Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Hosea.
[00:00:00] You were listening to the Through The Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the Old Testament book of Hosea. Here's Nate. Well, as we turn to Hosea chapter 12, we see God continuing to pronounce an indictment
[00:00:30] upon the people of Israel, especially the ten northern tribes. And really what we're entering into is God's concluding indictment upon Israel. And then finally with a word of hope, we have to remember that the book of Hosea really has underlying throughout it a tone of great hope.
[00:00:51] God even promised at the outset of the book that a day would come where he would be reunited with his bride and that they would call him my husband. And so he's already set the tone for future restoration and great revival in Israel.
[00:01:11] But before that day comes, a day of judgment must come upon the nation. Says in verse 1, as we continue the theme of judgment, that Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the Eastwind all day long.
[00:01:27] They multiply falsehood and violence, they make a covenant with the Syria and oil is carried to Egypt. Really here in this first verse there are three things that God points out that Israel is in error about.
[00:01:42] Now the first one is simply that all of their actions were actions of futility. They were feeding on the wind and pursuing the Eastwind all day long. Really that's a great picture of sin, don't you think?
[00:01:56] As we pursue sin, as we pursue rebellion, as we run from God as our hearts drift from him, it's not a satisfying endeavor. There's the excitement, the exhilaration, the endorphins or the adrenaline if you will of sin. It is, as Hebrews 11 tells us, pleasurable for a moment.
[00:02:18] But in the end of the day it's like wind. What have you really gotten at the end of it? You've actually become more empty as a result of pursuing it than when you began. And so they were feeding on the wind and pursuing the Eastwind.
[00:02:33] Also there in verse 1, secondly God says, you've multiplied falsehood and violence. Apparently, they're in Israel and there seems to be a repeated theme here throughout Hosea. There was an ill treatment of one another. There was social injustice throughout the nation.
[00:02:54] Of course, there was no fear of God in their hearts so when they looked their fellow man and the eye, there wasn't this underlying drive to be respectful and honorable and just toward their fellow man.
[00:03:07] No, without the fear of God there was the propensity or at least the allowance for them to behave very brutally towards their fellow man. And apparently they were lying to one another being very violent to one another.
[00:03:19] There was some kind of underlying sinful lying mentality there in Israel at the time. Also God says, you've made a covenant with the Syria and oil is carried the Egypt. They were turning to these surrounding nations, pledging their allegiance to them
[00:03:40] and making peace treaties with them even giving oil to satisfy the desires of the nations around them. The Lord, verse 2, has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to
[00:03:56] his ways. He will repay him according to his deeds. So both the North and the South are highlighted here in verse 2. We've been dealing with Jacob or Israel or Ephraim for the duration of the
[00:04:12] book but here Judah and the South is held out as well. They wouldn't experience the direct hits from a Syria but they would eventually take their lumps in the form of the Babylonians when
[00:04:26] they came with Nebuchadnezzar. In the womb, now here's what God does in verse 3, he begins to make a historical reference and give it contemporary application. In the womb, he, Jacob, took his brother by the hill and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel
[00:04:47] and prevailed. He wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel and there God spoke with us, the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is His memorial name. So you by the help of your God return,
[00:05:01] hold fast to love and justice and wait continually for your God. So God here in these few verses goes back to the original Israel, a man named Jacob from whom the whole nation had eventually
[00:05:17] come. When when Jacob was born, you might remember he was the younger twin. He had battled his brother in the womb and when his brother was born he took his brother by the hill. It says in Genesis chapter
[00:05:32] 25. So what God seems to be highlighting is, hey even Jacob, there from the womb and all throughout his early years had a tendency to hurt his brother. And here that tendency is played out amongst
[00:05:50] the nation of Israel in Hosea's modern time. People were hurting one another through falsehood and violence much like Jacob had lied to gain his birthright and to gain his blessing up from his
[00:06:06] father Isaac. He says also in verse 3, in his manhood he strove with God. There was a tendency to wrestle with God, a lack of submission to God. Of course, a reference to Jacob wrestling at the river jobbook there in Genesis chapter 32. Now additionally, he says in verse 4,
[00:06:28] he met with God at Bethel. Now they were sacrificing false gods to false gods at Bethel and so God's implication is clear. You people need to return to me even Jacob who wrestled with me
[00:06:43] who strove with God and with man. He met with God at Bethel. In other words, God will do the same thing for you if you would pursue and turn to me. God is saying through the Prophet Hosea to his people
[00:06:58] Israel. So he tells them in verse 6, by the help of your God, you return. In other words, you should weep and seek the favor of God as Jacob had done years before their in Bethel.
[00:07:14] In the midst of all of this review, it's such great hope from God that the people could be restored. A merchant verse 7, back in Hosea 12, in whose hands are false balances. He loves to
[00:07:28] oppress. He from his said, ah but I am rich, I have found wealth for myself and all my laborers, they cannot find in me a niquity or sin. Now apparently and as I hinted out before,
[00:07:41] the people in Israel at this time were guilty of injustice towards one another, cheating one another, lying to one another. God calls it in verse 7, the false balances and a hand in the hands
[00:07:55] of a merchant. In other words, scales that were designed to benefit the merchant and rip off or deceive the buyer. It says in Proverbs 11, verse 1, that a false balance is an abomination to the Lord,
[00:08:12] but a just weight is his delight. But they were behaving in in serious ways. They were defrauding their customers. They were oppressing and in the midst of all of it, in verse 8, what they pronounced
[00:08:26] but hey, we're rich. In other words the end justifies the means. What we're doing is working, look at our wealth, look at our prosperity. But even though it seemed as if it was paying off,
[00:08:41] it wasn't in the end because God had seen their sin. They were prosperous. With whatever loopholes they designed and whatever ways they were using to rip off the people, the wealth that they required was not just. The end had not justified the means. God says in verse 9,
[00:09:04] I am the Lord, your God from the land of Egypt. I will again make you dwell in tents as in the days of the appointed feast. Now each year they would celebrate the feast of tavernacles. This was
[00:09:16] from Leviticus chapter 23. And in the feast of tavernacles they would dwell in tents for a set period of time. In order to remember when they had come out of Egypt at the Exodus and
[00:09:30] they lived in tents in the wilderness. Now when they lived in tents there, it was God's deliverance. It was God's grace. But here God is saying I'm going to take you back to the place where you dwell
[00:09:42] in tents as judgment upon you. You'll be homeless once again as a result of this greedy sin. I spoke to the prophets verse 10, it was I who multiplied visions and through the prophets gave parables.
[00:09:59] In other words I spoke to you in various ways and in various times and by various means. If there is a niquity verse 11 in Gilead they shall surely come to nothing. In Gilegas
[00:10:12] they shall sacrifice bowls there. Alters also are like stone heaps on the furrows of the field. In other words God is saying I'm going to judge your altars. I think we could say the same in
[00:10:24] the sense that we know that God has spoken to us. Here he says prophets and visions and parables. We might say Old Testament, New Testament, Gospels, Psalms, Epistles. We might say we have great
[00:10:40] revelation from God. It is for us to respond to the Lord. In verse 12 he says Jacob fled to the land of Aaron. There is real served for a while and for a wife he guarded sheep by a prophet the Lord brought
[00:10:56] Israel up from Egypt and by a prophet he was guarded. I think that that God here in verse 12 and 13 is giving a little glimmer of hope because what he's pointing out is that Jacob you remember
[00:11:11] when he had fled for his life from E. saw back in the book of Genesis he went out to his uncle Laban he served hard, hard years under Laban but when he left Laban's presence he had wealth he had
[00:11:27] a wife he had flocks also Israel when they moved as a small family of 70 or so people to Egypt there at the end of the book of Genesis they went with not all that much but when they departed
[00:11:47] over 400 years later through the deliverance of a prophet Moses when they departed they left full they went out empty to these places and returned to the promised land very full and I feel as if
[00:12:04] God is giving a word of hope. These people served foreigners Jacob served his uncle Israel as a family served the Pharaoh and they came out greatly blessed and here the people of Israel are going
[00:12:22] to serve the Assyrians and eventually the people in Judah serve the Babylonians but will eventually come out very blessed by God. E from verse 14 has given bitter provocation so his Lord will leave
[00:12:38] his blood guilt on him and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds. So instead of saying thanks to God they provoked the Lord and said thanks for nothing and God promises his judgment is coming.
[00:12:53] Now in verse 1 of chapter 13 the doom continues to be declared by the Lord when E from spoke there was trembling he was exalted God says in Israel but he incurred guilt through bail and died
[00:13:08] and now they being E from or Israel sin more and more and make for themselves metal images idols skillfully made of their silver all of them the work of craftsmen it is said of them those who offer
[00:13:23] human sacrifice kiss calves therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the do that goes early away like the shaft that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window here God seems to be talking about E from specifically as a tribe often throughout
[00:13:43] Jose as we've talked about when he mentions E from he's talking about all of the 10 northern tribes but E from here seems to be the tribe and what he points out is that they were exalted in Israel
[00:13:58] they were a very influential tribe over the years. The other tribes had listened to them they had been influential they had been leaders even in improper ways but they had been leaders and what God
[00:14:12] says here is that they incurred guilt through bail and died they're like the do that goes away shaft that blows away smoke that blows away they are temporary their influences saying because of
[00:14:26] this idolatry is gone I think one of the things for us to remember in our modern era is that there is grace from the Lord but sin as we persist in it can absolutely kill our influence
[00:14:40] we might be leaders we might have a position of prominence we might be able to speak into people's lives but sin rebellion against God will take that voice away from us our influence will be hindered
[00:14:56] we will slowly evaporate as a result of entering into persistent rebellion against the Lord I think it's a warning to the heart of every leader that we would continue to walk closely with the Lord
[00:15:10] less we sacrifice our voice on the altar of rebellion but verse 4 I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt you know no God but me and besides me there is no Savior so God again reminds them
[00:15:29] that they are in covenant with him and that he brought them up out of Egypt it was I who knew you in the wilderness verse 5 in the land of drought but when they had grazed they became full they were
[00:15:41] filled and their heart was lifted up therefore they forgot me once again there's that incredible concept amongst the people of Israel and I think so prevalent amongst the people of God throughout
[00:15:54] every generation that when the Lord feeds us that when the Lord nourishes us that when the Lord bless us our life when things are relatively prosperous and easy or successful we are so tempted to forget
[00:16:08] the Lord to walk away from him and so it's good for us in times of prosperity to press and to God like never before so verse 8 I am to them like a lion like a leopard I will lurk beside that way
[00:16:24] I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs I will tear open their breast and there I will devour them like a lion as a wild beast would rip them open he destroys you oh Israel
[00:16:35] for you are against me against your helper notice what God says to the people there in verse 7 9 he compares himself and says because of your sin now I will become to you like a lion a leopard
[00:16:50] a bear a wild beast God is saying that he'll pounce on the rebellious people of Israel and bring punishment upon them now this is an ominous word God had just been speaking of them like a flock
[00:17:06] and hear their picture as a helpless flock that come under destruction from these wild animals and God himself is saying that he is as that wild animal to the people of Israel their judgment
[00:17:20] is certainly looming where now verse 10 is your king to save you in all your cities where are all your rulers those of whom you said give me a king in princes I gave you a king in my anger
[00:17:35] and I took him away in my wrath they'd had kings previously and they had a king at this moment but the king was powerless he says where is your king to save you in all your cities the only one
[00:17:50] that could help them was God himself and God had pronounced them and given them up to judgment because of sin notice in verse 11 God says I gave you a king in my anger and I took him away in my wrath
[00:18:06] now here at this moment with the Assyrians looming that's the moment that God took away his king their king in his wrath when did he give them a king in his anger up or perhaps it's the kings of the
[00:18:22] perhaps this is actually a statement about kings in general that Israel was to be a theocracy but they had requested a king and he had given them originally Saul and then the devidic
[00:18:35] kingdom God using a negative thing and turning it into a positive thing through the promises of an everlasting rule and reign through the line of David but here perhaps there's a little indication
[00:18:47] as to the mindset and the heart of God when the people asked for a king I gave you he says verse 11 a king in my anger the iniquity verse 12 of Ephraim is bound up his sin is kept in store
[00:19:03] the pangs of childbirth come for him but he is an unwise son for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb now God is so fascinating in the way that he
[00:19:17] creates these different analogies to talk about things that are on the earth and people's sin here he talks about the people of Israel like an infant inside the womb and labor pangs come
[00:19:33] and at the right time for birth he says that that baby does not present himself at the opening of the womb in other words it's the time for birth it's a perfect opportunity for birth
[00:19:46] but the baby it just I mean it's like a comic picture he just refuses to come out of the womb and God is saying to the people of Israel listen all this punishment is coming upon you
[00:20:01] all of this destruction is coming upon you so that you might be reborn so that you might revive so that you might live so that you might walk with me yet you do not do it and so just the
[00:20:14] the baffled state that God is in over his people he says shallivers for ransom them from the power of shield shall I redeem them from death oh death where are your flags oh shield where is your sting
[00:20:30] compassion is hidden from my eyes now the fascinating thing here is that probably one of the context states that that God is pronouncing judgment upon them he's saying oh I can't save them
[00:20:47] from shield at this time I can't redeem them from death and that he's calling forth to death and calling forth to shield and saying all right death bring your flags all right shield bring your sting
[00:20:59] because compassion is hidden from my eyes the fascinating thing in all of this is that in the new testament Paul the apostle redeems this verse in first Corinthians 15 verse 55 and uses it
[00:21:14] as a description of the resurrection of the believer to a eternal spiritual new body received by God the resurrection of the saint and that we will say oh death where your flags oh shield where is your sting
[00:21:32] so just a glorious hopeful tone in the midst of darkness the verse 15 he may flourish among his brothers the east wind the wind of the Lord shall come so God again is taking credit he says listen
[00:21:50] when a Syria comes it's an east wind they're an east wind and they are the wind of the Lord it's fascinating how throughout the Old Testament God would use wicked nations far more wicked
[00:22:04] just on our own human scale of considering such things than the people of Israel but with the great revelation that they had in the mind of God the people of Israel were behaving more wickedly
[00:22:17] than the nations around them and it's fascinating how God was was able to use these rebellious wicked nations to discipline and to judge his own people and here again we have it exemplified he'll
[00:22:32] use the Assyrians he calls them the wind of the Lord he says they shall come rising from the wilderness and his fountain shall dry up his spring shall be parched it shall strip his treasury of every
[00:22:46] precious thing it's almost like a description of of the locusts coming upon the land but this wind when it comes it will it will dry everything up will every river every fountain every spring
[00:22:59] will be parched and shall strip his treasury of every precious thing everything of value would be taken there by the Assyrians verse 16 Samaria shall bear her guilt because she has
[00:23:11] rebelled against her God and they shall fall by her by the sword their little one shall be dashed to pieces and their pregnant women ripped open this is a gruesome judgment that the Assyrians would
[00:23:25] bring upon the people of God now in chapter 14 we have God's promise of a glorious future for the nation of Israel you remember here that this is embedded within the story of Hosea and Gomer
[00:23:42] and that Gomer even though she ran from Hosea in her prostitution that Hosea pursued her and wanted to be reunited to her so is the picture between God and Israel Hosea 2 verse 16 says
[00:23:57] God speaking in that day declares the Lord you will call me my husband and no longer what you call me my bail in other words God says the day of restoration and reunification and remarriage
[00:24:13] so to speak is coming and here we have that concept laid out for us in chapter 14 return oh Israel verse 1 to the Lord your God for you have stumbled because of your iniquity take with
[00:24:28] you words and return to the Lord say to him take away all iniquity except what is good and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips Hosea will not save us we will not ride on horses we will
[00:24:43] say no more our God to the work of our hands in you the orphan finds mercy it's interesting that when the return came from the people of Israel one of the things that they would say is
[00:24:56] take away all iniquity in other words when they came back there would not be a lack of perspective about their sin I think sometimes we think of the grace of God and the mercy of God as being
[00:25:12] synonymous with being out of touch with our sinful reality but actually when you're conscious of your sin then you are able to receive the grace of God they were conscious of it at this point
[00:25:27] notice also that they leave behind specific sins trusting in a Syria to save them trusting in their own horses or their own military strength to save them and worshiping their idols and calling it
[00:25:43] the work of their hands calling it our God God says of them in verse 4 I will heal their apostasy I will love them freely for my anger has turned from them I will be like the due to Israel
[00:25:59] he shall blossom like the little Lily he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon his roots shall spread out his beauty shall be like the olive and his fragrance like Lebanon they shall return
[00:26:12] and shall dwell beneath my shadow they shall flourish like the grain they shall blossom like the vine their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon oh we from what have I to do with idols it is
[00:26:27] I who answer and look after you I am like an evergreen cypress from me comes your fruit now God here pronounces a beautiful blessing upon the nation of Israel he tells them in all sorts of
[00:26:45] phrases and all sorts of ways that they are going to be prosperous and fruitful once again that they would come under his shadow that they would flourish like grain and blossom like the vine that
[00:26:56] there's fame would spread throughout the world now the interesting thing about this is that it's very difficult to find any historical fulfillment of this promise to the people of Israel yes eventually some from Judah did return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and to eventually
[00:27:19] rebuild the city but this kind of glory that God is describing never really occurred in the time from the return or the time of Isaiah's prophecy to the time of Christ and of course that glory
[00:27:34] still is not seen even to this day it leads many to believe and I'm with them that Hosea is describing a future glory that will not occur until after the great tribulation and be fulfilled
[00:27:48] in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ in that moment there will be grand national repentance unto God and great eschatological blessing from God during that millennial kingdom as stated in Revelation chapter 20 whoever is wise verse nine let him understand these things so just sort of
[00:28:15] final statement from Hosea whoever is discerning let him know them for the ways of the Lord are right and the upright walk in them but transgressors stumble in them one of the beautiful statements
[00:28:30] here from Hosea is simply listen to the word of the Lord let the book of Hosea stand for all believers of all time regarding or about the importance of walking with God being obedient to the Lord continuing
[00:28:46] to maintain the closeness of fellowship and relationship with him first Peter 2 verse 10 says once you were not a people but now you are God's people once you had not received mercy
[00:29:00] but now you have received mercy we are the people of God the Lord has called us we weren't his people but now we are so let us behave as God's beloved bride God bless you and they know