In Hosea 4 God brings His charges against Israel. There was no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. People had become apathetic and had forgotten about God.
Ignoring God and His Word brings problems to the world. God says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (V6). We see much the same in the world today. Paul warns us similarly in 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
Their choice to ignore God in disobedience resulted in idolatry and brought impending judgment on them (Hosea 5) because they walked by human precept (V11), the word of man and the wisdom of man. But Paul suggests in 1 Corinthians 3:19 that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
Instead of turning to God they sought out the pagan nations around them for help (V13). They mixed idolatrous acts in worship of God and thought they were right in doing so. But they sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7) and were unproductive.
And so, God was going to cast them away because of their disobedience and make them wanderers among the nations (Hosea 9:17).
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