles
John 4:34 Jesus said my food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Jesus walked upon the face of the earth, with one goal, the goal of fulfilling the will of God. Another point we note about Him, was how He walked in obedience even to death. The path to fulfilling the will of God is also obedience to His principles, had Jesus belittled the principles of God and not lived up to them, how could he have carried out the task of salvation? Only Him who was without sin was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus did not come to abolish the law but came to fulfill it(Mathew 5:17), for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. This is our advantage as priests in the order of the new covenant, nonetheless obedience to walk with the Spirit.
Luke 16:10 he who is faithful in what is least also is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. This chapter continues further in saying that if you have been unfaithful in unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust true riches. If we are unfaithful in walking diligently with God, how can He commit His great task into our hands?
Mathew 5:14 commends believers as the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Light brings visibility, and direction, light in the context of this verse, commends believers knowing the way, the right way, and the wisdom, the wisdom of the righteousness of God. With these, we ought to shine for the World to see our good works, to know from whom they derive, and to be drawn into that light.
My prayer is that you meditate on the verses and seek to understand with your heart.
