Year 6, Day 205: Hosea 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.
• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

As I read through Hosea 4, I hit a particular verse and it stuck with me.  What is it that God finds despicable about the Hebrew people of the northern kingdom of Israel?  It is simple: they have forgotten God’s laws.  But there is something really deep that we can get at if we delve into this.

Look at Hosea 4:7 closely.  The more they increased, the more they sinned against me.  Do you see the pattern of humanity?  The more we get, the more opportunity we have for sin within us.  This can be taken as a whole population, as God means it here.  The more people there are in a locale, the more kind of sin can be involved.  There is greater opportunity for sexual sin.  There is a greater opportunity for cheating.  There is more opportunity for lying, stealing, malicious slander, all kinds of abuse, etc.  The greater the amount of people in an area, the more opportunity we have to sin against them.

However, I think we can also look at this in a personal sense.  The more money I have, don’t I want yet more?  The more power I have, doesn’t that increase the amount necessary to appease me in the future?  The more popularity I have, don’t I require even more in the future?  The more success I have, doesn’t that cause me to need more success in the future to be content?  This is the danger of ambition working in conjunction with appetite.  When I get used to a certain level of almost anything, it requires even more to satisfy me in the future. I get into trouble when my ambition is derived out of my appetite and my appetite is not coming from that which God wants for me.

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