Hosea 11:12-12:14

Even after the strong statement on God’s love in the previous passage, God still speaks of Israel’s sin.  Perhaps it is as it is with our own children.  During or after punishment they may question God’s loving discipline and need to be reminded of the grievousness of their sin.  

·        11:12-12:1: What a descriptive statement: Ephraim feeds on the wind.  This is exactly the case with idolatry because the root meaning of the term idol in Hebrew is empty, vain.  To follow other lovers is to follow lovers who have no love!  And God makes a distinction between the two kingdoms.  There was never a time in Israel when the worship of the golden calves ended, while in Judah there were times that were good as well as times of evil.

·        12:2-6: But that is about to change apparently as God now speaks through Hosea to Judah.  The illustration God uses is amazing: Judah is like Jacob, the father of Israel.  His name meant supplanter, until God changed it to Israel.  Jacob tried to achieve what God promised to give to him, even at his birth, even with God.  Jacob found the true God at Bethel, when he was fleeing from Esau (Gen. 28:12-19), and then when he returned to Bethel to worship God in truth (Gen. 35:9-15).  Isn’t this amazing: Bethel in Hosea’s time had become the center of idolatry.  But God was calling Judah, and Israel, to the true God of Bethel, the house of God.

·        12:7-8: Ephraim at the time of Hosea’s call to repentance, was like Jacob, seeking to make her way by her own cunning.

·        12:9-14: Therefore, like Jacob who fled to Syria to escape Esau, so Ephraim will be taken to Assyria.  They will again dwell in temporary dwellings, as they do at the Feast of Tabernacles.  Neither the idols of Gilead (the 2 ½ tribes east of the Jordan) nor the altars of Gilgal (west of the Jordan, near Jericho) will be able to help them.  Ephraim has provoked the LORD terribly and will see an end of His mercy; she will receive what is appropriate for her guilt.

In this passage that reminds Israel that her punishment is just, God also sows the seeds of restoration.  Even as Jacob fled to Syria, God also brought him back.  Further there is a reminder of God’s bringing Israel out of Egypt by the prophet Moses.  These set the tone for eventual restoration.  

But the restoration awaits the work of cleansing to be finished.  Sometimes God’s discipline becomes an excuse to question God’s love.  This should not be!  As God reminded Israel of her guilt, we also should remember the seriousness and gravity of our own sin.  Some consequences for sin may be with us through all our lives.  Let us humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand; recognize His love in discipline; may we respond with greater likeness to Christ.