Hosea 12

Hosea 12 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

In this chapter the prophet Hosea charges God’s people with vanity, violence and violating their covenant with God among many other things, and God promises to repay Israel according to her sins. Then he reminds them of how their forefather Jacob once wrestled with a mysterious man till the break of day and begged for his blessing. In this text, which serves as a commentary on Genesis 32, the prophet reveals that the man was the Angel of the Lord, none other than God himself that Jacob was wrestling with that night. And it was on that same night that the Lord changed his name from “Jacob,” which means deceiver or supplanter, to “Israel,” which signifies one who wrestles with God to obtain his blessings.

The purpose of the prophet recalling this past event is to help the nation of Israel to see that they are acting like the old man Jacob prior to his encounter with God. Instead of looking to God for a blessing, the Israelites are looking to Assyria and Egypt, and they are acting like the old deceiver Jacob in grasping at his brother’s heel, and in deceiving his uncle Laban like a merchant who uses false balances in order to gain wealth for himself. Israel has reverted to relying upon itself rather than upon the Lord and they have forgotten the memorial name of the Lord, the “Great I Am.” And now, in all of their pride and wealth, the Lord will humble them, making them to dwell in tents once again as in the days of the appointed feast, the feast of tabernacles, which was meant to remind Israel of how the Lord had provided for all their needs during those forty years in the wilderness.

It seems that the Lord sometimes has to use extreme measures to get our attention, to wake us up from our spiritual slumber and to humble us that we might once again turn to the Lord and look to him for our blessings. When we take our eyes off the Lord, we naturally revert to fighting with men. We see that so clearly even in the Garden of Eden. As soon as Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, not only did they hide from the Lord, but they fought with each other, and blamed each other for their sin. Not too long afterward, their firstborn son, Cain, murders his younger brother Abel over jealous rivalry. Although it is not always so bloody, this is the way of the world, this dog-eat-dog environment in which people will do whatever it takes to be successful, even if that means hurting others. With God out of the picture, Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest starts to make sense. But that is not the way it was the beginning, and that is not the way of Christ.

Therefore, the prophet’s primary exhortation in this passage is found in v.6, “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” Notice how the prophet doesn’t say merely “return to God.” He wants them to see that they are not even capable of doing that in their flesh. They can’t simply just change their mind and seek the Lord again. Paul says in Philippians 2:13 that “it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Not only are you unable to do the good works that God requires of you, you are unwilling to do them apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in your life softening your heart towards Him and filling you with new spiritual impulses.

Since this is the case, the first act of turning back to the Lord—or of turning to Him for the first time—is simply turning to Him in prayer and acknowledging that He has called you to repentance and that He has commanded you to seek Him, and then asking the Lord to give you a heart of repentance and a heart that wills to keep His commands. This seems to be the substance of St. Augustine’s prayer, “O Lord, command what you will, and give what you command.” This would be a good prayer to pray anytime you open the Bible or hear the word of God preached, for only the Lord enables us to understand, to believe, to repent, to obey, to love, to rejoice and to give Him the glory.