Missions Paul

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.

Though we may want to carry on reading about the compassion of God and that He cannot let go of His people and that it will be all okay in the end, we cannot. We are not there yet. Hosea continues. The pain is still there. God’s people are still in trouble.

“Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.” (Hosea 11 v 12)

Just like Gomer did not keep her vows to Hosea, God’s people have broken their vows to God.

The northern kingdom (Ephraim/Israel) were lying and deceitful before God. They broke their own covenant law which stated they should be truth-telling.

The southern kingdom (Judah) was also guilty and their sin was wandering off away from relationship with God.

And all this was done against the faithful One.

Interestingly the words ‘Holy One’ are plural in the Hebrew text and it reveals not only were His people lying, deceitful and wandering away from God the Father but also the Son and the Spirit.

And that is exactly what has happened throughout the generations.

Whether to Jesus the Holy One who was rejected by his own or the Holy Spirit poured out but who again is grieved.

The lying, deceiving and wandering off continues and it is found in people who should know better.

Surely in 2023 there is a need to respond to the call of repentance and to get right before the Holy One. He will not be lied to nor deceived and He will not stand back and let the godly be unruly.

So many are held by what they did or what was done to them. Even when exiles are over people can live in exile within. It seems the delight of God is to lead us into the next season and not to be held back in what has happened in our past.

In a sudden pause within the prophetic message ahead of the exile we have this:

“They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.” (Hosea 11 v 10-11)

The exile is completed and they are walking with Him in faithful relationship. This may have been the remnant of Judah but it can also be seen in the coming Messiah. Some link it to the repopulation of Israel in 1948.

But more importantly is to know the heart of God towards us.

They will follow, he will roar. When he roars, his children will. They will come. I will settle them.

God is there, in your tomorrow, in your new day, your new beginning and He is calling you back to Him.

God is more concerned about your future than your past.

It is not difficult to find anger. It is all around us.

Our world is no longer tolerant of each other.

Two wrongs seem to make it right now. We seem to be justified to say anything to one another no matter how hurtful.

Mercy and forgiveness is in short supply. Judgment and obliteration are practised or at least attempted.

What should be done to God’s rebellious people in Hosea’s day?

They are going to go into exile. Their lifestyles mean this is inevitable. But wait …

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.” (Hosea 11 v 8-9)

Admah and Zeboyim were 2 cities near Sodom and Gomorrah that were completely destroyed by God. They were not spared even though it was Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin that brought the judgment. God’s heart is stirred. He must find a way to save. A remnant at least. And in what looks like a prophetic declaration of the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ not to judge the world but to save the world through him (John 3:17) and prior to Hosea’s day after flooding the earth in His judgment He saved a handful to start again with, we see God’s heart again. He just cannot completely destroy! How can I? How can I?

God’s compassion meant He could not completely wipe out Israel. The tribe of Judah and Benjamin were saved.

How is this possible? God’s people deserved complete wiping out without a remnant left in place.

It is possible because He is God and we are not.

Our anger knows no limits and it carries on even for generations. Anger turns to hate and hate wants to remove everyone who has wronged us.

We serve a God who is not quick to anger but who battles within to bring judgment. Compassion flares up and He has decided to pour out His wrath on His Son.

Today you are forgiven. It is not of man, nor of you, but it is totally all of Him for He is God.

It is the heart of God to set us apart from those around us who do not know Him.

As we go to ‘Church’ today bear in mind that the reason for its existence is to demonstrate being the body of Christ.

The people of God in Hosea’s day were facing everything they were not created to be.

“Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them.” (Hosea 11 v 5-7)

Flip these verses around to what should have been.

The Church is here to show the world a better way to live.

To demonstrate that they are flourishing and being who they were created to be. That they are not dominated but they rule.

They continually walk in repentance, correcting their walk, so they become like God.

Peace and love will be at the heart of their community and they will not be defeated.

They give themselves to the message of God. Knowing the voice of God is important. For they are not self-governing or self-leading.

The Church continues to pursue God and as a result they are helped by Him.

That’s the better way.

Who was the first person to teach you to walk? Can you remember?

Whose hands did you hold as you took those first few steps?

When you fell for the first time who swooped you up and rubbed your knee and ‘kissed it better’? Can you remember?

Who gave you not only food but treats of kindness? Who held your hand as you crossed the road?

Whose embrace did you first experience? Who lifted you up to their cheek so that you could hear them whisper ‘there there’ or sing some lullaby? Can you remember?

What is your earliest recollection of food being made for you? Who did that for you?

“It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realise it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” (Hosea 11 v 3-4)

It was I.

But they did not realise it was I.

To those who are wondering if God will help them today or are asking if He will be in their tomorrow: He was there when you didn’t know so He will certainly be there now that you are calling on Him.

Maybe this morning we should not be like the ungrateful Israelites but we should stop and give God thanks for all He has done even when we didn’t know He was with us.