Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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.
The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah;
    he will punish Jacob according to his ways
    and repay him according to his deeds.
In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
    as a man he struggled with God.
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—
the Lord God Almighty,
    the Lord is his name!
But you must return to your God;
    maintain love and justice,
    and wait for your God always.
The merchant uses dishonest scales
    and loves to defraud.
Ephraim boasts,
    “I am very rich; I have become wealthy.
With all my wealth they will not find in me
    any iniquity or sin.”
“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.
I spoke to the prophets,
    gave them many visions
    and told parables through them.”
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.
Jacob fled to the country of Aram;
    Israel served to get a wife,
    and to pay for her he tended sheep.
The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,
    by a prophet he cared for him.
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.

• Hosea 12:1-14

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Hosea 11:12-14:8 ‘Israel’s Sin and God’s Salvation’: “The prophecies in this passage intermix past and future fulfillment. Hosea begins by contrasting the nation of Israel with Jacob, the father of Israel (11:12-12:14). Whereas Jacob sought after God and His blessing, Israel sought idolatry and, for that reason, calamity came upon the land (13 1-16). However, the judgment upon Israel, which will be a judgment of destruction, will not be total (13:14), for God declares that death and Sheol will nor win, and God intends to ransom Israel from Sheol and death. When God declares that ‘compassion will be hidden from My sight’ (13: 14). He is saying that He will not change His mind about the future salvation of Israel. Therefore, it will indeed come.
“Hosea concludes with a look at Israel’s future and final salvation (14:1-8). He begins with a call to repentance (verses 1-3), which is followed by God’s promise that once Israel does repent, God will indeed respond (verses 4-5). This in turn will lead to Israel’s future fruitfulness (verses 5-8). Thus, in the messianic kingdom, Israel will be a fruit-bearing nation that will benefit the Gentiles as well. With that positive note, Hosea concludes his book by confessing his great impression of the wisdom of God, just as the apostle Paul does in Romans 11:33-36.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Hosea 12:1-6 ‘trusting worldly alliances’: “Israel repeatedly pursued alliances with foreign nations (12:1), leading to idolatry and further failure to rely on the Lord. Though Judah had generally been more faithful, God had a dispute with them, too, and would repay him based on his actions (12:2). He reminds Judah of how Jacob had wrestled with God and sought his favor (12:3-4). Judah must also look to God for his blessing and not to foreign nations or false gods.
“Return to your God. Maintain love and justice, and always put your hope in God (12:6). That’s solid advice for the believer who has strayed from the path. God stands ready to receive those who make God’s agenda of love and justice their own.”

• Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 12:1 ‘Ephraim’s Desertion of God’: “The foolishness of Ephraim’s desertion of God culminated in a senseless and ultimately dangerous foreign policy. Here Ephraim is shown courting two foreign powers that were each other’s enemy. She made a ‘treaty’ with Assyria, while at the same time paying a tribute of ‘olive oil’ to Egypt. This madness would eventually lead to Ephraim’s destruction by these two volatile forces.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 12:1 ‘Substitutes for God do not work’: “Substitutes for God’s love simply do not work. However, this truth does not keep people from trying them!
“The word forfeeds means grazes. Imagine a hungry sheep ignoring the grass around him and chewing the wind instead. The idea is ridiculous. But this is the way the Hebrews were living. They looked for sustenance and meaning in things other than the Lord.
“Assyria and Egypt were large and powerful countries. Rather than trusting the Lord’s protection, the Hebrews sought treaties sending the wealth of Israel to their adversaries. A treaty encouraging the sale and trade of goods stimulates commerce and economic wealth. Still, the ultimate source of security and treasure was the Lord alone. Do not expect any other person, power, or ally to do what God alone can do.”

• Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets

Hosea 12:1 ‘Quote’: “God’s love is so delightful—any other pleasure seems dismal in comparison with it. – Catherine of Genoa”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 12:2-4 ‘character formed in the womb’: “Many people have questioned why God put it in His Word that Jacob took hold of his brother Esau’s heel. It is interesting to note that today medicine and psychology have said that probably the most important period of a man’s life is when he is in the womb, because even in the womb character is being formed as well as the human body. This little fellow Jacob began to reveal something in the womb—he revealed that he wanted to be the firstborn. Although Esau beat him out, Jacob wanted to be the firstborn. I do not know how to explain it other than to say that it was in his heart from the very beginning. He wrestled at his birth, and God had to wrestle with him later on in his life at Peniel to bring him to submission so that He would be able to bless him. ‘Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed.’ How did he prevail? Was he a better wrestler? Would he appear on television today as an outstanding wrestler? No, Jacob wasn’t much of a wrestler. He had his ears pinned back and his shoulders pinned to the mat. God had him down, but he won. How did he win? By surrendering. My friend, you can fight God all you want to, but you’ll never win until you surrender to Him.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 12:2 ‘Jacob’: “Frequently used interchangeably with ‘Israel’ (cf. 10:11; Gen. 32:28).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 12:5 ‘known by His name’: “The name Jehovah, or ‘the LORD,’ is a name God gave to Israel as a memorial. He said, ‘You will always know Me by My name. I am Jehovah, the self-existing one, the living God.’ We do not need images to remind us of God. His very name expresses His nature.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 12:6 ‘practice what you preach’: “These people needed to practice what they preached. In our day, the worship of Satan and the giving over to homosexuality is leading to the basest of crimes. Only by coming to the living God and waiting upon Him continually will we have mercy and justice; they go together—you will not have one without the other.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 12:7-14 ‘Israel lacked love and justice’: “Israel, on the other hand, lacked love and justice. Judah only needed to look at Israel’s practice of dishonest scales, that is, making things to be heavier than what they were in order to make a greater profit. Their scales lied, and they thought no one observed their deception: No one can find any iniquity in me that I can be punished for (12:8). This is the height of arrogance and ignorance. The God who brought Isra-el out of Egypt (12:9), spoke through the prophets, and gave them visions (12:10) knew Israel’s crimes and would punish them for them. Their pagan altars at Gilead and Gilgal would be turned into piles of rocks (12:11). The Lord would repay Ephraim for his contempt (12:14).”

• Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 12:7 ‘swindling’: “Swindling people can make you wealthy, but it certainly does not make you right with God. Rather than resulting in a comfortable lifestyle, the Lord says their destiny will be the opposite of the prosperity they pursued.”

• Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets

Hosea 12:8 ‘dishonest gain – not a blessing’: “In other words, Ephraim felt he was able to buy his way with money. He had made his money dishonestly, but he thought he was being blessed of God.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 12:9 ‘living in tents’: “In Old Testament days, wealth often was held in real estate. God eventually will cause them to live like nomads in tents, as people without land. Soon, when the Assyrians defeated Israel, the Hebrews journeyed into exile in tents. The reference to appointed festivals referred to the Festival of Tabernacles which took place annually in late September. During this week, the Hebrews lived in tents on their property as a reminder of the time Moses and their ancestors traveled through the wilderness living in tents. This festival gave Israel a brief sampling of this lifestyle. But soon, it would become their daily existence.”

• Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets

Hosea 12:10‘they had been warned’: “God had not left his people without guidance, warning and instruction. He had given words and visions to the prophets, as well as using their lives as living parables of his teachings. Hosea’s marriage to Gomer is an obvious example.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 12:11 ‘heaps in the furrows’: “As gathered and piled stones would dot a farmer’s field, so Israel multiplied her stone altars across the land. ‘Gilgal’ means ‘a heap of stones,’ so this is a play on words.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 12:14 ‘blood upon his own head’: “’Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him.’ His blood shall rest upon his own head, for he is guilty and deserves death. Blood had been shed profusely, and the guilt of his sin remained upon him.
“Israel had turned from God, and therefore He must judge them.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

My Thoughts

I like the Rev. McCluskey metaphor of a sheep who ignores the grass in the meadow in favor of the wind.  Ephraim was making a good profit on a combination of cheating, falsehood and violence.  Part of the falsehood was negotiating an alliance with Assyria while secretly selling olive oil to Egypt.  Since those two powers did not like each other, or were actively at war with one another, that was not a safe move on Ephraim’s part.

Hosea is talking to Ephraim, but he makes an aside comment about Judah being no different.  But Israel is called Jacob momentarily to remind Ephraim of the ways that Jacob had cheated his father-in-law Laban.  Laban’s sons were telling Laban how Jacob was cheating him.  It was this fear of getting caught that caused Jacob to pack everything and leave in the night, going back to his father Isaac.  And on the way back, Jacob had the audacity to wrestle with God.

Ephraim and Judah had not fallen far from that cheating family tree.

Then, verse 6 interrupts to give them their escape clause.  They need to repent and come back to God.

But it seems that they are too far gone.  The merchants use unfair scales.

The stories of the butcher with his thumb on the scales is no longer funny.  Most people expect him to do it.

I have written about a woman at a local grocery store who is constantly talking to the other checkout ladies.  She tells them how customers steal from the store.  She had accused me twice and I had to prove that I was not guilty while other customers watched.  In the midst of one of these lectures, I had selected about one pound of apples.  I placed them in a produce bag.  Since there were several types of apples, she needed the code off that tag.  She would never trust me when I said they were Pink Lady Apples (the most expensive apple that they had per pound – so, why would I lie about that?).  She confirmed they were Pink Lady Apples, but she had removed them from the produce bag.  Now, they were out of the bag.  She held them on the scales to keep them from rolling.

I thought the bill for the half dozen items was too much, but I paid the bill and went home.  I had a busy day, and I did not want to start a stink while she was already accusing me of shoplifting, in a sense.  The receipt said that I had purchased five pounds of apples, one pound of apples and four pounds of her hands “keeping the apples from rolling.”

My point is that if you have cheating in your heart.  You will accuse others of cheating because if you were in their shoes, and she was, she would cheat others.  It was what was in her heart, and everywhere she looked, she imagined seeing everyone cheating her.  But holding apples on the scales to change the weight from one pound to five pounds is a form of dishonest scales – something God hates.

I rarely go to that store, especially since I rarely drive by the store now that my wife has passed away.  It was a convenient stop on the way home in those days after I dropped my wife off at kidney dialysis.

God tells Ephraim through Hosea that the people will soon be living in tents like they do during the festival of booths (Tabernacles) to reminds the people that they wandered after escaping Egyptian slavery.

Hosea again mentions Gilead and Gilgal.  He mentions Gilead twice in this book.  Gilead is where the town’s people raped and murdered the concubine of a travelling Levite, on his way to serve at the Tabernacle.  And Gilgal is mentioned three times in Hosea.  Gilgal is where Joshua camped after crossing the Jordan River.  They had made a monument there to remind everyone of the wonders God had done for them.  Joshua had every man circumcised at Gilgal.  He celebrated the Passover at Gilgal.  And only then did they attack Jericho.  The people were supposed to remind their children every time they passed the pile of rocks.  But they forgot what God had done and they defiled Gilgal.

Now, instead of having the stones as a reminder, the people of Ephraim will be the stones, scattered in a field, the stones that the farmer picks up and throws to the side so that he can keep plowing the field.  Those stones are hated by the farmer.  It means extra work.  Ephraim will be hated and tossed aside, living in tents with no place to call home.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Hosea 12 1. Do you or your church try to live off your history or reputation in any way? How so?
“2. Are Jacob’s tactics (clever alliances, self-reliance, and lip-service to God) a part of your life at all? How so?
“3. Jacob, after years of scheming, was finally changed by a direct encounter with God. How are you being changed by knowing Christ?
“4. Do you think the rich have more problems being Christians than the poor? How?
“5. How has God cared for you by disciplining you?
“6. ls God calling attention to some-thing now, but you’re not hearing him? What is it?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Hosea 12 has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.