Over fifty years ago I preached my first sermon at my church Bible Class. We, younger men, were encouraged by the older men to study our Bibles and, if possible, to preach God’s word. Most of us young men would probably have started with a well-known Bible story, or even John 3:16. My first sermon was Hosea 12:1 ‘Ephraim Feeds on wind’ and, whilst it was somewhat out of context, I tried in my simple way to expand on the question of ‘What are you feeding on?’
It is apparent that Ephraim was ‘feeding on the wind, pursuing the east wind’. In many countries the east wind was parching and destructive. They had made covenants with Assyria and Egypt. They thought that the oil was beneficial and were looking to earthly things instead of heavenly. They succumbed to foreign idols instead of trusting in The LORD who was solely dependable. It is suggested by some commentators that they gave the Egyptians a gift to attract their support, but when this was done the Egyptians deserted them.
It was useless to trust in these other nations and their gods. In fact, one finds it difficult to understand their choices when The LORD had done so much for them. He had rescued them from slavery in Egypt brought them through the forty years wilderness journey, kept them and fed them, and led into The Promised Land just as He had promised them. Of course, He had removed those who disobeyed Him and only those who remained faithful entered the land. Nevertheless, His faithfulness, power and strength must have been clearly seen.
Often, we are no different to them. We easily forget what God has done for us and resort to other things. We often forget that He is not only a God of mercy, love and grace, but also of justice. This is displayed most clearly in the cross of Calvary where The Lord Jesus took upon Himself our sin and died in our place to pay in full the penalty of sin.
We must feed on the Word of God. In it we have milk for babes and meat for maturing believers. All that we need to grow as a disciple of The Lord Jesus Christ.
Whilst at the end of the previous chapter God had said that Judah was still walking with Him, they were not without fault and here charged Judah and said that He would punish Jacob according to his ways. He refers back to before Jacob and Esau were born, how they struggled in the womb (v2-6). Jacob was a deceiver by nature, and it showed in his early years and even later years. How Jacob wrestled with the angel (Genesis 32) and prevailed but was lame afterwards. Note that the Angel is capitalised, indicating that it was God in a human form. Jacob wept before God as a broken man and sought God’s favour and God changed his name to Israel (a prince with God). Hosea was telling them that God said that Israel was double-dealing just as Jacob had done many years before and they needed to return in repentance to obtain mercy and justice and to wait continually upon God.
We need to repent and return to The Lord and leave our foolish ways.
Nothing can compare to The LORD and Israel/Ephraim might think that they have wealth (v7-11) and even no sin and wrong and that they will have victory over the Canaanites, but those Canaanites are deceitful and will mislead them. Israel/Ephraim had become self-confident in that they had achieved their wealth by their own hands and when things are going well it is hard to believe that they are in trouble. God said that He would bring them down low from their fine houses to dwelling in tents again.
Hosea likened their downfall to that of their ancestor Jacob who fled and served his uncle Laban, looking after sheep to obtain a wife (v12-14). Even though God sent and led them through prophets, they still rejected Him and went their own way. This would end in disaster as The LORD would deal with them.
