The words of Hoshiyah 4:6 (Heb. God is Salvation) are as ox goads (Eccl. 12:11). It is a truth that humanity simply cannot handle; much as the words of God to Adam in Genesis are held in denial: “in the day you eat of it, you shall die.” Thus, bible interpreters have gone to extraordinary lengths to prop up their denial with some good arguments. The only problem is this: scripture is not susceptible to its own interpretation:
20knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from its own interpretation. 21for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2 Peter 1:20-21
Notwithstanding ingenious reasoning by human beings, one thing remains certain: these words are as true today in our context as they were in Israel in the 8th century BC. Nuancing the word “perish” or refocusing the word “knowledge” on knowledge of the physical world do not remove the sting of death.
We are destroyed, cut off, for our lack of knowledge – knowledge of God. We cease to be. And it is not knowledge of the world or the universe that is our problem. It is knowledge of God. Hosea begins this chapter and then reiterates in verse 6 that we are dealing with knowledge of God. No science of longevity can alleviate this primal cosmic wound. Christ Himself turned this statement around, thus confirming it and also pointing out the remedy:
And this is eternal life (aeonial life), that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.
John 17:3
The deeper question now presents itself – Do we believe this?
After all that the Lord did in the wilderness coming out of Egypt, did His people really believe His word? And with all that the Father manifested of His Name through Jesus Christ, and the further miracles of the early church, do His people believe?
The global pandemic is a perfect test of belief. There are dozens of scriptural pronouncements that are related to this set of events, and yet there are no strident voices supporting them in the Church. People would rather engage in conspiracy theories — contrary to the Lord’s express will in Isaiah 8:12-13 — than to look to the One who struck them, and return that they might be healed (Isa. 9:13). Believers on the right do not ascribe the plague to the right source — Amos 3:6 says that if there is evil in the city has not the Lord done it? Remaining in denial they do not recognize the judgment as the gift it is to correct our path, and thus they deny their Sin and are unable to return and be healed.
Believers on the left do not understand God’s way with evil and the mystery of iniquity, and they take refuge in the State and its science to deliver them. In so doing, they too, may succumb to the plague by refusing the offer of the One who has the true power to protect. Consider the following words of the psalmist and all they entail:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” . . .
For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.
Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-10
Really? Does anyone believe this? No one is talking about it, even though without faith it is impossible to please God. But the answer is: Yes! The anointed of Christ, His chosen ones actually do! They do Not retreat to Egypt to protect them.
But if anyone in the body of Christ says I take refuge in the Lord, I dwell in His shadow, and he will not allow a plague near my tent, well then both in the church and without, that person will be considered disconnected from reality. Because he or she will not retreat to the medical authority of the world and simply rely upon a Higher Power that can ACTUALLY heal all things, they can be declared mentally unstable or incompetent. That is how far the apostasy has gotten in the church — rebellion against the authority of God and His Anointed, and supplanting Him with another authority or power!
But can we get a confirmation on this truth? Isn’t a matter established at the mouth of two witnesses? It is indeed.
And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, “Come on out of her, that you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues.”
Revelation 18:4
And not knowing what Babylon is, and not knowing what her sins are, is precisely a function of not knowing God, and what He means by these Words, some of which are spiritual realities and some of which are metonyms. But the common denominator is that there is not much belief in the truth of the assertion.
If we take our heart and mind out of the homogenized polytheistic religion of this world, aka Babylon, we can be spared participating in her plagues. Believest thou this? Is God the author of hollow promises?
In fact, physical death, which is a shadow of perishing spiritually, can come to those who, by lacking in knowledge of God, are not able to listen to the Almighty, or to hear what He is saying. Listen to Hosea once more:
Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us. He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
Hosea 6:1-3
We are called to return to the Lord. To believe Him, to know Him, so that we may return and be healed.
This gives us a more biblically correct understanding of the purpose of the Lord’s judgement in the earth, and how the global pandemic, as one of his 4 sore judgements (Ezekiel 14), will be instrumental as the wounding that can lead to our healing.
God delights in knowledge of Him, rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6). And to love Him, is to begin to know Him. To know Him is to believe Him and to believe in His Christ. It is to trust in His Word, and to live by it — not to say it is impractical; that we need science to supplement His power. To understand God, we must begin with trusting Him and taking Him at His Word that His thoughts are beyond our thoughts.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
We cannot understand by reason alone the thoughts and ways of God. It requires the mind of Christ, the Spirit, to compare spiritual with spiritual. (1 Cor. 2:10-16) Apart from that Mankind cannot see how and why God works.
We are in a global pandemic, a plague. By God’s own disclosure, it is His responsibility.
Does evil come to a city, unless YHWH has done it?
Amos 3:6
But this confounds man’s natural sensibilities and understanding of God. The nations, and even the Israel of God does not comprehend the message we hear in Isaiah.
The people did not turn to him who struck them,
nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 9:13
This way of the Lord is clear, He disciplines all whom He would receive as children. He brings about judgement that we would learn righteousness. The people do not inquire. Of the Covid crisis, are the people inquiring of the Lord? Are they asking why it has come upon us, and what is asked of us?
We know what is asked. Repent and turn back so He might heal us and mold us into His righteousness.
He is the Lord our God;
Psalm 105:7
his judgments are in all the earth.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26:9
Yes, it is cystal clear, God’s thoughts are as the Heavens to the earth, with His being spiritual, and humanity’s largely focused on the material. The Divine Mind sees physical judgements as instructive, corrective, bringing back the wayward. Human beings see judgements as condemning and guilt producing and final, with no yield of righteousness.
Without this elementary knowledge of God, people will spiritually perish. They will not turn to the One who is striking them and be healed. They will not understand God’s ways and why he must chastise all whom He receives.
So the remedy for the problem which Hosea lays out, the dearth of knowledge of God, and its consequent wounding, is very simply given in chapter 6 by the same prophetic voice. We take these words from Hosea 6 cited above and take them in:
Come, let us return to the Lord. Let us press on to know the Lord. And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. We only know God when we seek Him, listen to Him, and trust His Word. Then we may indeed lay hold of His promises, and no plague will come near our tent. Amen