August 19, 2001

Hosea 12

v. 1 - Israel decaying but looking to Assyria & Egypt

East wind - strong, injurious

v. 2 - the controversy embraces Judah also

vs. 3-4 - Jacob used as an example - seeking the Lord

Gen. 28 - eight yrs pass and still Bethel is unvisited - his

vow unfulfilled - deep family affliction, sad family dishonor,

Gen. 34, and dark family guilt united to afflict, perhaps

punish the patriarch, & it became necessary for God Himself

to remind Jacob of Bethel & the wonderous vision he saw

there, and the solemn vow he made. 35:1

After a period of neglect or forgetfulness, as soon as he

tried Jacob found God in Bethel.

The methods used - weeping & supplication, PRAYER

The true way of prevailing with God is humility &

sincere supplication - not stiffnecked & defiant resistance

to God’s will & Word!

“he found Him in Bethel” - He found him in Bethel?

On that memorial occasion, Jacob prepared himself & his

household for seeking God by putting away the strange

gods that were among them, by ceremonial purification

and putting on a change of garments. Gen. 35:2-4

Earrings - tattoos - Lev. 19:28 - “Ye shall not print any

marks upon you: I am the Lord”

Only marks worthy are those of which Paul mentions

in Gal 6:17 - “for I bear in my body the marks of the

Lord Jesus”

Isaiah 3:18-24

Jewish teaching is that God talked at Bethel, not just

with Jacob but with all his posterity.

v. 5 - Now in Hosea’s time, the people were involved in greater

guilt than Jacob and in graver danger. The same unfailing

remedy for Jacob is recommended to them - only repent and

turn to the Lord with tears of genuine sorrow & seek His face!

Jehovah, the Everlasting & Unchanging One,

the same to Jacob’s posterity as to the patriarch

himself.

God would bless them with safety & salvation.

v. 6 - “Therefore turn thou to thy God”

A twofold repentance - manward - mercy & judgment,

Godward - a constant waiting upon God!

Morality has its root in religion, to properly exhibit mercy

and justice there must be a “continual waiting upon God!”

Ps. 25:5 - “on thee do I wait all the day”

Ps. 39:7-8 - “And now Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in

thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions:

make me not the reproach of the foolish.”

Is. 42:4 - “the isles shall wait for His law”

Ps. 145:15-16 - “the eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou

givest them their meat in due season. Thou

openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of

every living thing.”

WAIT ON HIM AT ALL TIMES - wherever you have a home,

let God have an altar; let the incense of prayer & praise

regularly ascend to God, the Father of all the families of

the earth.

Remember - Deut. 8:18 - Contrast the attitude of Ephraim in

vs. 7-8.

Jacob’s example - earnestness to obtain the blessing, sincerity

of his repentance, evidences of his conversion consisting of

mercy & judgment and constant waiting upon God - these

virtues conspicuous by their absence in Ephraim.

Hosea repeats the story of their degeneracy.

America today compared with yesterday.

No longer do we see Jacob wrestling in prayer with the angel

of the covenant, nor knighted in the field with the name of

Israel or “prince with God”.

We see him now oppressing and cheating, the looks

of a Canaanite trader with his false scales in his hand.

A contrast of Israel as he ought to be & Israel as he is.

Ephraim a Canaanite in his degenerate condition and

no wonder - Judges 1 & 2

Rom. 1:32 - “Who knowing the judgment of God, that

they which commit such things are worthy of

death, not only do the same but have pleasure

in them that do them.”

Contrast “I am become rich” with “wait on thy God

continually”

Contrast the Laodicean church in Rev. 3:17 Deut. 8:17

v. 8 - Like the Pharisee in Christ’s time - ignorant of

their condition.

They attribute all to their own skill, strength, ingenuity,

industry or ability and refuse to acknowledge God.

They misread history, gloried in greatness but forgot &

forsook the God who made them great.

Luke 16:2 - “give account of thy stewardship”

Despite is done to the Spirit of Grace and the Son of God

is put to an open shame.

ch. 4:9 - Spiritual suicide.

ch. 4:12 - Sins not forgotten.

v. 9 - full circle

v. 10 - II Chron. 36: 14-16

v. 11 - nothingness - ch. 10:7

Sin was not animals offered but the unlawfulness of

the place of sacrifice.

vs. 12-13 - Gen. 28:1-9

The distress & affliction of Jacob are contrasted with the

exaltation of his posterity. The purpose is to impress the

people with the goodness of God in lifting them out of a

lowly condition and to inspire them to gratitude.

v. 14 - but Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly.