Trtuh #243 - Our response to God's Word determines the frame of our lives - Hosea 8-14

Hosea 8:12
Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.

Truth:  Our response to God's Word determines the frame of our lives.

God is speaking through the prophet Hosea and telling Israel why He is destroying them.  They had forsaken His word and gone after man-made gods and worshipped silver and gold and power and prestige.   God is saying to them, in the above verse, it would not have matter if He would have given them 10,000 verses of Scripture, they would have not understood it and would have looked at it as a strange thing.   The word in this verse for "strange" is translated 70 times in the Old Testament and it is often translated as "foreign."   What God is saying in this verse concerns how they understood God and came to know Him and what HIs plan was for them.   God is saying that if He would have given them countless prophets, who wrote and spoke countless words the Word would have been foreign to them.    We might imagine traveling to another country, which speaks a different language.  Think of going to Russia and trying to navigate the world around you, only being able to speak English.  If someone spoke 10,000 Russian words to you,  you would still not know where the nearest restaurant would be located.  God is telling us that if we hope to have changed lives we must be able to properly respond to God's word.   Think of Josiah, the King of Judah, when they discovered the "law" while cleaning the temple.   It was like a new discovery.    Josiah brought reforms and repentance to the nation because he heard the Word and took it to heart.   He mixed the Word with Faith and the result was holiness and living for God.   In the passage above, God is showing what happens when His Word is heard but not mixed with faith ... it is as if God is speaking a foreign language.