HOSEA 12
The references to Jacob in this chapter are remarkable, and brought in apparently without much connection with what the prophet is speaking of. He suddenly leaves all the present failure to dwell upon the energy which had characterised their great forefather. It had been said prophetically before the children were born that “the elder shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25: 23), but it also came out that there was an energy in Jacob to make good what had been said of him. “He took his brother by the heel in the womb”, verse 3. The very name Jacob means heel-holder, or supplanter. It intimates that, along with God’s election, there is always found an inward energy to displace or dispossess that which according to nature came first. Esau represents what we are by nature as children of Adam, but Jacob represents what we are by God’s grace and election. The work of God in souls is the consequence of His election, and He brings it in to dispossess that which actually preceded it in point of time, so that persons take a course which they never would have taken naturally. Israel in turning from Jehovah to idolatry had given up all thought of displacing the elder, the Esau man. This was the root of all the terrible departure and unfaithfulness; they had gone back to the man whom God hated. They no doubt boasted in having Jacob as their father, but they had not Jacob’s energy to supplant the “elder”. The distinction between the old man and the new could not really be known until the death of Christ had taken place, but we read the typical Scriptures in the light of what is now made known. There should have been energy in God’s elect to supplant the man after the flesh, and with that man supplanted by the work of God there would have been no departure, no idolatry. It raises the question with each one of us [p. 15] whether we have energy to claim, as it were, place for the “younger”. That which is divinely wrought in us is to supplant all that was there previously. It is only thus that faithfulness can be maintained in the affections.
Then we find that the energy by which Jacob took his brother by the heel developed into energy acting Godward. “In his strength he wrestled with God. Yea, he wrestled with the Angel, and prevailed”, verses 3, 4. In the historical account (Genesis 32) we are told first that “a man wrestled with him”, but Hosea does not dwell upon that; the point before the Spirit of God here was to bring out the energy that was in Jacob. It was true that he had first to be crippled as to his natural power before he could prevail with God, but he had spiritual strength to wrestle with God. We have read of Paul agonizing, for that is the word used in Colossians 2: 1, and he uses the same word of Epaphras, “who is one of you” in Colossians 4: 12. It conveys the thought of great energy Godward expended on behalf of His saints. A well-known servant of the Lord used to say sometimes to persons who came to him with questions, Have you ever spent a night in prayer about it? I think most of us have to deplore a lack of energy Godward, and yet this is how the knowledge of God comes in power into the soul. Tears, too, have their place in this. “He wept, and made supplication unto him”; verse 4. How humbling to idolatrous Israel to be reminded of the energy with which their great ancestor had sought the knowledge of Jehovah, and yet they had given Him up for every worthless idol that presented itself to them! Perhaps it is hardly less humbling to some of us. In all this God was saying to Israel, and is now saying to us, that His elect come to light by the energy and purpose of heart with which they seek Him.
“He found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us, even Jehovah, the God of hosts, — Jehovah is his memorial”; verses 4, 5. Early in his history Jacob had been favoured with an impression of the house of God so that he could give it a name, but it was many years before he came to it in suitability. There were strange gods in his household which had to be put away, and other matters which had to be faced, before God could find him in Bethel in a condition suited to the place. But eventually he was found there, and if Jacob could be found there why should not all Israel be found there? All this is like Jehovah saying to His poor idolatrous people, ‘I want you to go over Jacob’s history yourselves, and come to what he came to’. Why should [p. 16] any of us allow idols to keep us away from the house of God where He is willing to speak with us, and to bring us into the blessedness of the revelation of Himself in love? We read, “And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Bethel”; Genesis 35:15. Is it possible for God to talk with us? Indeed, it is. For the Spirit leading Hosea to say, “there he spoke with us”, shows that God speaking in His house has all His people in view. But the speaking is there, and if we want to hear it we must come there. God’s revealed name is His memorial; for us it is the Father revealed in the Son. It is dreadful how lightly people treat the revelation of God, which is truly the greatest blessedness of the creature. What are all the idols in the world worth if we think of them from a moral point of view? But God speaks that we may know what is in His heart and mind for us, the outcome of what He is, and He would have us to know His house as the place where He speaks.
It was “Jehovah, the God of hosts” who spoke in His house, God known in relation to “hosts” blessed by Him. The speaking in the house today takes character from the fact that God has been declared, the Father’s name made known, by His beloved Son. If He is made known as Father it implies that He would have men to know Him as acting in supreme favour, and to be set in relationship with Him in that character. The hosts now are children and sons; they are for God’s delight as “in Christ Jesus”. The place and relationship in which they are set corresponds with the Name which has been made known to them, and all is of infinite grace and love. At Peniel Jacob had said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me”, Genesis 32: 26. And we are told that God “blessed him there”, and said that his name should be called Israel, meaning wrestler, or prince of God. But at Bethel it was definitely said, “And he called his name Israel”, Genesis 35: 10. That is, he was there as having a distinguished name, and for us this means that we are there as sons. We must first take up the Jacob exercise of supplanting the fleshly and the natural, and then we shall have energy Godward to secure His blessing, and we shall get a princely name in the house of God, and God will talk with us on that footing, and make His name known to us. All this is viewed here as reached through Jacob’s inward exercise and energy in seeking the knowledge of God. It is to stir up our hearts to greater earnestness with regard to God’s blessing, and our place in His house as sons. It is not the gospel side of the truth that we receive sonship as God’s gift, but [p. 17] the energy on our side that will not rest until we are consciously in the dignity of it in the house of God.
The second reference to Jacob in this chapter brings out another side of the truth. “Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep”. I have no doubt that, in saying this, the Spirit had in mind that Jehovah had been serving for a prolonged period to secure Israel in wifely relationship to Himself. The wifely place to which Israel was called has a very prominent place in this book. It had been written that “Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they were in his eyes as single days, because he loved her”, Genesis 29: 20. It was a touching expression, in a typical way, of how Jehovah had loved Israel; He had served from the time of Moses onward to win Israel for Himself. His service had been carried on mediately through those by whom He had acted, as we read in the next verse, “And by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved”, Hosea 12: 13. “Preserved” here is the same word as “kept” in verse 12. The whole of God’s prophetic service in Israel, from Moses to Malachi in the Old Testament, and by John the baptist and Christ Himself in the New Testament, was to keep the people for Jehovah that they might be in true wifely relation to Him. All the God-sent prophets laboured for this, and yet the service of love was unrequited. Israel had turned out unfaithful and idolatrous, as this very prophet bears witness in his strong expostulations and pleadings. And the Lord Himself had to say, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain”, Isaiah 49: 4. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not”, Matthew 23: 37.
The thought of serving for a wife is not limited to Israel; it is brought over into the relations of Christ with the assembly. How He served when He delivered Himself up for it! And in sanctifying and cleansing it by the washing of water by the word He is serving that He may have His wife in suitability to Himself. He serves by means of the gifts He has given. If Israel for a wife kept sheep, it suggests to us that all the shepherd-service of Christ to His own has in view that He may have them as His wife. Whatever He does for us individually will ultimately work out in His having the assembly for the satisfaction of His love, and in responsive affection to Him as His wife. The book of Hosea would raise the question with us whether His blessed service has [p. 18] had the present result of really securing us in wifely affection and devotion. Alas! much of the Christian profession has taken on the character of the great harlot spoken of in Revelation 17.
Israel in princely dignity in the house of God corresponds with the thought of sonship as seen in this book; chapter 1: 10; 11: 1. The wife, for whom Israel served, typifies the faithful and responsive affection in a feminine way, the lack of which in the people of God is so deplored in this book. Sonship Godward and wifely faithfulness and affection Christward are two of the most precious and affecting thoughts of divine love. It is intended that they shall both be realised in the assembly during the present period, and that they shall give character to the service of the assembly as convened. But as it was with Israel, so has it been with the assembly: the great thoughts of divine love have been departed from. Hence it has become necessary to return. “Return unto thy God: keep loving-kindness and judgment, and wait on thy God continually”, verse 6. The word “return” is both humbling and encouraging; humbling, because it Shows there has been departure; encouraging, because it shows that infinite grace makes it possible to return. This we shall See in a most affecting way in the last chapter of this book.