Bible Commentaries
Hosea 12

Verses 1-14

2. 12. THE FATHERS ANGER! (11:12; 12:1-6)
       1. (1) Whoever saw sheep ignore the green grass & start grazing on the wind?...Yet, that’s how God’s people were living!
          1. The wind has no nourishment! – Q: Are you knowingly feeding on anything that isn’t spiritually beneficial?
             1. Set down the cotton candy & sit down at the Lord’s banqueting feast!
             2. Quit chasing the wind! – You’re feeding on wind…& it’s all hot air!
          2. (2) Jacob(the builder of the 12 tribes)is an illustration of God’s loving discipline.
             1. Hosea now sites a few key events in Jacob’s life.
             2. Jacob tried to trip up Esau at birth; he fought w/God; but he returned to Bethel(where he originally 1^st met the Lord) & found God’s blessing again.
             3. The time had come for Israel to return to God & repent of their sins.
   13. FOOLED INTO FALSE SECURITY! (7-14)
   16. (7) Show picture: Duck-shaped standardized stone weights from Mesopotamia, 11th-8th century B.C. The weights would be placed on one side of a balance, and the item to be weighed on the other.
       1. The Cup – Let’s let our minds “graze” on the grass that IS greener on His side!
   17. (8) What an empty boast!…it sounds like a Laodicean boast.
       1. Rev.3:17 “Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'; and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;”
       2. Trusting in their wealth, the proud Israelites disregarded God.
   18. (12b) Laban required all the sheep at Jacob’s hand.
       1. If they torn a beast Jacob must make it good; if any of them died, he must stand as surety for the whole.
          1. “These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.”
       2. Was not Jesus’ toil for His church the same? Brining every one safe to the hand of Him who had committed them to his charge?
          1. Jn.6:39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.”
       3. When we see Jacob & we see Jesus we read, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”
   19. Communion:
       1. Bread - Hos.11:4 “I stooped & fed them”. (NIV - bent down to feed them)
       2. Another time God stooped down…dealt w/forgiveness (woman caught in adultery) “But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.” John 8:6
       3. "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her,
   20. "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."