June 30, 2011 – Hosea 12-14

12:2 chasing the wind. We saw this expression used many times in Ecclesiastes. Here it is used to describe Israel seeking the help of other nations and not turning to God. It is a pointless effort to get their help because they are not able to give what the Lord can give them and will not protect them from God’s wrath. Over and over they will attempt alliances and pacts with the nations that surround them, but they always end the same, even today it seems the case. Israel is looked upon by its neighbors as being different and a threat. If they make agreements with 2 neighbors that surround them, they make 6 other neighbors mad. They are constantly under threat by their surroundings. God understands this and, at least during Old Testament days, it was precisely because God was with them that they are seen as this threat. He brought them there, small and insignificant, so that He could raise them and in doing His will, He would bring about comfort to the world. But the small scared nation will not seek His aid, but the aid of those that use to be enemies.

12:8-9 loving fraud and how rich I have become. All to be wiped away in an instant. They are so connected to the world that they have lost faith in what is not of this world. They seek assistance of the world for help, when the only thing that will help is assistance not of the world. They are so proud of what they have, yet it matters very little in the end.

13:5-7 We are so proud of things that go well and with success that is given to us by God, that we forget God. Then when He takes it away to teach us humility, we shun Him as an evil and hateful God. God cannot win in trying to help us. We are totally beyond His help on our own. That is where Christ comes in as the link and connection to reestablish that divide. But Hosea did not know Christ. And don’t we still see this impossible task of God. Give them what they need and they become proud and forget You. Take it away and they turn on You for being an unloving God. What is God suppose to do. Can we really expect a God that wants the best for us and a relationship with us to give us our every worldly desire. Those that have everything they want, are most of them in a strong relationship with God. Those that have had and lost, are they in a good relationship with God. The TV evangelist that tell us we will have what we want if we really pray do not understand God at all. He does not build His relationship with us by buying us off with material things. He builds it by our continually turning to Him, doing His will, thanking Him in good times and bad. That is where the relationship comes from.

13:13 is a very graphic description of Israel. Described as a baby in the womb that will not come out when it is time but dies inside because of that refusal. I never thought about infants actually thinking about whether to come out on their own or not. Obviously this was before a C-Section would have taken the baby out.

13:15 – I thought “O death, where is your sting” was Shakespeare. I tried to look it up, but everything I saw said it was not Shakespeare but St. Paul in Corinthians that actually develops this line. Obviously they were not using a Catholic Bible.

1 Cor 15:55 - Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"