Author: missionspaul

Some make the nature of God fit into their lifestyle which they will not repent from. His nature must bow to their nature. And of course that is nonsense. This is what we see in the next several verses of Hosea’s prophetic message to God’s people prior to the invasion and destruction from a foreign army.

“But I have been the Lord your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Saviour except me. V4
I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat. V5
When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. V6
So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. V7
Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them—a wild animal will tear them apart. V8

“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper. V9

(Hosea 13 v 4-9)

The other side of God is revealed.

He is a lion and a leopard lurking by the path, v7. And at that time the Assyrian army were indeed lurking nearby waiting to pounce.

He is an angry bear whose cubs have been stolen, v8. And soon the Assyrians will attack.

He is a lion who devours and a wild animal that tears at the flesh of its prey, v8. And Assyria does conquer His people bringing total destruction.

Why?

You are against me, your helper! V9

It could have been different. For God has another side.

But I …v4

Can you imagine what might have happened if they had listened to Hosea prior to 723BC and the invasion of Assyria?

Can you imagine what could have happened of through conviction repentance swept through the land?

If they had humbled themselves and changed from their arrogance to being in awe of God, what possible could have been the story?

Now think of the church in 2023: what could be possible?

You see, But I …

Is the Redeemer from Egypt, v4

The Saviour of our lives, v4

The Helper in the difficult seasons, v5

The Provider, v6

The One who Satisfies, v6

And here is why this side was not seen:

They forgot me, v6

In their pride brought on by the twisting of His blessing of their lives:

They forgot me, v6

And then

“You are against me” v9

No one would ever be so foolish to be against God especially those who say they have faith in Him.

Except if you forget Him.

If you forget His Word. If you forget the Bible and Prayer. If you forget what has been passed down to us. If you forget what you have been taught. If you forget the conviction. If you forget the prophetic Word.

If you forget and at the same time pursue you own path then that is when it can be said that your forgetting has moved into you being against Him who is your Helper.

It’s not worth it. Keep to the side of God which means you are close to Him. He is still bringing judgment. “Assyria” is still being used.

If you have ever pleaded with someone to change their thinking and their behaviour. If you have ever been almost on your knees calling for them to repent because you know the consequences of their actions. If you have as I have then you know not only the heart of Hosea but more importantly the heart of God.

Ephraim knew a day in their history when its people trembled before the Lord. They were successful and the other nations looked on with envy. But in their rise they experienced a fall because in their rising they forgot their God.

“When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss calf-idols!” Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.” (Hosea 13 v 1-3)

Hosea in a last ditch effort to call them back to God lays it out bare once again.

They turned away from God and turned to idols for their help.

Are we still asking God to help us?

Can we admit to the temptation of sorting ourselves out in our own way?

As we get older do we ask for the same kind of help we asked of God when we were younger?

Is God still our helper?

Hosea warns us all. If we stop seeking for God’s help then all that God had for us will be wasted for we will disappear from His purpose.

We will be like the:

Morning mist – gone because of the rising sun.

Early dew – gone because of the rising sun.

Swirling Chaff – gone blown away by the wind.

Escaping smoke – gone escaping into the atmosphere outside.

Some are not where they should be today because they did not go to God for help and today what they had and who they were has evaporated and blown away. Those who rise in this life must take their need for God’s help with them otherwise the higher you rise without Him the harder you will fall.

It isn’t my fault! It was him or it was that. It wasn’t me!

“Is Gilead wicked? Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Their altars will be like piles of stones on a ploughed field. Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep. The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him. But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger, his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.” (Hosea 12 v 11-14)

God asks the rhetorical questions and the answer to both is YES.

Gilead whose name means ‘stones of testimony’ was the place where Jacob fled to from Laban. Jacob the deceiver discovered and acknowledged in Gilead that God was indeed the one who cared for him, see Genesis 31. God says this historical place (the stones of testimony) which was a declaration altar of His care has now been laid to waste, a pile of stones. Why? His people were to blame.

Gilgal was the first place the Israelites set up camp on crossing into Canaan and an altar/pillar was set up in honour of God’s leading. But in Hosea’s day there was no leading hand, God had stopped making a way. Gilead had become a worthless site full of idolatry. Why? His people were to blame.

Why had they not learned from Jacob?

Jacob had worked for a wife for 7 years and then he and his family moved to Egypt because of a severe famine. Egypt was tough. The next generation of Jacob/Israel was brought out of Egypt by the prophet Moses. God used his prophet to lead out and also to keep the people through the Wilderness.

Why is God reminding them/us of this story?

It is because whenever we are in trouble then the way out of it is through listening to God and being obedient. The opposite is also true. If you want it to get worse then don’t listen and don’t obey. If that be the case then there is no one to blame but ourselves if destruction comes to our door. If ruin comes because you haven’t kept an altar then the consequence is on you.

These are important lessons for us all.

Are they like Jacob?

Did they have a Jabbok River experience?

Did they have a Peniel experience?

Did they come back to Bethel?

Did they practice loving kindness, mercy and justice with one another?

Did they return to waiting on God?

“The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud. Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.” “I have been the Lord your God ever since you came out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed festivals. I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them.” (Hosea 12 v 7-10)

They are a merchant who cheats because they alter the scales so that the weight looks a certain amount but it isn’t the truth.

They have moved the goalposts for their convenience.

They have taken the Bible and change the interpretation and understanding of it so that they can live as the world lives.

God says, His people have placed themselves above accountability. Whether in wealth, popularity of position no one is above being held accountable especially before their God.

Riches, fame and title can easily lead to entitlement. Entitlement says, ‘no one can touch me.’ Touch not the wealthy, the famous and the anointed. Many an old man or woman have lived like this and even in their old age and towards the end of their long working life judgment has come.

God’s response, “Hey! Over here! Remember Me?!”

“I was the one who brought you out of Egypt. I was the one who brought you out of those wilderness tents. And I am the one who can put you back into them! And you will have no excuse. For I have spoken through the prophets down the generations and you have and are still not listening!”

You have become too big for your boots. But you are never too big.

These timeless words could be spoken today. The day of the Minor Prophet is not over.

Hosea calls for the people to learn from the life of their ancestor Jacob.

“But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.” (Hosea 12 v 6)

Be kind, the word is ‘hesed’. It was used in chapter 6. “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6 v 6) He is looking for ‘mercy’ – ‘hesed’ – it is a faithful and loyal love.

The term ‘justice’ means to treat one another in the right way, to be right with one another.

Basically, think less of you and more of others.

And then wait upon God; have faith that God will move towards you. Be dependent on Him. Don’t try and make things happen yourself, pray, seek and trust God.

That was the call Hosea gave and it is still the call today.

Are you stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Hosea’s people were in that place. Trapped between 2 great empires of Assyria and Egypt. But they were also in the best place to have a revelation of a much greater Empire!

Having reminded them of the story of their ancestor Jacob there is an announcement from God:

“… the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name!” (Hosea 12 v 5)

This declaration of His name should have caused a turn from their lifestyle back towards God.

Maybe you are facing something this week and perhaps it is great and maybe it is more than one enemy.

I love the different translations of this verse:

“That is, the Lord God of hosts. The Lord is His memorable name.” (NKJV)

The word ‘hosts’ can also be translated ‘armies’ or ‘war’ and it speaks of God fighting for us, or striving for us as was the new name given to Jacob, the meaning of Israel. God strives.

He will fight for you in whatever you are facing this week. He is the God of hosts. He is full of power. There is no one greater than Him.

So take your eyes off the rock and the hard place and turn to HIM!

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:

1. If we build the house of God in our lives He will move towards us again and again.
2. Build your life in such a way that heaven is open and the divine exchange happens easily.
3. 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.

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 

From the womb Jacob was deceptive to his brother Esau and even when they were grown men Jacob stole the birthright from his brother for the price of a meal. Esau was angry and Jacob fled across the Jabbok River. Esau continued to chase after him.

So Jacob did what he always had done. He tried to solve it himself. He sent gifts and animals across the Jabbok to appease his brother. Manipulative ways can stay within our characters all our lives. He then sent his family. He was then alone. At Jabbok. 

It was there he wrestled with God through the night. It was there God touched him in such a way that he would forever walk with a limp. And it was there he was given a new name. Jacob the supplanter became Israel the ‘one whom God will strive for’. In the morning this man started a new life. He was a changed man and he walked awkwardly but it reminded him that God had touched his soul. He named that place Peniel meaning ‘the face of God’ for that is what he experienced and survived. 

If only Hosea’s people had learnt from Jacob and sought after God. 

If only the Church today knew a Jabbok experience leading to a Peniel experience. 

A discipleship check:

1. Spiritual transformation is needed throughout our whole life and the battle is always within our soul.
2. The Jabbok experience is to get alone with God and to hand over the control of our life to Him who will strive for us. 
3. The Peniel experience is to stop looking at what is in the hands of others that we want, or what is in our hands to sort things ourselves, or even what is in God’s hands to bless, and in that place to pursue the face of God and to know Him intimately. 

We must learn from the past.

The charge is that God’s people have been lying, deceiving and pursuing idolatry which was like the chasing after the wind.

“The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacobaccording to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. 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. The Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name! But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.” (Hosea 12 v 2-6)

God’s charge is that they haven’t learned from the mistakes of one of the founders of their faith, Jacob. He uses this name for both the northern and southern kingdom. But He is definitely reminding them of the real Jacob and the fact that they have not learnt anything. Nothing has changed. The present is no better than the past.

Just like Jacob in the womb (Genesis 25:23-26) grasping at his brother’s heel which he inherited by deception they could not be trusted, what you saw wasn’t the truth. This was the mark of the man. This birth story is what built the foundation of his life and how he was known as the ‘deceiver’ or the ‘supplanter’. On one hand his achievements could be celebrated but his ambitious achievements were duplicitous. Not every ‘blessing’ is a gracious gift from God. Some blessings are stolen. But God sees everything.

A discipleship check:

1. Grabbing for what God wants to give reveals a damaged heart condition.
2. Selfish ambition is not better than apathy.
3. Blessings can blind.

We must learn from the past.

Some don’t stay long enough in the Minor Prophets because they see it as too gloomy. They don’t want to be warned they want pats on the back. They don’t want to be corrected they want encouragement to carry on regardless. 

Hosea wouldn’t probably get booked for the guest speaker in conferences and churches today. It’s not what we want to hear. But it is certainly what we need to hear. 

“Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt” Hosea 12 v1

Why would we want to be satisfied on things that amount to nothing? (Feeds on the wind)

Why would we want to chase after things that are harmful to us? (the east wind was the scorching desert wind)

Why would we want to make close friendships with people who only want to control our lives? (Assyria)

Why would we want to seek security for our lives from man? (Egypt)

Why would we do those things when as God’s people we can get all those things from Him and a relationship with Him?

The multiplication of lies and violence is not against anyone but ourselves. 

Our pursuit of hedonistic idols and selfish gain only leads to emptiness, harm, intimidation and being controlled by others. 

When will this stop? That’s the timeless message of Hosea.