It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. – Hosea 11:3

Today's Scripture Reading (April 16, 2026): Hosea 11 & 12

In a Department of Defense news briefing on February 12, 2002, U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld attempted to explain the lack of evidence linking Iraq to weapons of mass destruction. In explaining the situation, Rumsfeld distinguished between what he called three categories of knowledge. First, there are the known knowns, which encompass everything we know we know. I know where my house is and can find my way home. I know I love my wife, children, and grandchildren. I know that God wants us to love each other. Many things would fit into this category of things that I know I know.

Rumsfeld's second category was known unknowns. These are the things that I know I don't know. I am not a brain surgeon; I don't know how to do that, and because I don't know, I would never try. My granddaughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia when she was two, and I am thankful for the medical staff who operated on her because I know that procedure was beyond what I know. Both of these first categories are easy for us because we either know or we know that we don't know.

Rumsfeld's third category is the most troublesome: unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know that we don't know, or things we don't even know we should know. Sometimes I know I can be a bit of a government apologist, but these are the areas where I believe our government often makes its most serious mistakes; they simply don't know what they don't know. Maybe they should have, but I know from my own life that my actions have definite consequences, and some are very unexpected because I don't know some things. Confused? I know the feeling.

God speaks through Hosea and is speaking to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim. And maybe we would be excused if we thought that God had given up on them. They had rebelled against the house of David, rejected the Temple in Jerusalem and the worship that took place there, and exchanged it for the worship of the Golden Calfs set up in Bethel and Dan. Their kings had decided to follow different religious practices, and often resorted to murder to accomplish regime change; they seemed to love doing evil.

But God says that he hadn't given up on them. They didn't know that they didn't know, but in the days of Jeroboam I, he taught Ephraim to walk; in bad times, he took them in his arms; and when they were sick, he healed them. But Ephraim didn't know that God was still with them. It never occurred to them that God would stand by their side, even though they had chosen to walk a different path.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Hosea 13 & 14