Let’s Talk Legacy—Our Choices Affect Our Children
Most believers know, have heard, can quote the beginning of Hosea 4:6—“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” What most believers don’t realize is that Hosea 4:6 doesn’t end there. Through the prophet Hosea, God goes on to say to His people, “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” What this scripture poignantly points out to us is that our choices affect our children.
In Hosea 4:6, God makes it crystal clear what the consequences are for His people to be without knowledge—their destruction. God doesn’t say His people are hindered or tripped up a little because of their lack of knowledge. No, He says they are destroyed. Then God explains how His people end up in a place where they are without knowledge. They don’t end up in this place through happenstance; it’s through their willful acts of disobedience. God says that His people lack knowledge because they “reject” knowledge. It’s not that knowledge isn’t available to them. The problem is that God’s people refuse to receive knowledge. They deliberately push away knowledge. Later in that same verse, God says that His people have “forgotten” the law of God. What that means is that they choose to ignore the knowledge that is set before them. This rejecting and forgetting of knowledge comes at a grave price.
God says that because His people lack knowledge, reject knowledge, forget knowledge, God Himself would reject not just His people, but their children as well!!! Hosea 4:6 demands that parents acknowledge that our actions have consequences that reach beyond just us. Our sinful rejection of God, our deliberate disobedience to God, our stubborn rebellion against God’s Word impacts the lives of our children. Let his be a word of caution, not a word of condemnation. Check yourself. How ya living? What type of legacy are you leaving your children through your choices? Make whatever course corrections are necessary, understand that our choices affect our children.
