Chasing the Wind
Notes
Transcript
Review
The end of the northern kingdom is drawing near.
5 They shall not return to the land of Egypt,
but Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
6 The sword shall rage against their cities,
consume the bars of their gates,
and devour them because of their own counsels.
This however, did not mean the extinguishing of God’s people.
Further down in chapter 11, Hosea makes clear that one day the Lord would roar like a lion and call His people back from exile:
10 They shall go after the Lord;
he will roar like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west;
11 they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.
They will come back in fear and humility, but they will return.
But now we enter the final section of Hosea’s prophecy, and in it Hosea presents a history lesson to inspire the people to wait in the Lord with repentance and hope.
An Outline of Hosea’s History Lesson
An Outline of Hosea’s History Lesson
Lessons from the life of Jacob: chapter 12
Lessons from the life of Jacob: chapter 12
Lessons from the northern kingdom (Ephraim): chapter 13
Lessons from the northern kingdom (Ephraim): chapter 13
A call to look beyond the coming judgement for a future hope: chapter 14
A call to look beyond the coming judgement for a future hope: chapter 14
Wayward, Weak & Worldly and a Warning (11:12 - 1:2)
Wayward, Weak & Worldly and a Warning (11:12 - 1:2)
Wayward (11:12)
Wayward (11:12)
Israel was a nation consumed by deceit
God sees Himself as being present in the midst of the nation, and all around He sees deception and lies.
There are times you and I adapt to the waywardness of the world. We make certain accommodations: everything from staying silent when evil is celebrated to softening biblical truth out of a fear of man.
God makes no such accommodations. I think that’s the idea here in verse 12. It’s not that God is overwhelemed by all the deceit in Israel, but that He sees the deceit for what it is, that flys in the face of His holy character and He is about to judge it.
God sees through the falsehood; He knows man’s heart. He is not deceived.
I don’t think the ESV gets the Hebrew right in how it translates the second half of verse 12. The ESV reads:
…but Judah still walks with God
and is faithful to the Holy One.
the problem here is that the word walks is not a reference to obedience. this term means wandering freely or acting freely. Jeremiah uses this word:
31 And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
we will come no more to you’?
The overall picture is not one of faithfulness to the Lord, but is rather that Judah, like Israel was rebelling against God.
The LSB translates verse 12 like this:
And Judah is also unruly against God, even against the Holy One who is faithful.
There’s no doubt that the Hebrew is difficult to interpret here, but this seems to be the best and best reflects the context. Just a couple verses down in chapter 12 we read:
2 The Lord has an indictment against Judah
and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
he will repay him according to his deeds.
Moving on into chapter 12, we see that Israel is
Weak (1a)
Weak (1a)
Notice the imagery: feeding on the wind and pursuing the east wind all day long
feeding on the wind is to become full on nothing good, satisfying or nourishing.
This is what Calvin said in his commentary:
when one gulps the wind, he seems indeed to fill his mouth, and his throat, and his chest, and his whole stomach; but there is nothing but air, no nourishment.
the east wind was none to be destructive.
There is emptiness here, but it’s not neutral. They are behaving destructively. As spiritually destructive as the east wind is physically destructive.
A display of weakness… spiritual weakness. When you and I are weak in this way, we live an empty yet dangerous life.
but Israel was also
Worldly (1b)
Worldly (1b)
Instead of repenting and seeking after the Lord, they have turned to themselves and the world. The turned to their own wisdom and to what they perceive as the way of their prosperity.
2nd half of verse 1:
they make a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt.
Throughout this prophecy, the imagery of a prostitute has been used to describe Israel’s behavior. This is is it! Seeking a treatise with a nation that rejects God for safety and security rather than the Lord.
Warning (2)
Warning (2)
Israel and Judah were intertwined since they were one covenant people.
The message here is that when we see sin destroying our neighbors, we should take that as a sober reminder that that could be us but for the grace of God.
Knowing what we know on this point in history, we know that Israel was just closer to death that Judah was. Judah’s judgement day was approaching.
we now come to the lessons from the life of Jacob. Verses 3-6 provide us a summary of Jacob’s experiences as described in Gen. 25-35. Jacob’s life would have been familiar to both Israel and Judah… even by those who displayed no real concern for God’s word.
Deceitful, Domineering, Delivered (3-6)
Deceitful, Domineering, Delivered (3-6)
Deceitful (3a)
Deceitful (3a)
The first line of verse 3 is familiar enough to us. Jacob’s name means heal-catcher or supplanter. From the moment of his birth, Jacob is shown to be an overly assertive, domineering person.
This pattern of scheming and convincing continued. We are also familiar with what happened between him and his brother Esau in Gen. 27, where Jacob cheated Esau out of his birth rite.
And keep in mind, Hosea is comparing Israel to Jacob here. Israel had become deceitful like their forefather Jacob.
Domineering (3b)
Domineering (3b)
From the moment of Jacob’s birth (heel-catcher, supplanter), Jacob sought to dominate everyone around him.
Notice the second line of verse 3: and in his manhood he strove with God. Refers to the scene in Gen. 32, where Jacob was forced to return home and face his brother after betraying him.
He was terrified over what Esau might do to him, so Jacob decided to send ahead of himself all that he possessed. All this, a scheme of sorts, to gain his brother’s favor.
He found himself by the Jabbok River and a strange visitor appeared in the dark. The two of them wrestle through the night.
24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
What Genesis makes clear is that it was at the least and angel of God, if not God incarnate as Hosea seems to suggest:
3… and in his manhood he strove with God.
4 He strove with the angel and prevailed…
What Hosea is doing here is holding up a mirror to Israel. Israel thought they could manage the complexities of their lives by scheming and deceiving. And like Jacob, they thought they could manage God on their terms.
Going beyond these verses, we know that Israel manufactured their own religion in which they attempted to mix the worship of Yahweh and other gods. They wanted what they wanted on their terms.
Delivered (4-6)
Delivered (4-6)
In verse 4, we are told that Jacob prevailed, but that he also wept and sought his favor. This seems to signal a shift in Jacob’s storyline.
He goes from a life of deceit and dominance to one of deliverance. He is there in the dark, fighting against someone he cannot overcome, and then realizes his need.
The way that Jacob prevailed was through surrender. Through His deliverance from himself and his self-centered ways.
This prevailing is summed up in what he said:
26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Jacob recognized that his efforts to bless himself were in vain. No clever scheming or maneuvering could achieve what he wanted. He could only come to have this from the only one who could provide it.
And so continuing in verse 4, Hosea appeals to Israel: He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us.
It was at Bethel that Jacob first met with God who spoke to him from a ladder to heaven:
12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!
Later, after returning from his long journeys back to Bethel, and spoke with God (as referenced at the end of verse 4)
This was Jacob’s first God-honoring meeting with God. Jacob was a changed man. A delivered man. God revealed Himself to Jacob:
11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
It is to this meeting that Hosea refers to in 12:5
5 the Lord, the God of hosts,
the Lord is his memorial name:
Again, the LSB brings out the covenantness of God’s name here:
Even Yahweh, the God of hosts, Yahweh us His name of remembrance.
Israel had become the opposite of what Jacob had become. The people of Israel had corrupted themselves with idols in Bethel, Jacob discovered the true living God at Bethel.
So there is a call to Israel to return in verse 6
6 “So you, by the help of your God, return,
hold fast to love and justice,
and wait continually for your God.”
Return to the Lord for the grace of His covenant. Stop your wayward, weak worldly ways, Stop trying to deceive and dominate your way to what you believe will be a satisfying life. There is no life apart from submission to God.
