Giving God a Bad Name

Hosea 5

The Failure of Israel’s Leaders
1 “Hear this, you priests.
Pay attention, you leaders of Israel.
Listen, you members of the royal family.
Judgment has been handed down against you.
For you have led the people into a snare
by worshiping the idols at Mizpah and Tabor.
2 You have dug a deep pit to trap them at Acacia Grove.
But I will settle with you for what you have done.
3 I know what you are like, O Ephraim.
You cannot hide yourself from me, O Israel.
You have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband;
you are utterly defiled.
4 Your deeds won’t let you return to your God.
You are a prostitute through and through,
and you do not know the Lord."

When I think about some of America’s leading “Media Ministers,” I cannot help but see them in this passage from Hosea. Men who are supposed to be leading others to Christ, instead lead them to themselves or to a government program, or to anything except Christ. Gives those of us who labor for the Lord as Ministers of the Gospel a bad name, but more importantly, it gives God a bad name. Sigh.