Hosea 12

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 34:1-3
• Hymn — When Morning Gilds the Skies (#167)
• Shorter Catechism — Questions 51 & 52
• Hymn — On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn (#172)
• Benediction

---

Sermon Title: Remember Who You Are

Scripture: Hosea 12:1-14

I. Israel Is to Remember Their Helpless Estate — Hosea 12:1-6

A. Israel has made covenants with Assyria and given oil to Egypt, acting more like the surrounding Canaanite nations than like the people of God

B. God draws Israel back to their origin story in Jacob

1. In the womb, Jacob grabbed Esau's heel — the name "Jacob" means deceiver/supplanter (Hosea 12:3)
2. In maturity, Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord at Peniel and prevailed — his name was changed to Israel, "he strives with God" (Genesis 32:24-28)
3. Jacob wept and sought God's favor; he met God at Bethel (Genesis 28:10-19)
4. Bethel ("house of God") has become Beth Aven ("house of wickedness") throughout Hosea — Israel now seeks Baal where their fathers sought Yahweh

C. The covenant name Yahweh (LORD of hosts) in verse 5 drives home to whom Israel belongs

D. The call in verse 6: "So you, by the help of your God, return; hold fast to love and justice and wait continually for your God" (Hosea 12:6)

1. This is a call to repentance — not self-improvement by bootstraps, but helpless dependence on God
2. Mature Jacob/Israel reached manhood not through scheming but through weeping and crying out to God in desperation
3. Jacob no longer sought God's blessing through deceit (birthright for porridge) but through grace and faith — this is true maturity

II. Israel Is to Remember Their Humble Beginnings — Hosea 12:7-9

A. "Merchant" in verse 7 is the same Hebrew word as "Canaanite" — Israel has adopted the shady dealings of the very nations they were called out of (Hosea 12:7)

B. Israel's prideful boast in verse 8: "I am rich, I have found wealth for myself… they cannot find in me iniquity or sin" (Hosea 12:8)

1. Economic success at its height has blinded Israel to their sin
2. Success frequently blinds us to guilt — we assume prosperity equals righteousness
3. David is the prime example: at the height of his victories he could not see his own sin until Nathan said, "You are the man" (2 Samuel 12)
4. Jesus warned: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24)

C. God's response in verse 9 is to humble Israel: "I will again make you dwell in tents as in the days of the appointed feast" (Hosea 12:9)

1. The Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) was designed to remind Israel of their 40 years of wilderness wandering — sojourners totally dependent on God
2. In the wilderness, Israel depended on God for manna, water from the rock, and guidance into the Promised Land
3. God will strip their pride and return them to humble dependence

D. Application: Recalling our own conversion — the time when the weight of sin came home most clearly — is meant to keep us from the complacency Israel displays; remembering our humble beginnings draws us back to cry out to the Lord

E. True Christian maturity and manhood/womanhood is humility and the cross of Calvary — the soldiers mocked Christ's power, but he held fast in helpless trust to his Father's promise; this is godly maturity

III. Israel Is to Remember to Hear God's Word — Hosea 12:10-14

A. Verse 10 emphasizes Yahweh speaking through the prophets in various forms: "I spoke to the prophets, it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables" (Hosea 12:10)

B. Verse 11 contrasts the living, speaking God with the voiceless idols at Gilead and Gilgal

1. "Gilgal" means "heap of stones" — the altars there will become useless heaps (Hosea 12:11)
2. Israel is going to dead idols while the living God speaks through his prophets

C. Hebrew parallelism in verses 12–13: Jacob served for a wife (Rachel); a prophet (Moses) brought Israel up from Egypt and kept/guarded them (Hosea 12:12-13)

1. Yahweh binds himself in covenant to his people through his word and his prophets
2. To forget the word of God is to forget the covenant with God — they cannot be separated

D. The covenant is made and kept by God's word, not by Israel's word or effort — covenant keeping is found in binding ourselves to and resting in his word

E. The ultimate fulfillment: the writer to the Hebrews declares that God who spoke through the prophets "in many times and in many ways" has in these last days spoken through his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2)

1. Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate (John 1:1-14)
2. He is the first and only true covenant keeper because he is the very word that establishes and keeps covenant in human form
3. Isaiah 49:8 — "I will keep you as a covenant to the people": the Messiah himself is the covenant
4. New covenant Christians are to rest in and remember Christ — the covenant-making and covenant-keeping Word incarnate — trusting him as helpless, humble children