In a solemn statement God said to Israel through the prophet Hosea: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:6 In a time of wide spread apostasy God declared to the Israelites that they would be destroyed because of their lack of knowledge. What knowledge did they fail to possess? The Bible explains: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10 The people of Israel had lost their knowledge of God and as a result they had lost their knowledge of salvation. Hundreds of years later Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, would prophesy concerning his son John: And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his pe