They hadn’t learned from their history. The life of their patriarch Jacob was still teaching them however they were not listening nor learning.
“In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favour. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there –” Hosea 12:3-4
Bethel means house of God. Jacob arrived at a place where he encountered an open heaven. He fell asleep one night totally reliant on God and had a dream of a heavenly staircase. When he woke in the morning he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:16)
It was there that he received the commission into the Promised Land and where God again promised him His presence. This was Bethel.
Hosea says, ‘He found him at Bethel’. Those words are found later in the story in Genesis 35.
(Remember in Hosea’s generation Bethel had become Beth-Aven meaning house of iniquity. It was a place for idol worship instead of the place of an open heaven. They had forgotten their history and the story of this awesome place).
God found Jacob at Bethel again. The point being He can find His people in every generation – if they want to be found.
- He reminded him of his new name, Israel, we all need reminding of the transformation He has done.
- He commissioned him again.
- And he worshipped God there with an offering and with oil poured on the altar.
A discipleship check:
- If we build the house of God in our lives He will move towards us again and again.
- Build your life in such a way that heaven is open and the divine exchange happens easily.
- Truth is to be reminded. We need to be reminded of who we are in Him, what He has commissioned us for and the need to pour out our lives in worship to Him. The enemy of our soul will continually lie to us so we need regular Bethel moments. Bethel is the truth.
Missions Paul 