Hosea files the saddest diagnosis in the prophets today: my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Not lack of religion, Israel had shrines on every hill and services running daily, but lack of knowing God Himself, the way a spouse knows a spouse.

Acquaintance with God is not the same as acknowledgment of God. Today, let the difference examine you.

Lack of knowledge was killing a nation full of worship services, because the knowledge Hosea means is relational, the kind spouses have, not the kind encyclopedias hold. Israel knew about God endlessly and knew Him barely, and the priests profited from keeping it that way.

The remedy is almost embarrassingly available: seek my face. God's withdrawal in 5:15 is not abandonment but strategy, absence designed to awaken appetite. And 2 John keeps the curriculum simple: walk in truth, love one another, guard the deposit. Know Him today, not just your notes about Him.