Hosea 12:1-11.  Here in chapter 12 we have two more complaints, first from Hosea (Hosea 12:1-8) then from God (Hosea 12:9-11).  In yesterday’s complaint God used the picture of the Exodus (the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and journey to the land God had promised to them) to describe what was going to happen to Israel and why.  In the first part of today’s reading Hosea is going to use the example of Jacob (Israel, see “What’s in a Name”) the founding father of the nation of Israel, to describe God’s complaint against Israel.  Hosea also includes Judah, who had been brought back into the picture and warned by God in yesterday’s reading.

Verse one contains the charges against Israel (the northern kingdom called Ephraim in these verses).  The word translated “feed” in verse one is usually translated “shepherd” when referring to people.  The better picture is that Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) is chasing after the wind and trying to control it.  The picture is one of total futility, we just cannot control the wind.  In reality what they are doing is trying to control their own futures and they will do anything to get what they want out of life.  We are told that they lie, are violent and that they make treaties with foreign nations.  Can you imagine, God wanted them to show the world that their God was the one true God, involved, powerful, caring, but here they are looking for other nations (who worshipped false gods) to help them.  The beginning of verse 2 tells us that Israel is not alone in defecting from God, he has a complaint against Judah too.

The second line in verse 2 begins the comparison with Jacob.  Back in chapter 6 Hosea made an obscure reference to Jacob when he mentioned the “blood footprints” now he is making a more detailed comparison.  As I mentioned above Jacob was the founding father of the nation of Israel, he had twelve sons who’s descendants were the twelve tribes of Israel.  Jacob had two names in the Bible, Jacob, his birth name, and Israel, a new name God gave him at a certain point in his life.  If you read “What’s in a Name” you would know that names in the Bible often related to the life of the person with the name.  The story of Jacob is told in the book of Genesis starting in chapter 25 and going till the end in chapter 50.  Of course there are the stories of his sons mixed in the later chapters.   Jacob a son of Isaac the son of Abraham.  In Genesis 18 God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation and that the whole world would be blessed through his family. The Hebrew word “blessed” means ‘to salute, kneel down, or honor”.  People who are honored are also usually well cared for.  I think that is the big idea here, God would care for people through the family of Abraham.  More specifically it would be thorough Jacob’s children.

I said Jacob was “a” son of Isaac because he was a twin, his brother was Esau.  The interesting thing with Jacob is that he was born second, after Esau.  In ancient times birth order was very important, children born first had priority, that means they came first in the family.  First born sons would become the leaders of the families.  First born daughters had to be married first.  It is unusual then for Jacob to be the one who continued the promise to his grand-father.  The reason is in his name and life and birth.  When he was born Esau came first then Jacob, but Jacob was holding onto his brothers heel.  The parent took this as a sign and named him, Jacob.  The name means “supplanter”.  That’s a fancy way of saying someone who take another persons position.  Esau was a great hunter and for that reason and probably because he was the first born he was a favorite with Isaac.  On the other hand the Bible tells us mom liked Jacob better.  Jacob was kind of a hang around the house kind of guy (Genesis 25:27).  He was hard working though and quite a schemer.  One day he was making some stew when his brother returned from a hunting trip.  Esau was very hungry and asked for some of the stew.  Jacob’s reply was he could have some for a trade.  He wanted the first position in the family.  Esau agreed feeling a little dinner was of more value than controlling the family.  One day when their father was very old he called Esau to his side and asked him to go hunting and bring back something really good to make a meal for his dad.  Isaac promised a blessing on Esau if he did this.  In the Bible blessings by parents were very serious and God often honored them and made them come true (see “The Twelve?” for more about this).  The mother overheard the conversation and schemed with Jacob to steal the blessing from Esau and further secure his place as leader of the family.  The story is quite interesting and you might want to read it in Genesis 27.  Jacob successfully tricked Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau.

In Genesis 27:41 we see that Esau was very upset and plotted to kill his brother after his father died.  Mom heard of the plan and talked Isaac into sending Jacob find a wife among her relatives several hundred miles to the north.  Jacob did find a wife among her mother’s relatives, two in fact, both his first cousins.  On the way he spent the night near a town called Luz and had a dream where he saw angles climbing up and down a ladder into heaven.  In the dream he saw God standing at the top of the ladder and God promised Jacob that he would be the one who would continue the promise to Abraham (Genesis 18:18).  God also promised to give Jacob and his descendants the land he was sleeping on.  When Jacob woke up he set up a stone as a reminder of the place and decided to call the nearby town “Bethel” or “house of God”.  When Jacob got close to where his mother had been from he stopped by a well where he met a beautiful woman.  He found out that the woman was his cousin ad was determined to marry her.  When he met his uncle he made a deal to work 7 years for the right o marry the girl, Rachel.  At eh end of the seven years there was wedding feast and he finally got his bride.  Unfortunately Rachel was not the oldest and Jacob and his mother were not the only schemers in the family.  At the last minute Jacob’s uncle switched brides and sent his older daughter, Leah, into the tent for the night with Jacob.  In the morning Jacob, the “place stealer”, found out that the place of his beautiful bride had been stolen by her ugly older sister (see Genesis 29:17).  Jacob then worked another seven years for the right to marry Rachel also.  During his stay with his uncle he made his uncle very successful.  After a while he devised a plan to get some of the wealth for himself.  Through some sort of selective breeding (and with the help of God) he wound up with a great deal of livestock from his uncles flocks.  In Genesis 30 we see more intrigue as Jacob tries to eventually break free of his uncle.  According to Genesis 31:32 he spent 20 years working for his uncle before he was able to leave, sneaking away while his uncle was busy with his own flocks.  Laban, the uncle, chased Jacob down but eventually gave up when he saw he could not get Jacob to return.

Jacob then continued on his journey back to the place he had left, but he was worried about his brother, when he left his brother was planning to kill him.  So he devised a scheme where he put all of his possessions out in front of him so when he encountered his brother or his brother’s workers he could offer some of his stuff to his brother in hope of making peace.  Interestingly he even put some of his family (including Leah, her children, and two servants with whom he had had children) between him and the herds.  He stayed all the way in the back with Rachel and one son (she later had another).  The night before he met up with his brother he took his family and spent the night across a stream from the rest of his stuff.  That night a “man” came to him and they wrestled all night.  In the morning the “man”  caused Jacob’s hip to be dislocated.  Still Jacob clung to the “man” and demanded that the “man” bless him.  Obviously he though that this “man” was more than some passing stranger and in fact he recognized that this was God in a human form.  Most conservative scholars believe this was actually Jesus in a temporary body.  The stranger agreed to bless Jacob and changed his name to Israel (“God struggles” or “God fights”).  Jacob or now Israel named the place “Peniel” which means “the face of God” because he realized the man he had struggled with was God.  Peniel was in the same area as Bethel. The meeting with his brother went well and Jacob returned to the area where his brother lived.  Eventually he moved his family slightly north to the area of Bethel.

So we see that Jacob’s life was filled with schemes.  He tried to do things his way.  In the end though God struggled with him and won.  Jacob the schemer had his name changed to Israel, a constant reminder that God won.  Unfortunately the northern kingdom, Israel or Ephraim in these verses, inherited all of Jacob’s bad traits but was not retuning to God in this struggle.  In verses 4-5 we see Hosea trying to encourage the people that Jacob won in his struggle with God because in the story he begged God to bless him, and God did, but only after showing Jacob who was boss (by dislocating his hip with a mere touch).  We see that sort of power in the name Hosea uses for God here, “Yahweh the God of Heaven’s armies, Yahweh is his name.”  Remember that Yahweh is the personal name of God that he communicated to Moses when he gave him the rules the Israelites were to live by.  The name means “I Am that I Am”.  It’s sort of like saying God exists completely by his own existence, no one made him and he answers to no one.  The Israelites would have known this and it is a big contrast to the name they were weakly worshipping God by in Hosea 11:12 (“El” which was also used in false Baal worship).

Again in Hosea 12:6 we see a glimpse of hope when Hosea encourages the people to return to their God and to show it by being loyal to God and treating each other correctly.  Unfortunately Hosea ends on a sad note as he realizes that Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) is continuing to trust in their own power (riches) and felt that they were completely right with God (no sin).  It is interesting that the word “sin” was an archery term in those days.  The archers would shoot at a bulls eye and either they hit it or missed.  If they missed the mark the score keeper would yell, “Chet” (The Hebrew word translated “sin” in English).

In Hosea 12:9-11 God gives us his perspective.  Right away he tells them, “I’m your God, have been for centuries, and you’re going to be punished.”  They were gong to be sent out of the land symbolized by the picture of living in tents again like their ancestors had done in the wilderness between leaving Egypt and moving into the promised land.  The festival God mentioned was an annual festival of remembrance where they all lived in tents for a week to remember the fact that God had brought them out of Egypt and ended their slavery.  Here the picture is a reversal of the picture, back to the tents and eventually back to slavery.

In verse 10 God points out that he had repeatedly warned the people of Israel, told them over and over how they were not measuring up.  “Sin!”  Verse 11 tells us a specific complaint, they were sacrificing to a false god.  The bull here also echos back to the Exodus from Egypt when they had Moses’ brother Aaron make a bull ido for them to worship.  As I said before this bull was probably the one used as a symbol of Baal, the false god of the Caananites.  The places where they were sacrificing to this false god were as useless as a heap of stone in the middle of a field.  A pile of stones in a field make you plow around them and waste valuable land.

So we see repeated warnings of specific problems in the lives of the Israelites yet they refuse to listen, they are going to meet God on their own terms, but God will reject them.  We need to make sure we come to God on his terms, too.  No matter what we thing of ourselves we have “Sinned”.  We miss God’s perfect mark.  But remember god knew the Israelites were sinners and Hosea was calling them to come back to God.  God knows we are failures too, but he wants us back.  Just as Hosea took Gomer back God is willing to take us back too.  But we cannot keep in living our lives our way we need to live for God with his help.  God is amazingly loving and forgiving.

God thank you for loving me.  Thank you for forgiving me.  Help me be faithful to you.  Let me not try to live for you in my way, make your way clear.