The lack of knowledge spoken about is not actually that they are missing information. This verse is similar to the proverb above. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. I think the reason Hosea 4:6 is often misunderstood is because the minor prophets are neglected in general, and evidently many don’t take time to read it in context. This verse has nothing to do with having a vision for your life, or business, or a plan, or being able to communicate it well to others. When God’s word is not being faithfully taught so that people understand its claim on their lives, they cast off restraint-they give themselves over to sin unrestrained. “Blessed is the one who keeps the law.” (ESV) The prophets always pointed God’s people to the Law and called them to repentance. The meaning becomes clearer if we look at the second half of the verse. “ Vision” was speaking of “prophetic vision” – the revealed Word of God being proclaimed to them. Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. A quick look at any other English translation makes the meaning much more clear. Maybe the reason Proverbss 29:18 is easily misunderstood is that most are familiar with the King James Version of it which is, frankly, unhelpful to us today. These two often quoted statements warn of serious danger so we must take them seriously. No! They need to get out of the building! Not eating is a danger, but that isn’t the danger the fire alarms warns about. No one would think it harmless to teach children that when they hear a fire alarm it means they are in danger of not being able to eat for 2 days so whatever food they can find they should eat it as fast as they can. It doesn’t take much more than a casual reading of either of these verses to realize that, in the words of the fictional character from The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya, “You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.” Since the warnings of these verses are about death and destruction, it is of the utmost importance that we know what they are really saying. I Don’t Think It Means What You Think It Means This can be used to promote everything from reading and education to selling the latest self-help, self-achievement programs. If a lack of knowledge brings destruction, then the more knowledge, the more power one has to succeed. The second props up the notion that knowledge is power. If you cannot, you will perish (usually taken to mean that you will flounder around in the mundane existence of an average person rather than achieving your full potential). The first is used to bolster the notion that if you can only envision it, or if you can communicate such a vision so that others see it clearly also, then you can achieve anything. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Almost always quoted from the King James Version of Proverbs 29:18, as here.) And, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) These two platitudes are used to support, and even lend Christian legitimacy, to two leading aspects of our world’s philosophy today. Two such cliches are similar and often used together. I say, “create them,” despite the fact that we are quoting from something written long ago, because we use them with an entirely different meaning than what was intended long ago. My observations tell me that Christians are often no different. We love snappy sayings and enduring epigrams.
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