Hosea 12 reveals God's controversy with Israel, particularly the ten tribes referred to as Ephraim, for their spiritual and moral corruption, idolatry, and broken covenants. The sermon highlights God's indictment of Ephraim for pursuing vain things and following the east wind, symbolizing severe judgment, and contrasts this with the history of Jacob, who wrestled with God and received a new name, Israel, signifying God's faithfulness despite human frailty. The message emphasizes God's enduring mercy and justice, contrasting Israel's self-righteousness and oppression with God's promises of future restoration and the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross, where God's holiness, justice, and love converge. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a genuine return to God, evidenced by acts of mercy and judgment, and warns against minimizing sin in light of God's holy character.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.17 → restored 3.96
We speak to the Lord Jesus in prayer and to our Father God, and seek his blessing upon our study. Beloved and blessed Father, we thank thee we can come in all simplicity, but we trust in blessed reality of heart into thy holy presence. We thank thee for the accessibility through the Lord Jesus, thy beloved Son, and particularly do we bless thee for that precious blood, whereby we have entrance into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We thank thee for him. We pray that our hearts will be drawn to him as we thus gather together to study thy holy word.
How we praise thee for the Holy Spirit, who is the divine teacher of thy precious truth, and how we pray for one another. that in thy presence, under thy precious word taught by thy spirit, we shall be blessed. Not only with a temporal blessing, most of all a spiritual one that will be eternal in its effectiveness for our lives. And then we pray for one another, the remembrance of all the burdens and cares and the trials and the difficulties, and the problems of life that each of us may face. Together with our family responsibilities and perhaps family heartache, we lift our hearts to thee, commending each other.
Praying that by thy Holy Spirit, according to thy blessed perfect knowledge of the need of each one of us and of the families that we represent, thou will show thyself merciful and gracious to intervene for whatever purpose it may be. Remembering those that are sick, They may please thee to heal and strengthen and restore, if not to give them thy grace to bear their burden. Pray for the ones that may be afar from thee, those that may be astrayed from thy precious path of fellowship, as well as those that may not even know the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Thy Spirit, through the word, will thou not remember not only thy people, but the realm of the unsaved and the gospel of thy grace. Teach us again, we pray, by the Holy Spirit, as we go to the prophecy of Ozea once again. May we indeed be illumined by thy Spirit for thy glory, Lord Jesus. We ask it all in thy worthy name. Amen. Shall we turn to the twelfth chapter in the prophecy of Ozea that we are studying? I would like to read this chapter through. Chapter twelve, the prophecy of Mosaic, God by the Spirit writing, and perhaps he was in that day speaking as well as writing, to God's earthly people.
Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind. He daily increases lives and desolations. They do make a covenant with the Syrians, and the oil is carried into Egypt. But the Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and he 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. Yes, he had power over the angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel.
There he spake with us. Even the Lord God of hope. The Lord is his memorial. Therefore, turn thou to thy God. Keep mercy in judgment and wait on thy God continually. He is a merchant. The balances of deceit are in his hands. He loves to oppress. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich. I have found me out substance. In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that was then. Did I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the day of the solemn peace?
I have also spoken by my prophet, and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes. by the ministry of the prophets. Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity. They sacrifice bullets in Gilgal. Yea, their altars arose deep in the furrows of the fields. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and so Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly.
Therefore shall he lead his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. May God bless the reading and the hearing of this portion from his precious and his holy word. We continuously come to the close, or near the closing, of this prophecy of Mosaic, to be reminded that God is speaking through his servant, Hosea, to his people of Israel long ago, particularly the ten tribes that had seceded from Judah long before. And now they were facing the judgment of God. As you look at your lesson page, number thirteen in your lesson book, covering this chapter twelve, you find the heading refers to the fact that Ephraim's sins are rebuked by God.
Once again let me be reminded with you that God sometimes uses the word Ephraim to describe the ten tribes of Israel. It is undoubtedly done so because of the stubborn and the rebellious spirit that was found in Ephraim as a tribe long before, but illustrating that characteristic remaining amongst the ten tribes as a whole. But notice as we go to verse one and the opening of it, the accusation or the indictment of God saying that Ephraim feedeth on the wind. And Ephraim was occupied, as you think of the expression, and you have it as an allegory illustrating, Ephraim was occupied with what the wind illustrates.
vain empty things. And such the state, such was the case. But you have also an expression immediately that Ephraim followeth after the east wind. And sometimes we may wonder why the specific reference to the east wind. Undoubtedly what God is saying, feeding upon the wind will bring also the east wind. There is a reference we would like to refer to in the book of Jonah chapter four. Many of you may remember the story of Jonah. The mission that Jonah was sent upon by God, very much delayed, as we well know, when he ran away and was swallowed by the great fish.
But later on he was restored and his mission was given to him again. And to the city of Nineveh, the great Assyrian capital, He went with the message, and Nineveh in forty days, repent, for Nineveh in forty days will be restored. To the astonishment, as well as the dismay of Jonah, Nineveh, from the king down to all in the city, repented. That was contrary to the wishes of Jonah. Jonah knew the wickedness, as well as not only the wickedness, but the cruelty of the Assyrians. that had been against his own earthly people, and he longed to see them destroyed.
But God, in mercy, showed his loving-kindness, and in obedience to their repentance. He preserved Nineveh, as we well know. But remember the message of Jonah. In forty days, Nineveh shall be destroyed. Well, Jonah, in the fourth chapter, the closing chapter of his prophecy, is found sitting upon the outside of the city upon the hillside, watching and waiting, wondering if God will really do what he had preached to the city of Nineveh, destroyer. And while sitting there, as you may read, it was a stultry, hot, humid climate, and the sun beat down with scorching effects, that God provided a God to protect those Jonah, and it grew overnight.
And Jonah was exceeding glad of the God, but also God prepared a worm and destroyed that God overnight. And so Jonah was exposed, and it speaks of the east, sultry, vehement wind, with the scorching heat of the sun at the same time coming upon Jonah that made him so miserable and uncomfortable he said to God that he wished to die. Now one can recognize, here's Ephraim, the children of Israel feeding upon wind, and going after. God said you'll get the east wind, unquestionably the type of further severe judgment.
But God's indictment also includes the fact that you read in verse one. They continue to increase in lies and desolation. And together with it, in unfaithfulness to God, not only an unfaithfulness to God, but even an unfaithfulness to a covenant that they had made with the Assyrians. They break that covenant that they had made by carrying oil into Egypt, supposingly. They were seeking the help of Egypt to deliver them from the Assyrian power. Now God in his word You will find it in the prophets, how God expects, no matter what nation it might be, when one nation makes a covenant with another nation, God holds the nation responsible to keep the covenant that they've made.
And if it's ever broken, even if it's in judgment. That has transpired again and again in history as you read the Word of God. And God was displeased, for this is what Ephraim was doing. They longed to be delivered from the Assyrian captivity. They sought to bribe the Egyptians without question of doubt to deliver them, if they would, from Assyrian captivity. And God said, that's unthankful to him, when they had promised to be in common and faithfulness submissive to the Assyrian power. But then as we go to verse two, We find incidentally that God mentions not just Israel alone, but now Judah.
The remaining truths are two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. The Lord have also a controversy with Judah. And here is just a mention, casually, but very suggestively, not only to speak to Ephraim, but if Judah would listen. Judah was not without thought. And God reminds Judah that he would punish them later. And this actually, of course, came to pass later on. But then when we come to verses three through six, we find God really at the end of verse two, particularly, you have the mention of their ancestor Jacob.
For we cannot forget, and God never forgot it, that these people were Jacob's descendants. And as you find in verses three through six, particularly, God brings to memory the history of Jacob. Now that past history of Jacob, as he brings it before, there was to be an object lesson to move them, if it would, to return unto him. For God did not forget what had happened to Jacob. May I be reminded with you, God is not speaking to them, hoping that it would bring them to turn to the law.
Please note the beginning of verse six briefly. There God says, Therefore, through what I'm telling you regarding the history of your ancestor, Jacob, let this turn you to thy God and to keep mercy and judgment and wait upon thy God continually. Now, what was the remembrance of the past? which he brings before the people of Israel, the ten tribes called Ephraim. Well, you may remember, you'll notice it in verse three. You may remember the incident that is recorded in chapter twenty-five of the book of Genesis, verse twenty-six. Twenty-two through twenty-six, I believe you'll find the context.
But let me just mention the context of that chapter. You'll recall that Isaac married Rebecca. And there was a time that Isaac pleaded with God, as well as did Rebecca, that they might have children. And God granted the request. And then she was very much surprised to find that she was to bear twins. And God spoke to Rebecca, telling her that in her room there were twins, twins. And then he made the statement, and he quote verbatim, part of the statement. The elder shall serve the younger. Now that was contrary to the natural laws of humanity.
The eldest was usually the one who was in authority and the heir to the family possessions and the family authority. But now God says the elder will serve the younger. Now you remember, and you've got the Lord mentioning it in verse three of our chapter in Isaiah. When the twins were born, Esau was born first, and then Jacob came out afterwards, and he had his brother by the heel. Now there you have a vivid, literal of course, but a vivid illustration of what God intended, that Jacob would indeed be over the elder in the purposes of God.
and God reminds the people of Israel concerning it. And of course it brings before them, it brings before them the history of Jacob. For you may remember that even Jacob fled because of the hatred of Esau and the fear of death at his hand, left Isaac and Rebecca, his father and mother, and into the land of Peyton Aaron, where Isaac and Rebecca sent him, to the relatives that were the descendants in relation to Abraham and Isaac. And so for twenty years Jacob was in the land of Pagan Aaron, serving for a wife, in fact two wives, as we may well know, manifesting his weakness and his failure.
And yet we have to confess, Jacob was seeking after the favor of the Lord but undoubtedly he in deceitfulness he got the birthright from his father instead of waiting upon God to bring it to pass in his own time and way. But in weakness and failure he still desired the favor of the Lord. Now you have, if I may point out to you, the record in our chapter of Isaiah telling that by his strength he had power with God. He had power over the angel and he prevailed and he wept. He made supplication to him. And he found him in Bethel. There he spake.
Please let me remind you that when Jacob fled from Esau, he saw threat. The first night of his journey, you may remember, he stopped at the little place called Luz, L-U-Z. There he made his bed for the night, put his head, and he pillowed his head upon stones. how he could sleep with his head upon stones I never can understand. He probably knew more than I do. But there he lay, and that night he had a dream, as you well remember, of a ladder stretched from earth to heaven, angels descending and descending upon it, God above it, and God reveals himself to Jacob in that dream with a promise that he would preserve him wherever he went.
When Jacob awoke from the dream, He was unhappy in spirit, perhaps because, and possibly true, because of his conscience being. Same by his action of deceit, the practice with his brother Esau as well as his father Isaac. And he said, this is a dreadful place, but he made a statement. This is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. but he changed the name of that place and called it Bethel, which actually means House of God. Well, one would wonder if he thought that was the gate of heaven, he should have stayed there.
But we know that he went away. For twenty years he was in exile, but his heart was not right with God. But in our chapter that we read, he came back to Bethel, and in chapter thirty-two, rather, of Genesis, You have the story of his return to battle. And there at battle the angel wrestled with him. That was the angel of the Lord himself, breaking down the stubborn rebellious spirit that had been his, the scheming plots that had been so true of his life. And may I just point it out, when Jacob thus wrestled with the angel, and the day began to break the angel, said, Let me go.
And Jacob could do nothing. And you have it in the text of Isaiah. He prevailed. He had power over the angel. He prevailed. He wept. And he made supplications. But do you recall? He said, I will not let thee go, except thou blessed me. For God, the angel of God, had put his fire out of joint and weakened him. And all he could do was to cling. And cling, he did, to the ones that wrestled against him. And there Jacob was asked by the angels, What is thy name? And I can indeed believe with all earnestness, he shouted out that ugly meaning of his name, Jacob, meaning supplanted, schemer, deceiver.
For oh, he had practiced deceit, not only with Isaac, not only with Esau, but even with his father-in-law, as you may read the history of that, and time of twenty years he spent in Paine and Aaron, and now returns with Rachel and Leah his two wives, together with his concubines, and all his possessions. But he returns to Bethel, and oh, that experience at Peniel, at the Brook Peniel, is recalled by the writer or the speaker here in Hosea. Now what God is saying in the very place where Jacob found the Lord, and the Lord found Jacob, where Israel set up an altar and worship God.
But Israel, what have they done? They had set up idle God. Yet an idle God to be worshipped had been set up in that place that was called Bethel, the house of God. And yet the God of mercy still waited for the return of his earthly people. May I read verse six again? May I go to verse five and get the context clear together? God's saying, after speaking of Jacob, even the Lord God of hosts spoke to him. And the Lord is his memorial. Therefore, for this reason, for what I have told you regarding the history of your ancestor, and the lesson that you should learn, therefore turn down to thy God.
and keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually. Yes, the God of mercy still waited for their return, but they were exhorted to prove their return by acts of mercy and judgment. My beloved, may I say frankly, when a sinner comes to God, God not only wants the return of that sinner in repentance to him, but also the evidence by the acts of life that prove the reality of their return to the Lord. But when we come to verses seven to the end of the chapter, it is sad to state, we go further to find out what Israel actually was in the sight of God.
May I again repeat you now, and just briefly before we pass on to this section before us, What God has done, he has made it clear that he was at a controversy with his people. Later on he would have a controversy with Judas, we noted in verse two. But he has the controversy with Israel, the Tantris first of all. And he indicts them because of their condition, spiritually and morally, and wickedly in their idolatrous situation, which they were in. and even the judgments that he'd already set upon them, sent them through the Assyrians particularly, who were unmistakable in their conduct and behavior included to God's earthly people.
And those things should have brought them in repentance to call upon God for his deliverance, and he would have delivered them. And yet as we go on verses seven, ultimately to the end of the chapter, we still continue to find out what Israel was in the sight of God what they had become, and yet God in mercy has pled with them. May I be reminded with you of what we stated and perhaps have repeated even during the study of the law. But what we stated at the commencement, there are two particular characteristics of God's person emphasized in the whole book of Isaiah.
We noted, first of all, and mentioned it, that God is holy. For all the very acts of sin and acts of sin that God's earthly people performed were against the holiness of his character. And my beloved sin and God's holiness cannot dwell together. And when God's people particularly are the sinners, one can recognize the rebellious spirit that it is, and the insult When they should, well, let me just point out, did not God say through Moses, Be ye holy, for I am holy, said the Lord.
And when they are disobedient, unholy, you can expect the holiness of God is insulted. And we are reminded, we should be reminded today, when sin is minimized all around us, by many, by the majority. We have to deal with the holy God. And we also have learned that not only God is holy, but God is just. And God is a just. God punishes the sin. And then we also have noted, and we are noting it a little here, and we shall note it more in the closing chapters, God is love. And the joy of realizing the character of God can never be changed.
His holiness, his justice, and his love. And may I think They never contradict each other. Let me give you an illustration, one of the most blessed illustrations that I could ever give to your heart. Think of the death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary. Now let me think with you and dwell with you upon the words that Jesus said in the darkness of the hour, when the sun was dark and then the clouds became black as midnight, and midnight come of the earth, when Christ, the Creator, the Son of God, was paying the penalty for your sins and mine.
And out of the darkness he is heard to cry, Eli, Eli, Lama, Sebastian, I, meaning, my God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? May I point out to you why? You have referred to in the twenty-second psalm, which has often been called, and rightly, the psalm of the cross. As he cried, for you've got those very words beginning the psalm. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then as you go down into a verse or two below it, that thou art holy, thou who inhabiteth Israel, thou art holy, and therewith the cross, can I point out to you the holiness of God was meeting man's sin as the Savior becomes man's sacrifice to pay the penalty and bear the judgment.
And the Lord Jesus, who was the sinless, pure, and holy one, undefiled, separate from sinners, became sacrificially what you and I are actually. And he paid the price that a holy God must, upon sin, pour out his judgment. So may I suggest that the cross, you can read not only man's sin, but the holiness of God. And then further, you can read the love of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So may I repeat, oh, do get the thought, these salient truths that are found in the book of Hosea. God is holy, God is just, and yet God is love. When you find those very characteristics converging at Calvary, when Christ, the beloved Son of God, died for you and for me upon the crops of sin and shame, all may we praise and worship God for being what he is as well as who he is. But now God is speaking again to say what Israel had become as you go to verse seven. Let me read it quickly.
He is a merchant. The balance is the scales of this leader in his hand. And he loveth to oppress. Now you know what the Lord calls Israel a merchant. You know this is the Hebrew word for the name Canaan. And the Canaanites and the Phoenicians They were the merchants of that time, as you may read in Isaiah chapter twenty-three and verse eleven. But they were very fraudulent in their actions, feeding and oppressing. And God is accusing his own people of being this type. They were Canaanites, in character, merchants. And they deceived in their weights and balances that they were using for profit, as well as for oppression.
And they had become fraudulent merchants. by cheating and by oppression. I'd like just very briefly and quickly to remind you, you read the last chapter in Zechariah, rather, and you'll find there'll be no merchantmen in the tabernacles of God in the millennial kingdom. But oh, make God reminders. God does remind us what Israel had become. regarding this. God in his word, and please let me emphasize this principle of fact, God in his precious word does not minimize the condition of sinners.
Oh, if you may read, Romans chapter one, two, and three, and there in Romans one, two, and three, down through perhaps verse nineteen particularly, you see the whole human race as it were standing before the judgment of all of God, and God declaring, first, to the heathen in all their idolatry, then also to the Gentiles who may have been cultured, and third, to his own earthly people, the Jews. Oh, how he speaks very carefully and clearly and pointedly. to tell that each one of them in their categories, heathen, cultured Gentiles, religious Jews.
And as you get the summary in chapter three from verse ten and on, he concludes that they're all under sin and concludes at the end of verse nineteen that all the world has become guilty before God. Oh, beloved, don't minimize sin. God is holy. His precious word records his intolerance of sin. But let us carry on, as we noted, the Lord calling Israel a merchant. And then we go to verse eight, and note the character of their replying. As if they say, E! for himself, then I become rich. I found me out substance.
In all my labors, they shall find none iniquity in me that were sinned. Oh, beloved, recognize something very sad. They proud, they were proud, they were pride in themselves, they were rich, yeah, materially, they were prospering. They had found substance, yeah, but yet on the other hand, they also pride in themselves, nobody can call me a sinner, self-righteous. Ah, beloved, though they pride in themselves as being a righteous nation, they were none such nations. And certainly God must and he does condemn. And yet, as they thus pride themselves in it, God has to indeed continue accusing them.
Beloved, you know, one of the saddest facts, it's worldwide. You find it amongst nations today. Bring up the question. Bring up the accusation of God's holy word against humanity. that we are racist sinners. Well, bring it up individually. How many people say, I'm not, I don't murder anyone. I think of one dear man whom I was giving a ride in my car many, many years ago. And as he, as I have the opportunity to bring the gospel to him, I mentioned to him how I knew I was going to heaven.
He said, well, that's good, he says. And he mentioned to me, I asked him if he was born again, if he was ready to go. Well, he says, I've never murdered anybody. I've never done anything real bad. I said, did you ever sin? Oh, well, yes. The one recognizes as I did, though I had the joy of leading him to the Lord sometime later. But I recognize people think themselves right. And some may say, I'm doing the best I can. My beloved, let me just challenge you. Are you sure you've ever done the best you could? I think we can all question that. All I'm doing is paying my bills and so on.
Please, my friend, look, when we come to God, we have to come to Him as a bankrupt sinner. Think of the old hymn. Nothing in my hand I bring. Rock of Ages cleft for me. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. And may I remind you, if I may go back in our story, in our chapter regarding Israel, regarding Jacob long ago. Remember when the angel of the Lord wrestled with him and clung to him. And the angel of the Lord's wrestling said, What is thy name? And Jacob, when he confessed it, was confessing his character, Jacob, schemer, planner, deceiver.
And yet, do you know he found mercy? You know God changed his name. Right there, thou shalt be called Israel. For thou hast fallen with God, a prince thou art become. Let me put it this way. When the sinner gets saved, God changes his name. For instance, Abram His name was changed later by God to Abraham. Then you've got Jacob. His name was changed from Jacob to Israel when God, he was restored to God. Then you go to your New Testament. Peter in John chapter one. Andrew brings his brother Peter to the Lord Jesus, and Jesus looks at him.
He says, Thou art Simon. Thou shalt be called Seepers, meaning a stone. And when Peter came to the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus changes his name. And for you and for me, my beloved friend, when we are saved, we have a change. Let me give you an illustration of it. In God's light, there is that change. In Ephesians chapter two, before we were saved, God says we were dead in trespasses and in sin. After we are saved, you go down chapter two at verse ten of that book. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good work. What a change. Do you ever think that old hymn?
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought. Then Jesus came into my heart. Jacob had his name changed to Israel. Abram had his name changed to Abraham. Peter had his name changed from Simon to Cephas, meaning a stone. And Peter became a bit of Christ, who is the living rock and the living stone upon which We build upon which the church is built and our salvation is built. So as you recognize it, though they prided themselves as being who they were, the nation of Israel. God had to condemn them for what they were. And yet they prided upon their self-righteousness.
And instead of repenting, they boasted of being rich. Don't you think that's very much like you have in Revelation chapter three? the church of Laodicea, to which the Lord Jesus wrote and could never get an entrance within it. He said, I'm standing at the door and knocking. But he said, you say, you boast that you are rich. You have need of nothing. And then he had to tell them, you're poor, you're wretched, you're naked, you're blind. And yet in their self-righteousness, they boasted of their wealth. My beloved, We cannot enjoy the riches of God when we are boasting in the riches of our own self-righteousness.
Now please note how strange it is, and yet not like God. Go to verse nine. Please note verse nine. It's a precious verse. Go there instead of repenting, boasted at being rich. Know what God says in verse nine. What a contract. God says, I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt. I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of solemn peace. And no verse said, I've also spoken by the prophets. I multiplied visions and new similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
Please take these verses, nine and ten, very separately in their application or in their interpretation. This is God putting in interpolating, as it were, a promise, though they would not repent, though they were self-righteous, yet he says, the day is coming when you'll dwell again in the land, and you will celebrate your feast. In open words of verse nine, I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt. I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles. As in the days of the solemn feast, days of the solemn feast.
You that know your Bible remember that they had seven feast days. You find them recorded. Leviticus chapter twenty-three. Seven annual feast, and the greatest and the most glorious one, was the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of the religious year amongst the Jews. And in that day, the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated. It celebrated their deliverance out of Egypt. But it had also a future lesson for them. They pointed them to the future day when the Messiah would reign, and they would be exalted as their nation.
Believe me, I state again, as I read your lesson sheet. Yet they were going to dwell again in the land. They were going to celebrate their feast, and special reference is given to the feast of tabernacles, that great feast. which typifies the millennial blessing for restored Israel. Now please notice verse ten tells us the prophets had foretold it. What God refers to in verse ten? Where the message is, and you have it, go to Isaiah, go to Jeremiah, go to Ezekiel, go to practically all the prophets, and every prophet foretold the coming millennial day.
of glory and power when the Messiah would reign over the earth with his earthly people. You remember in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John? They were commemorating the Feast of Tabernacles as Jesus was watching, and on that last great day of the feast, which was the most celebrated day of the feast, with joy and song and song, and mounted, you crying in praise the Lord. Hallelujah. yet it was an empty thing. There was no joy. But they were under the bondage of Rome, and Jesus cried in that day, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. How could they be joy when the one who was the source of their joy they were rejecting, and then vowed to crucify him?
For that piece of the tabernacle, one is written. Some of the Jewish writers have written. that the outward joy and the festivity of that occasion was such that it had never been equal in any other country and land or nation of people for the joy and celebration it meant. Ah, but, beloved, they've never enjoyed it as they will yet. But here is God saying, I'm going to bring you back again in the land. Can I give you this thought? I'm sure some of you, dear believers, realize this. As you see Israel as a nation and entity, back in the land, not in unbelief, not in restoration, and yet God's going to bring them back.
The prophets foretold it. And one can be wonderful in amazing wonder to realize though how bad they were at this time, they still get the promise from God that He would bring them back in the land. And he reminds them of the prophets that told them about it. But, oh, how sad. Now look at verse eleven, if you please. What a contract. Verses nine and ten was the promise of that future day. Now as you come to verse nine and ten, God comes back. Or verse eleven, rather. God comes back to what was ruined. Everything was then ruined because of their idolatry.
And he mentions Gilead and Gilgol, desecrated by their idolatry. Look the words. is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are nothing but vanity. They sacrifice bullets in Gilead, yea, their altars, and feats in the furrows of the field. Please, may I say, now here are two biblical names. They were related to the children of Israel in the land of Israel, Gilead, together with Gilead. In times past, before this occasion, as the prophet writes here, there were famous places in Israel. Let me please mention Gilgal in particular.
Gilgal was not only a place of blessing, where God manifested his grace in the early days when they came into the land of Canaan. But I think of Gilgal. That was a place where it was a place of power, from which they went into the land of Canaan and conquered it. In other words, it was the base of the operations under Joshua for the victories that God gave them. And from Gilgal were in all humility. And where, not in the strength of the flesh, but in the strength of the Lord, they went out to defeat their enemies. And may I point out, it's very obvious, you read the book of Joshua, on one occasion, after the very great victory of Jericho.
Joshua failed to go back to Gilgal. And from Gilgal go to the city of Ai. But they look at the... He sends some spies to the city of Ai. They come back with a report. It's only a small city. Only send a few men. And they send only thirty thousand men. But they come back in defeat. And as they come back in defeat, one can recognize they are neglected to call upon God. They went in their own flesh. You know, here's the lesson. How many times we Christians, God may give us some victory. But that very victory can be also the source of a defeat.
For when we do have the victory, it should not inflate us with pride and with the flesh to be popped up, but rather humbler. Please, may I say, it's just in the case of Joshua then. Jericho, with its great victory, was followed by the defeat of Ai. My beloved fellow believer, let you and I take a lesson. Our victory may also be followed by defeat. May God keep us low at his feet. Humber. Let us remember Gilgal, where the cutting off of the flesh, and the reproach of Egypt was rolled off.
The world, the flesh, and even the devil, were put in their proper place, morally and spiritually speaking, as they went to conquer Jericho. But when they went to conquer AI, it was not the same. They met defeat. And yet God is saying, you've taken Gilead, you've taken Gilgoth, and you've built all the altars you can. You've desecrated. by your idolatry, that which I once blessed. Now will you please note something very precious as we go on and come near to the end of our study of this chapter.
God goes on again to speak of Jacob. Verse twelve, Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, Now, once again, and may I point it out, the chapter reveals it, as we noted it in the preceding part, the first part, the earlier part of the chapter. God uses the history and the experience of their ancestor, Jacob, that from that history, from his experience, they may learn a lesson that will bring them back to himself.
once more in the chapter, he reminds them of their ancestor. He reminds them that Jacob fled from before his brother, Esau. And yet, he brings out that Jehovah was faithful to Jacob through all, and God brought him blessings. And what God is suggesting, he would do the same with Israel if they would return to him. But I want you to notice something. In verse twelve, Jacob fled into the country of Tyria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. Now, I believe that what God is indicating, and you may know the story, as you go to chapter twenty-eight of Genesis, as you read in three chapters, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and thirty-one, where you have the story of Jacob while he was in the land of Plain and Aaron.
And he didn't have a happy time. He had a shrewd father-in-law, Laban, who was a match for Jacob in many ways. And of course, Jacob became a match for shrewdness and scheming and deceitfulness. He became a match to Laban. But while Jacob was there, he kept his promise for serving the allotted time he had promised to Laban for his wives. You remember, perhaps, if you remember the story, he was supposed to marry Rachel. For Rachel, he pled for Rachel. He asked Laban. And when the day of the marriage came and the day of the revelation as to that Rachel was going to be his wife, who did he find in the tent?
When he was escorted to the tent, he found Leah, the oldest one, and he didn't know it until the morning dawned. and the night had been spent with her. And he asked Laban, why did you deceive me? Well, he said, it's our custom to give the elders in marriage. But he said, I wanted Rachel. Well, if you'll serve with me seven years, I'll let you have Rachel. Well, he kept his bargain. He served for a wife for seven years. And of course, what God is certainly indicating, Jacob kept his covenant, but he's also reminding the people of Israel and Reaphim, they did not keep their covenant with him.
I've been faithful to Jacob, and I was, and I would be with you. But no one else I did. I not only was faithful to Jacob, but in verse thirteen, by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. By a prophet was he preserved. beloved I'm sure you recognize there's a reference here to the book of Exodus well you know Israel in the time of the great famine in Israel and in the land of Egypt when Joseph was in Egypt Jacob and his family all of his sons and their families had to go down in Egypt to be preserved alive and they were kept alive by the kindness of Pharaoh of that day and the providential care of Joseph but it were brought out of Egypt by the hand of Moses under God.
God didn't let them, though there were a great body of people, possibly up to two to three million of them coming out of Egypt, and thus coming through the wilderness and to the land of Canaan. I brought them out. By a prophet was he preserved again. God is insisting, I've been faithful. No, beloved, our precious is the truth. I think of the words of Second Timothy chapter two. When Paul writes to say, though we are not faithful, he abides faithful, he cannot deny himself. My beloved fellow believer, let me encourage you, if you're a believer, and encourage my heart.
Well, may I be encouraged? I must testify. Cannot help but testify. I would not give a testimony to my faithfulness. I humble my heart. I would bow my head. I would acknowledge. I've not been as faithful as I should have been, but I cannot say that of God. He is faithful, one is well-written. God is faithful, not that he has been or that he will be. Both are true, but now, in this sore trial, God is faithful now to you. I don't know. What you may be going through, you may not know what I may be going through, but may I say again those words, precious little piece of poetry that has blessed me in the past, and I would use it again for my blessings.
God is faithful, not that he has been or that he will be. Both are true, but God is faithful now in this sort of trial. God is faithful now to you. Beloved, will you take this lesson? Will I not take it? Yes, we see the failure. Oh, we're looking at the dark failure of God's earthly people, Israel. And it was a dark failure. And yet in the midst of it, God again and again shines forth with the light of his faithfulness, if they will only be true to him. And he is thanks.
And, oh, my fellow believer, for you as a me, may we take it in. But as we come to the concluding verse, outside is the comment that God does give, saying that Ephraim had yet provoked God to such anger, that he would and he must inflict punishment upon him. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly. Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. I do know, my friend, do you realize that God can be angry and righteously angry? God is never wickedly angry. His anger is always of a righteous character.
Now, may I read two words, two verses, rather, from the book of the Psalms. It's the hundred and third Psalm. And incidentally, may I say, when you read the hundred and third Psalm, you've got the language that I've verily believe, will be expressed by Israel in the coming day of their restoration as a nation, when Christ the Messiah will rule over their land and people. And this hundred and thirty-thirds, hundred and third psalm is where they, you know the beginning of it, many of you, bless the Lord, oh my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. And all the language of the Psalm expresses and declares how they come now to find the faithfulness of God.
But let me just read two verses. It is in verse eight and verse, well, I go from verse eight through eleven, if you don't mind. Oh, I think I better go down through verse fourteen. No good words. In verse eight, the Lord is merciful and gracious. Now note, slow to anger, blancheth in mercy. He will not always chide, and then follow, neither will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far that he removed our transgressions from us.
And like as the father pitied his children, so the Lord piteeth them that fear him, for he knoweth our faith. He remembered that we are dust. I think of that last verse. God doesn't forget that we are dust. We forget it. He doesn't. But, oh, the language of these words that we have read in Psalm number three, verse eight through fourteeds. tells the mercy of God, the graciousness of God. And it is not swift to anger but slow. And when he is angry, he will not keep his anger forever. And thus in the prophecy of Isaiah where we have read our closing verse, they provoke God to anger. And very definitely he declares, I will inflict punishment upon him.
Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him. And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. So, beloved, may I close with a statement of fact. Though his anger has been upon Israel, though they have provoked him thus, and he has inflicted punishment upon them, the day is coming when he will lift that anger, and restore them to himself. A godly remnant is that coming day of the Lord's return. What a god he is. yet are faithful to rebuke us for our sins. May God bless his precious and his holy word. Shall we pray and give him a word of thanks for the help that he has given in this commentary of chapter twelve in the prophecy of Isaiah.
Beloved and blessed Father, we can only thank Jesus our faithful and merciful God. Even we ourselves. and shall we take the language of thine earthly people and confess to thee thou dost not keep thine anger forever thy mercy is great as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear before he knoweth our frame he remembers that we are just we would ask thee as we close our commentary today help us to remember You're merciful and faithful, and we are just.
And our Lord Jesus in the New Testament has been called a merciful, high priest, and a faithful high priest. We might be, oh, make that faithful, merciful, and faithful high priest of our Savior, more precious and real to us in our hard and life experience as we commend each other as we dismiss into Savior's precious Holy and worthy name. Amen.