Hosea 12 LEARN FROM YOUR HERITAGE By taking the time to go over our past and that of our forefathers, we can learn many valuable lessons and hopefully not make the same mistakes that others did. At the time of Hosea, the people of Israel were using their olive oil as a way to buy military support from Egypt. But the cost of disobedience is far higher than the price of oil. Feeding on wind and chasing the wind would only give them worthless promises from Egypt and Assyria. So, God called upon Judah first and then Israel to go back over their heritage and learn lessons from Jacob.
God had a legal complaint against Judah because of their deceit. All of the descendants of Jacob were using deceit and self-sufficiency to get ahead like Jacob did. Right from the time he was born he was in conflict with God when he took hold of Esau's foot. Hosea's message follows Jacob from the time of his birth and the deceitful acts of the "supplanter," to the time of his blessing when he put away the idols from his household and became Israel, "a prince with God." Then he reminds Judah of the blessings of Bethel. The difference between Jacob, the ancestor and the people of Israel was that he quit idolatry, deceit and self-sufficiency and returned to the Lord. All of us need to remember it is the Lord God of hosts with whom we are dealing. God promised to deliver them if they would return to Him like Jacob did.
When we return to the Lord, the principles of love and justice that He shows to us work. God intends His people to live by these two principles because they are based in the character of God. They are essential but must be kept in balance. Love without justice leaves people in their sins without a standard, and it excuses their wrongdoing. Justice without love can be harsh because it has no heart and drives people away in bitterness. We need both principles to balance our lives as families, churches and nations.
But no. Israel was like a cheating merchant who uses scales to weigh and measure that were not in balance and they were living dishonestly. They were rich, but success and riches do not make up for sin. Dishonesty can become a way to get rich, but wealth is not a sign of God's approval. wealth that is spent in right ways does not make up for the sin of getting it in wrong ways. God calls His people to faithfulness to Him, not affluence. Hard work, initiative and intelligence may be the way we get material success, but that does not mean we do not need God. All of our riches and resources come from God in the first place, and He expects them to be used as a stewardship for His purposes.
Hosea's message went on from Judah to Israel reminding them of their rich heritage but now they were guilty of apostasy. Jacob's wages were the wages of deceit but his wives were objects of devotion. Israel was deceitful in its relationship with God, but God was still loving in His relationship to Israel. Love is not given at the expense of the law. Israel had ignored the warnings from prophets, so instead of having an annual feast they would go into poverty and bondage. To forget our humble beginnings is to forget God's grace to us all through the years to bring us to where we are now.
Both Jacob and Moses, a patriarch and a prophet, had both been shepherds and fugitives, and both had had personal experiences with God when they ran away from where God had placed them. Both of them returned to the Lord and were accepted and blessed. God used Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt to the place of blessing. Now they had left God, had sacrificed their children to idols and there was an account to be repaid. There will be judgment even though God's love is real and changeless. The useless altars at Gilead in the east and Gilgal in the west that Israel had erected were valueless as far as any benefit to them, but now they were going to be left alone by God to suffer the consequences of guilt and contempt they had never repented of. By their wickedness as a people and their idolatry they have been condemned to pay for their sins - and it is still happening.