Grant us your blessing that you would give us your grace. We pray that you have mercy upon us this evening as we have come to this place in order to fellowship with you and your people, to give ourselves to study of your word and spend time, of course, in your presence with prayer. Lord, we recognize this evening that Some of our folks are not feeling well. We understand others are out of town, out of state, apparently from coast to coast. Some are German in California, Tim Bailey in South Carolina. So we've really spread out. Others have different issues that they have called and expressed their concerns about for not being here. So Lord, we ask that you would be with them and pray that you would comfort their hearts this evening as they're absent from us. We ask, Lord, that you would grant blessing to our children's studies and that you would be with those who lead them. And we pray, Lord, that those who are not feeling well, that you would remember them and restore them to health. We also ask that you would be with us as we give ourselves to this time in your presence, and I do so in Christ's name. Amen. We are finished with the first 11 chapters of Hosea, and we're ready to move on into chapter 12. Last week together, you'll recall we did verse 12 of chapter 11. I suggested to you that that's actually the first verse of Chapter 12, that is true because of two things. Number one, that's the way the Hebrew Bible has it worked out. But secondly, perhaps more importantly, simply because verse 12 really sets the stage for a lot that is going to be talked about in chapter 12. And so that's how we have taken that. And so in chapter 11, verse 12, you can see that God is speaking. He has come back into the present now and he is giving a further assessment of the spiritual character and well-being of Israel and Judah at this particular point in time. He continues with that, or Hosea does, with verse 1. He writes, Ephraim feeds on wind and pursues the east wind continually. He multiplies lies and violence. Moreover, he makes a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt. This, again, is a description of the character of the covenant Jews at this particular point. That first set of statements, Ephraim feeds on wind, pursues the east wind continually. I think we get a fairly good immediate sense of what is being talked about here. The action items or the action verbs here are feeds and pursues. Really, I see this as a play on words. In the Hebrew text, they are the words roeh and rodeif. And it is a combination of actions that Hosea is talking about. The word to feed has a fair richness concerning it in terms of its meaning. And so it can be translated in ways like to pasture, to graze. It's a word that really talks about all of the duties of care of a shepherd. over his flock, and thus the word is sometimes used in the sense of to lead, or to guide, or to herd, and you can think of a shepherd who does all of those things with his flock. The verb pursues here means literally to be behind, to follow after, so that there is something out in front of you that you are chasing. This, I want to suggest to you, denotes two particular issues as a part of our thinking about, in particular, the spiritual character of the Israelites. Ephraim, of course, as we have seen consistently through Hosea's prophecy, a reference to Israel. The first issue is futility. We get that sense by the picture that is being painted here by Hosea. He is talking first of all about Ephraim feeds on the wind, or if we take that in its broader sense, like I was defining it, saying Ephraim tries to lead the wind, they try to guide and direct the wind, they're trying to herd the wind. How easy is that? In our day and in our language, we have a certain phrase or mind picture that has become fairly common to us when we want to illustrate a sense of futility. And we talk about herding cats. Herding cats. What does that conjure up in your mind? That isn't possible. That's the language here in Hebrew that Hosea is talking about. He's talking about trying to heard the wind, as though that were possible, but then he flips that back around and he says Ephraim pursues the east wind continually. Remember that this was language that talked about to be behind or to follow after, and we would liken that to the language that we use when we talk about running and catching the wind. We had wind yesterday, did we not? Up to 54 miles an hour, I heard on the radio. And so how easily would you run after the wind at 54 miles an hour and catch a handful of it? I mean, a variety of dynamics you see that are going on and taking place at that point where you look at that and say, well, that's ridiculous to even think about doing something like that. And that's the sense that Hosea is really trying to present at this point. Neither of these issues, of trying to herd the wind or run and catch the wind are possible. And so we're talking about the futility of Israel's religion, the impossibility and the futility of their faith and even their spiritual character. The second issue here that describes them is unreliability. There is a sense of unreliability here. Again, when we look at these two verbs, in their essence, the one talks about being in the lead, and the other talks about running from behind. One talks about being in front, and one talks about the following after. And the action here applied to the Israelites is indicative of the sense that you never know what you're going to get from them. You never know whether they're going to lead or whether they're going to follow. You never know whether they're going to be out front or whether they're going to be coming from behind. You never know what to expect from them, you cannot rely on them, and you cannot count on them. They are capricious, they are fickle, and they are unstable. So there are those two issues that these word pictures are creating of futility and unreliability as matters of spiritual character for these who claim to be the people of God. Now that character is made more clear as Hosea goes on. He says he multiplies lies and violence and that simply means that the Israelites may be in the habit of sometimes making a promise to you, which they will then turn around and turn on you. They may promise to act in concert with you, but in the end they're going to turn around and deal with you with a matter of violence. And so they make the promise, but they're lying. And in the end, they will respond to your hurt. And so, we would simply say that there is one thing about the Israelites that you can depend on. And that is that you can't depend on them. Okay? Then, Hosea goes on to the last part of verse 1 and gives an example of all of this when he says Moreover, he makes a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt. Now, these two nations that are mentioned at this point are the major powers historically in this particular day with, as we have seen throughout, Hosea's prophecy that the Assyrians are the dominant power. We also recognize, as we've been talking throughout Hosea's writing that the Assyrians are on the march. They are not just threatening from the east coming into Palestine, but they are most likely on their way. And so Israel is attempting to placate the Assyrians who are headed towards them, placating them by entering into a covenantal relationship, a covenantal commitment, agreement, with the Assyrians, trying to establish a treaty, if you will, with them. And we recognize some of that coming out of some of the biblical history that we have in the scriptures. But, as Hosea points out, in case that agreement and that covenant doesn't work, it doesn't in the end placate the Assyrians The Israelites do a trade agreement with Egypt for their famous Israeli olive oil. You see that then? You see what he's saying? Moreover, he makes a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt. They're doing both things. In other words, they're playing both ends of this dilemma. They're working both parts of this they're talking to these people as though they had the two tongues the proverbial both sides of their mouths speaking one thing to the Assyrians to the east talking in another sort of a way developing a different relationship with the Egyptians to the southwest and in so doing they're hedging their bets and thus we're confronted with this habit of theirs, I guess we might say, that their commitments are only as good as their perceived advantage. They will make a commitment if it is to their advantage. They'll make multiple commitments trying to cover all the bases of their advantage so that if something falls apart that they have a plan B and a plan C and a plan Z. that they can fall back upon. Now they claim to be the people of God and yet this is a part of their character. They are characterized by futility and they are characterized by unreliability and Hosea provides this as an ultimate example. We have to contrast that then of course with the lifestyle of those who would in fact commit themselves and their lives to God as a matter of true genuine faith to see that we must be a people who are different from this. And so Jesus is teaching in Matthew 5.37 when he says, let your yes be maybe and your no be probably. He says, let the yes be yes, and the no be no, because he says, anything beyond that is, what does he call it, evil. He says, anything beyond that is evil. He's describing that sort of practice in ways that we would not necessarily describe. We wouldn't be quite so hard upon ourselves, would we? If we're just kind of fudging things a little bit here, you know. had this up a little bit over here the proverbial white lie or trying to you know do multiple issues here to to our advantage but Jesus says the yes for the followers of Christ must be must mean yes and the no must mean no and anything other than that Christ our Lord considers to be evil James talks about this in very similar language in James chapter 5 verse 12 Of course the foundation for such teaching from Jesus and James Was laid back in the Pentateuch in Numbers chapter 30 Verse 2 verse 1 that Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel saying This is the word which the Lord has commanded verse 2 if a man makes a vow of to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth." What is God requiring of us as the church? And what is he commanding us as his people? The very things that Jesus taught, the very things that James was teaching later The point being that when the people of God speak, you can take them absolutely at their word. You can take them word by word by word. And you can depend on that. And we as the people of the Lord are to be so committed to such honesty and fairness and reliability dependability that we're also exhorted in Psalm 15, the latter part of verse 4. The question here in David's Psalm is, who may abide in the tent of God and who may dwell in God's holy hill? And a part of that answer is, he who swears to his own hurt does not change. You see, what we're seeing with the Israelites here is that they would swear they would make a covenant as long as it was to their advantage. If that advantage changed, then they went their way. But the people of God, David says, when they make a covenant and when they take an oath, And when they make a promise, even if in the end it comes back to be an unwise thing to do, an unwise vow to take, it was an unwise covenant into which we have entered, and it is going to come back and bite us. Still, the people of God are dependable in what they say. Their yes means yes, and their no means no. Well, Hosea goes on into verse 2, and he shows that it is not just the Israelites for whom God has certain concerns of spiritual character. He says the Lord also has a dispute with Judah. And the word dispute here is a word that means things like contention or controversy. God has a spiritual concern. about the inhabitants of Judah, and that word is emphatic in this verse in the Hebrew text. And so it starts out a dispute God has with Judah. You remember we talked last week about how seeing this is consistent with what I suggested we need to understand in Hosea 11-12 the way that the language is used there and so on and this simply again supports that statement of concern that God made at that point. He goes on expressing the fact that he's also concerned about the southern kingdom and it's not just the northern kingdom and again we spoke last week about how God has looked at the political division between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and he has continued to view them as a covenantal unity. But he says the Lord also has a dispute with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways. He will repay him according to his deeds. Jacob, at this point, is language that probably represents that sense of God in reference to both of the kingdoms. We've seen Hosea talk about the northern kingdom as he does here using the tribe of Ephraim. But when God now is speaking by way of Hosea about both kingdoms together, he is using a reference to Jacob, recognizing that the Israelites and the Judahites are all ultimately sons of Jacob. And Jacob is going to be used as an illustration of the character about God's people that concerns him. And so in verses 3, 4, and 5, we're not going to look at those this evening, But Hosea goes in those verses and he talks about three different experiences out of Jacob's life that illustrates the kind of spiritual transformation that took place in Jacob and that must take place now with the present-day covenant people of God. And so Jacob is going to be an illustration of what concerns the Lord has about his people in the present day and the kind of changes spiritually that need to take place in their lives. And that spiritual change and transformation is exactly what God is calling for in verse 6 when we get there. Now as we think about that, just looking at how Jacob is introduced here in verse 2, we need to think in terms of the fact that Jacob's spiritual aspirations. I'm talking about Jacob the man now, going back to the book of Genesis. Jacob's spiritual aspirations were correct within certain bounds, but his methodology of pursuing those spiritual aspirations was completely unacceptable before the Lord. Now, we recognize that perhaps Jacob as he was motivated to pursue things like the patriarchal birthright, the patriarchal blessing, to be the one who would be in that covenantal first position there in the family. His motivation for all of that may not have been completely pure. We're going to talk about that in just a second. But to desire these matters and their spiritual implications was generally a good thing. But then when you think back to the way in which Jacob goes about seeking them, that's the issue where some real concern about his methodology and his character comes out. I want to suggest to you, therefore, that something similar to that may be true of some of these Jews in Hosea's day and particularly in reference to Judah. I am not about to die for this, but I think with the introduction of Judah that has come to us in verse 2, I think most of what is being said in this illustration of Jacob and his life probably has a better application to to Judah than it does to Israel. But notice the spiritual evaluation of methodology that God talks about here again by way of Hosea. Hosea says that God will punish Jacob according to his ways. He will repay him according to his deeds. And so you see here it is the methodology that is being examined the people are being held accountable based upon their actions. That is simply to say, the spiritual assessment of the people, the Israelites, the Judahites, begins with their actions. And of course, one of the reasons why that is true, even beyond the prophecy of Hosea, is because actions often prove the heart, do they not? we live out ultimately, what is taking place within the inner recesses of our heart. And so we always have that classic passage of Jesus teaching out of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, where he says, if you do a spiritual assessment of somebody in their life, what do you start with? He says, you will know the wicked by their fruit. You'll know the wicked by what their lives produce, by how they really live. We don't listen again so much to what people say as we observe their actions and their lifestyle and the things that they do. That's where a reality of character takes place. But we need to consider that in God's concern, sees both hands and heart as being important. We use that terminology, it comes out of Psalm 24. And by that the scriptures are talking about hands as a reference to what we do. Heart as a reference to why we do what we do. The hands represent our lives and how we live. and what our lifestyle really consists of. The hands are the instruments of the actions of our lives. But it is the heart, then, that is the source and the driver, we might say, behind the actions of the hands. So, for example, if Johanna really wanted to come to this study, she would have been here on time. You see? It just fit, didn't it? It's not true, but it fits. The hands and the heart, you see, are important to God. And so let's think about the possibilities in terms of these matters. There are about four different possibilities of how we can approach these things. What God is really after in our lives is a pure heart. that drives clean hands. You understand that? As I try to define that and relate that, you understand what that language is talking about. God wants us to have pure hearts and clean hands. It's possible to have an impure heart and unclean hands, is it not? That is at least very consistent. There are a couple of other possible possibilities, perhaps, Something on the order of impure heart, clean hands? We'll have to think about that. What are we talking about? I'm going to use that kind of terminology. Yeah, yeah, it's talking about, it's language that's talking about Well, the outward appearance looks pretty good. I mean, none of this is perfect, of course, but the outward appearance looks pretty good, but the heart and the inside is rotten. Who does that remind you of? A group of people out of the scriptures? The Pharisees. Yeah, that's the description of what we have classically thought as Phariseeism, isn't it? It is the clean hands, which is never fully again ultimately there, but they gave the impression of having clean hands, and yet the heart was rotten and wicked. And this was the impetus, of course, for Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Remember how he talks about their outward actions, but then he takes the law of God and he pierces their hearts with these things, and he shows the disparity between those two issues. That's classic Phariseeism. A possible possibility would be something of this order, a clean heart with impure hands. It's kind of hard to imagine, isn't it? And yet, does that not, think about it in broad terms, does that not describe the patriarch Jacob? Isn't that what we were talking about? His spiritual aspirations were good, but his methodology was not. It was unacceptable. Again, you can't take this as ultimate issues, we're not talking about absolute matters here, but in general terms we're talking about something that could be described on the order of clean heart and pure hands. And so that describes Jacob, and Jacob in that sense then represents the Israelites and the Judahites as Hosea is speaking about them, and Jacob therefore serves as an analogy for these God's people, especially then as we move on to verses next time together, where Hosea really kind of lays out Jacob's life as an illustration of what needs to happen. But the issue for us this evening is what needs to happen for us. We need to be a people who are pursuing pure heart and clean hands. We need to have a right view and a proper attitude. We need to have correct spiritual aspirations in our lives. This is what Jesus is talking about. in Matthew 6.33, where he exhorts us that we are to seek what in our lives? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. You see, it's a matter of what are our spiritual aspirations. When you look at Jacob, he's going to be an example here, and he's going to illustrate the people of God in Hosea's day. As a general rule, he was pursuing good things. We need to pursue the kingdom of God in our lives as his people, and we need to aspire unto the righteousness of Christ becoming active in our lives. But the right methodology must accompany the right attitude and the right aspiration, you see. And that's where Jacob has failed. He had the right aspirations, but he had the wrong methodology the point is we can We can do the right things for the wrong reasons We can do the right wrong things for the right reasons I Know that gets a little you have to think about that or walk your way through that But that really forces us to look back then into our own hearts and check. Because remember, what is important to God is both the heart and the hands. We want to pursue the right thing, but we want to do it for the right reasons. We don't want to be Pharisaical about these matters. We don't want to be Jacobian. about these things either. I bet you've never heard that word before. We want to do the right thing with a right heart. We want clean hands and a pure heart. And that's what David is talking about in Psalm 24 where I'm Borrowing that language He says who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and who may stand at his holy place He who has clean hands and a pure heart Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully does that remind you of anybody as the antithesis? Kind of like these people we've just talked about tonight who multiply lies and violence That is not what the righteous do. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek him, who seek thy face. And then he says, ironically, even Jacob. So even David is bringing Jacob into this issue, and we'll take a look at that later next time as we look at a man who is pursuing the right things, but he's doing it perhaps for the wrong reasons and clearly in the wrong way. And we'll try to learn some lessons from that next time. In the meantime, again, our issue and our warning this evening is we cannot pursue faith with a spiritual character of futility and unreliability, as is the case here, and we must do pursue the righteousness of Christ not just with a pure heart but with clean hands as well and we must do what is right for the right reasons and in the right way. Let's pray. So our God we need to think about this and we need to try to sort that out so that ultimately we might apply uh... those matters to our own lives so that we could examine ourselves again in the light of the scriptures and say well am I acting with a pure heart and clean hands or am I doing some other combination as inconsistent as some of these other combinations may sound be so lord as always we ask that you would grant us insight into the condition of our souls, that you would examine us according to the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ found here in your word, that we might see ourselves for who we really are before you, that we might see ourselves as you do, and that we might appeal to you and throw ourselves on your mercy in those areas where we find ourselves wanting and lacking where we are filled with sin and unrighteousness, so that, Lord, we might put off those matters, and that more and more we might multiply the righteousness of Christ within us. So help us, Lord, again, as always we pray, because we recognize that this is for our own spiritual good, and it is certainly to the testimony of the glory of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And so we ask for these things in His name. Amen.