LOOK BACK AND LEARN
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Father, that you listen to my prayers and hear every cry of my heart.
Read HOSEA 11:12–12:14
Israel’s Sin
12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
Israel with deceit.
And Judah is unruly against God,
even against the faithful Holy One.[a]
12 [b]1 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.
2 The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah;
he will punish Jacob[c] according to his ways
and repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
as a man he struggled with God.
4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there—
5 the Lord God Almighty,
the Lord is his name!
6 But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always.
7 The merchant uses dishonest scales
and loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim boasts,
“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.
With all my wealth they will not find in me
any iniquity or sin.”
9 “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.
10 I spoke to the prophets,
gave them many visions
and told parables through them.”
11 Is Gilead wicked?
Its people are worthless!
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?
Their altars will be like piles of stones
on a plowed field.
12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram[d];
Israel served to get a wife,
and to pay for her he tended sheep.
13 The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,
by a prophet he cared for him.
14 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.
Footnotes
- Hosea 11:12 In Hebrew texts this verse (11:12) is numbered 12:1.
- Hosea 12:1 In Hebrew texts 12:1-14 is numbered 12:2-15.
- Hosea 12:2 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.
- Hosea 12:12 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Take some time to look back over your life. How has God worked through events and in your experience?Now Hosea reminded God’s people of their past—in particular, the patriarch, Jacob, and then their rescue from Egypt. Unruliness, deceit, and unfaithfulness had often characterized their behavior— and these brought consequences (11:12–12:2).
Jacob had been the archetypal deceiver, taking advantage of others for his own gain. In Hosea’s day, untruthfulness had become the way in which society worked; wealth was founded on dishonesty. Yet, those guilty did not acknowledge their sin (vv. 7, 8). But there was hope. God came to Jacob and ‘he struggled with God.’ He wept, prayed, and talked with him (vv. 4, 5). So, Hosea told the people to return to God. For Hosea’s listeners there was a sense of possibility: wait for God (v. 6).
Then, Hosea reminded the people of their rescue from Egypt (v. 9). Looking at their idolatry and wickedness, God asked, ‘Was it for this that I redeemed you?’ (v. 11).* The reference to Gilgal may have recalled the stones of remembrance marking their crossing of the Jordan (Joshua 4:20). Sacred memories had been desecrated. Before the words of judgment (v. 14), linger over the words of verses 9 and 10. God’s call to tent-living and the forgotten Festival of Tabernacles echoed the words of 2:14, 15. These were words of invitation: to be with God is more important than ‘bread alone.’
Apply
Set apart time to be with God. Listen afresh to his call to you.
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, thank you for drawing me to Christ. Tune my heart to his today.
*Derek Kidner, Love to the Loveless (InterVarsity Press, 1981), 111.
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