PROMISCUOUS

One of the reasons I love to study the Bible is the amazing way God speaks to the times in which we live. Read what the prophet Hosea wrote to his countrymen sometime between 755 and 722 B.C. and see if his words speak to your nation.

Meditation

Hosea 4:1-14—Hear the word of the LORD, people of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land! Cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another. For this reason the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes, along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky; even the fish of the sea disappear. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge . . . They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply; for they have abandoned their devotion to the LORD. Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away [one's] understanding . . . For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray; they act promiscuously in disobedience to their God . . . People without discernment are doomed.

At the root of our vast national decline is our lack of knowledge of God. We have abandoned a thirst to know Him with a craving to please our flesh. The result of this headlong plunge into pleasure is the replacement of truth with lies, the betrayal of fidelity for unabated lust and ignorance of God whereby cursing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery paint the walls of our cities. Degenerate people cause the land and all that live in it to suffer. Instead of the proliferation of evil driving people to return to God, the opposite occurs—an insatiable appetite screams for worse. The liturgy of promiscuity worships with two key words, “Please me!” For flesh to be gratified, anything based on truth must be discredited and labeled as intolerant and wrong. The Creator is disobeyed and unwise people are doomed.

So what do we do when society manifests all the signs of a freefall to hell? Certainly, this is not the time for isolation. Seclusion results in obsolescence (no longer useful). Hosea did not hide in the hills when Israel was dying; he took God’s message to the streets. Certainly, this is not the time to fear, cowardice only reaps defeat. This is not the time to doubt. God’s omnipresence is not earth-exclusive nor is His power muted by fools. This is not the time for brotherly backbiting! Unity is essential wherever ignorance and wickedness speak. This is the time to run after God, to seek His presence and in living for Him enable others to see Him. This is the time to know God. Anything that scorns or disdains pursuing Him is promiscuous.

Inspiration

A beetle in dung thinks himself a king.—Paul Vithayathil in Proverbs and Wise Sayings