![]() ![]() Therefore you shall stumble in the day: It’s bad enough to stumble in the night, but at least we can understand it. So don’t waste your time trying to contend or rebuke them yourself.”ī. The idea is “They won’t listen to the priest, but they contend with him instead. This helps to explain the opening of the verse: Now let no man contend, or rebuke another. But because the people cast off the knowledge of God, truth, mercy, and restraint, they wouldn’t listen to the priests, and they contended with them instead. ![]() Your people are like those who contend with the priest: In passages like Deuteronomy 17:9-12, God clearly commanded His people to listen to and submit to the priests, who would lead and help the people with the Word of God. I also will reject you from being priest for Me īecause you have forgotten the law of your God,Ī. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night “Now let no man contend, or rebuke another įor your people are like those who contend with the priest. (4-8) The corrupt and ineffective leadership of the priests. “Paul probably had Hosea’s chapter in mind as he penned his own indictment of the gentile nations (cf. Satan sings sweetly to us, making us think or hope that casting these things away is a doorway to freedom – but it is only a path to destruction. Everyone who dwells there will waste away: This is the tragic fruit of forsaking the knowledge of God, truth, mercy, and restraint. In the ancient Hebrew, this is literally “bloody deed touches bloody deed.” “Apparently violent crimes had become so common that one seemed immediately to follow another, as if touching it.” (Wood)ĭ. The ultimate result is bloodshed after bloodshed. You should only restrain yourself if you want to. The message is the same: You make your own rules. You see it in advertising slogans of the recent past: Our modern age is completely set against the idea of restraint. When man will not or cannot restrain himself, bloodshed and destruction follow. Soon, truth and mercy are things of the past, and people no longer practice restraint. They break all restraint: It all connects back to leaving the knowledge of God. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.”Ĭ. Or knowledge of God in the land: Alexander Pope, a famous writer, once wrote: “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan the proper study of mankind is man.” But an even more famous writer, Charles Spurgeon, responded to Pope’s statement: “It has been said by someone that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. ![]() Proverbs 9:10 says, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. True wisdom and understanding always begin with the knowledge of God. Truth must be rooted in something more than personal opinion, and mercy means going beyond self-interest. When people forsake the knowledge of God, soon truth and mercy are both gone. ![]() There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land: Each of these three points is connected. It is Jehovah versus Israel and Judah.”ī. Adam Clarke on brings a charge: “What we should call a lawsuit, in which God is plaintiff, and the Israelites defendants. The LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: As if Yahweh brought Israel into a court of law, God here described the charges against disobedient Israel. Killing and stealing and committing adultery,Īnd everyone who dwells there will waste awayĮven the fish of the sea will be taken away.”Ī. (1-3) A statement of the charge: Israel’s sin and God’s remedy.įor the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ![]()
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