LOVE REJECTED
INTRODUCTION:
Today we will focus on the tragedy of rejecting God’s love. The Israelites of Hosea’s day rejected God’s love by turning to idolatry and attributing the blessings God had given them to the fertility gods.
I/ ISRAEL REJECTS GOD
Hosea 12:1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
"Israel (Ephraim) feedeth on the wind"
How much nourishment is there in the wind. This reminds me of someone who is willing to listen to empty promises. Something like listening to a politician, a bunch of "hot air".
In this case Israel was listening to the lies and fabrications of the Assyrians. In Prov 15:14 it says; The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.
Next, the Lord says that Israel followeth after the east wind What is meant by the east wind ? In Jer 18:17 the Lord said: I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. This verse seems to say that the east wind is variable, not steady, as a west wind. So we are to see that Israel was not steady, that Israel was variable as an east wind, not knowing where she was going.
Even worse, verse 1 says that "Israel daily increaseth lies and desolation" To see what God thinks about lying let’s look at Psa 101:7 where it says; He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.
Desolation, means to make waste, Israel was by her sin making waste to all that was good.
Family’s were being broken up, marriages broken and destroyed, and all for the sake of the worship of the fertility god Baal.
Finally to make things worse Israel was now rejecting God and making covenant’s with the Assyrians.
The people of Israel "rejected" God, it is actually what rejection is, to leave, it is throwing away, it is pushing aside, it is having nothing to do with someone, you turn your back, you ignore.
God is angry that they do not "recognize" Him any more, recognize means that they no longer wanted to "know" Him, rejection!!.
It is so ironical, that in the rejection of the true God, Israel reached out to another god, the false god Baal, who had done nothing for them.
Turning to Judah in the south in verse 2, the Lord reminds Judah of the lesson God taught Jacob.
II A LESSION FROM JACOB FOR JUDAH
Hosea 12:2-5 The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.
The story of Jacob highlighted in this narrative is detailed in Genesis 25-36. Hosea uses it to communicate what the Lord wants to see happen to the nation that he loves so greatly.
The first phrase in verse 3 recalls that from the moment of birth and into manhood, Jacob had been a conniver and a deceiver: "In the womb he took his brother by the heel...."
Even before he came out of his mother Rebekah’s womb, he tried to cheat his twin brother Esau; he was born with his hand clutching Esau’s heel.
Remember Jacob stealing his brother’s birthright after they were grown, and then manipulating his father Isaac to give him the blessing of the first-born. Understandably, there was terrible conflict between the two brothers as a result. Jacob, fearing for his life, left home and ran for Aram to live with his uncle.
He offered to work seven years for Rachel’s hand in marriage, and Laban agreed to that, but he had a trick up his sleeve. When the seven years were up, Jacob asked for his beloved Rachel, and Laban gave a wedding feast. But then late at night Laban sent his older daughter Leah instead of Rachel into Jacob’s tent as his wife. Jacob must have had more than enough to drink at that wedding feast, because he didn’t even know until morning that it was Leah and not Rachel with whom he had consummated his marriage.
Laban had outmaneuvered Jacob the manipulator, and he persuaded Jacob to work another week to marry Rachel. But then Jacob had to stay seven more years beyond that to keep her, and somehow Laban convinced him to work another six years beyond that. He ended up spending twenty years in Aram achieving much evidence of physical blessing in his life.
He couldn’t forget what he had done to Esau, and he longed to return home. Although Laban double-crossed him one more time, so that he had to rebuild his flocks and herds, he secretly escaped with great material wealth, leaving full of self-confidence because of all his resources.
Laban came after him with an army, and they negotiated a truce. The only reason that happened was because God intervened; he appeared to Laban and said, "You must deal fairly with Jacob." So Jacob could take no credit for the truce.
In the Genesis narrative it says over and over again, "God was with Jacob," just as he had promised twenty years earlier he would be.
Jacob had been oblivious to that presence and activity in his life, but God was preparing him for a very decisive encounter with Esau and, more importantly, with God himself.
Jacob headed back toward Canaan, he felt a growing sense of dread and panic at the thought of meeting Esau after all he had done to him. The fleshly patterns of manipulation kicked in again, and he sent messengers ahead to assure Esau that he had great flocks to share with him. He went to elaborate lengths to prepare for this encounter.
In a telling comment in Genesis 32:20, Jacob said to himself, "I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me." This issue of acceptance was central in Jacob’s life. That was what he longed for. He had never really experienced it from his father Isaac, and he certainly had no right to expect it from his brother Esau because of the way he had treated him.
What Jacob didn’t understand was that only God could give that precious gift. When we receive God’s gift of acceptance, we finally have a chance to get free of manipulating people to assure its flow to us. That was exactly what happened to Jacob during the night before he met Esau in Genesis 32.
The Genesis 32 text makes it very clear that God initiated this confrontation in which he wrestled with Jacob all night at the ford of the brook Jabbok. Jacob called the place Peniel, which means "the face of God." He said, "...I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). As that crucial night of confrontation was coming to an end, God dislocated Jacob’s hip (perhaps broke it); and Jacob limped the rest of his life because of that dislocation.
God did that so he couldn’t fight anymore; because he wouldn’t let the Lord go until he blessed him. The deepest need in Jacob’s life was to know God’s blessing, and it is the deepest need in all of our lives.
The lack of a sense of God’s blessing was the real cause of his deceptive, manipulative life.
In that wrestling match with God, Jacob had to face the man he had been and relinquish the control of his life to God. As that struggle persisted it must have included soul-searching honesty, a confession of sin against God.
All of us have to have a Jabbok encounter, a time when we come to an end of trying to manipulate life, other people, and especially God himself. Our Jabbok is when we are completely honest with God and we confess our patterns of duplicity, compulsiveness, impatience, and pretending to be things we’re not. Our real self meets the true God, and we go to the mat over who is going to run our life.
As a result of Jacob’s encounter with God, he was given a new name. No longer was he "the deceiver," or "the manipulator." Now he was Israel, "God strives" (or "exalted one with God"). God would exalt him out of his brokenness and new-found humility before him.
God’s strength had to be shown in Jacob’s weakness.
When morning came it was the beginning of a new life, and we meet the new man Israel. And we do see a change in him in terms of how he related to his brother. The deceitful, willful manipulator had become willing to be molded by God. There was a new compassion in him, a gentleness and tenderness that we have never seen before.
When he went to meet Esau, Esau ran to him and fell on him and embraced him. And listen to what Jacob said to his brother now: "...Truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God, with such favor have you received me.
Accept, I pray you, my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me...." (Genesis 33:10-11). For the first time in his life he understood God’s gift of love and the blessing that God wanted to give.
The transformation of Jacob is exactly what Hosea sees that both the northern and southern kingdoms need. Both kingdoms are mentioned in our passage; both are equally guilty of deceit and manipulation.
He wants them to be like their forefather in turning to the Lord and being honest before him, in meeting God the way Jacob did.
Hosea 12:6 Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.
In other words, "Your name is Israel; therefore Yahweh is your God. So learn to live like your forefather-after the Jabbok encounter with God, not before.
Alexander the Great said to his cowardly son who bore his name, "Either change your character, or change your name." But that is not what Hosea says to the nation Israel. He says, "Claim your name, claim your identity in the Lord. Live with mercy and justice rather than with lies and manipulation.
Return to God, stop wrestling against him and let him strive for you on your behalf. Wait for your God to bless you. You will find your true identity and purpose and hope and survival only in your God.
There are two key phrases in verse 6. The first one is, "... turn thou to thy God:...." It is an incredible relief to know that even our returning to the Lord, our repentance, is dependent on his help. It is impossible to return to him without his enabling us by his grace.
And the other key phrase is, "... wait on thy God continually.." It is hard to learn how to wait on the Lord continually as a lifestyle. But the Old Testament says that those who wait for God will never be frustrated. God will act in his own time to effect his purpose. Those who wait for God to act will be renewed in their strength. The Lord is good to those who wait for him.
We as Christians can be like Jacob, persistently striving against God, and the issue is our will. Willfulness is a distortion of the gift God gave us of being able to make choices. It is turning that against God. It is being demanding of those around us, and manipulating others so that we are the center of attention. It expresses itself in inflexibility and a need to be in charge.
I am learning that the opposite of willfulness, with its peculiar blend of false self-sufficiency and posturing, is meekness. Jesus lived this quality of meekness. He said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle [meek] and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). Jesus made meekness one of the sure signs that we have accepted our blessedness of being chosen, called, and cherished by the Lord. Jesus also said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).
III/ GOD REJECTS ISRAEL
Hosea 13:2,3 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
What does God do? What now? What is God’s reaction to The Northern Kingdom’s rejection? Simple: rejection! Man’s rejection of God leads to God’s rejection of man, verse 2 says they sin more and more.
You know that love is a strong emotion, but definitely far more is the anger that develops because love is being rejected. By turning from God to embrace fertility gods, Ephraim went from glory to death.
Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
Isaiah, (Hosea’s contemporary), said: Man is nothing, a particle of dust in the cosmos, a drop, God could forget man he has deserved it.
As you forget about the particle of dust on your shoe, as you forget about the drop of water on the tap, the cosmos and man could go into eternity,
without God.
But then the Trinity calls out:
"God the Father: But how can I give you up?,
God the Son: How can I reject you?,
God the Holy Ghost: How can I destroy you?,
God continues to plead:
Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
You are a particle of dust, but I love you, You are a drop, but My love burns for you, And Jesus Christ becomes man, to bear man’s punishment on the cross!
"there is no saviour beside me."
The disciples knew this about Jesus see: John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
We are like that, there is no other salvation for man, other than the door, the way, the truth, the life, Jesus!
