For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hosea 11:12 – 12:6

12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
    Israel with deceit.
And Judah is unruly against God,
    even against the faithful Holy One.

1 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.
2 The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah;
    he will punish Jacob according to his ways
    and repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
    as a man he struggled with God.
4 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—
5 the Lord God Almighty,
    the Lord is his name!
6 But you must return to your God;
    maintain love and justice,
    and wait for your God always.

A. Find Out:

1. Against who does the Lord speak? v.12
2. What sins of Israel does He identify? v.1
3. With what does He charge Judah? v.2,6
4. How was that clarified in his early history? v.3
5. Yet what did he come into? v.3,4

B. Think:

1. What again, are Israel’s sins?
2. What appears to be the main sin of Judah spoken against?
3. What do you think is the feel of God’s words about Judah?

C. Comment:

Ephraim, or the northern kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel, is once again indicted with the sins of deceit, lies, violence and of consorting with nations who worship other gods. The futility of all this is pictured as chasing the wind (v.1).

But the southern kingdom, Judah, is now also indicted, although the indictment is somewhat enigmatic. First He says He will simply punish Judah for his ways, but then He uses the name Jacob to describe the southern kingdom, and Jacob was a twister or deceiver. The implication from verse 6 is that Judah had drifted away from the Lord, and the previous verses suggest that the same characteristics of self-effort that had been in Jacob are now in Judah.

The Lord reminds them that from the beginning Jacob was named as a deceiver (see footnote in your Bible). Yes, he had even wrestled with God in his folly but yet out of that had been commended by God and had entered into a long term relationship with the Lord. Now the Lord reminds them of that relationship and that old propensity, and simply calls them to leave the life of self-effort and come back to Him. There is within this word almost a sense of gentleness in the Lord’s call as He remembers Jacob’s youth, almost with a sense of affection, perhaps even a sense of wistful yearning for them. This is the grace and love of God expressed.

D. Application:

1. We needing reminding of our past to remember God’s grace.
2. We need to face the present honestly to assess our relationship.

Passage: Hosea 12:7-14

7 The merchant uses dishonest scales
    and loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim boasts,
    “I am very rich; I have become wealthy.
With all my wealth they will not find in me
    any iniquity or sin.”

9 “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.
10 I spoke to the prophets,
    gave them many visions
    and told parables through them.”

11 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.
12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram;
    Israel served to get a wife,
    and to pay for her he tended sheep.
13 The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,
    by a prophet he cared for him.
14 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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who does what ? v.7
2. How does Israel act and think? v.8
3. What did the Lord do and what will He do? v.9,10
4. What have the people done but what will happen? v.11
5. What had Jacob done in his life? v.12
6. Yet how had Israel, the nation, been brought forth? v.13

B. Think:

1. What had become the attitude of Israel, the nation?
2. How did that echo the early life of Jacob the man?
3. Yet how was the birth of Israel, the nation, different?

C. Comment:

In the first half of the chapter, Judah is likened to Jacob the twister, the self-sufficient one. Now it is Israel’s turn for a similar comparison. The word for “merchant” is similar in sound in the Hebrew to the word Canaan with the subtle inference that Israel have become more like the Canaanites in their behaviour. They boast that they have become rich and self-sufficient, and that leads into the deception of feeling that they are secure. The Lord challenges that security.

First He reminds them that when He brought them out of Egypt they had lived in tents and had not had the security of established towns. He will return them to that state! He had spoken to Israel throughout its history by His prophets, and He will continue to do so. The word will continue to come against the false worship of idols, and the pagan altars will be destroyed and scattered.

Next He contrasts the way Jacob had originally worked in his self-sufficient manner to establish himself and his family. Yet by the time they had grown to the size of a nation, they needed God to deliver them and enable them to come out as a nation. The same is still true today but they, in their foolishness, have fallen for the lie that they can exist without God. They will soon see that they cannot!

D. Application:

1. Sin in us makes us feel self-sufficient. That is deceptive ungodliness!
2. We need God to deliver us from Satan and from sin – today!