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Lessons from History

An amazing number of people have views about the importance or otherwise of history.

You probably have your own views too. Some of you may feel a great deal of sympathy with Henry T. Ford who once famously declared "History is bunk" – he didn't think that the past counted for anything but that what really mattered is what we do today.

And doubtless this quote is well-loved by schoolchildren over the years who were forced to memorize impossible lists of dates!

If Ford was right then we would not want to waste our time by asking questions such as: What is the point of history? Is there anything for us to learn from history?

Ford did have a point when he made his rather crass statement: we can only act in the present and the past is past. But he seriously overlooked the fact that we are where we are in the present because of what happened in the past. Surely then there is a lot we could learn from considering what took place in history.

And yet do we really learn?

The German philosopher Hegel summed rather depressingly when he wrote:

"We learn from history that we never learn anything from history."

What he meant was that we failed to learn the lessons of history, we failed to alter our current behaviour accordingly.

Another philosopher, this time Spanish, put it this way:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana.)

As Bible readers we should want to take issue with Ford because the Bible itself contains a lot of history. In fact sometimes as we read there is so much history about long-disappeared peoples in unfamiliar parts of the world that we can struggle to grasp what it's really all about.

Bible history has been written down for us not to confuse us or to bore us but to help us in very practical ways if only we are prepared to learn from it:

Rom.15:4 "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

Sometimes references to the past serve to enable us to evaluate more accurately our current position. Are we making progress and going forward or is there decline and regression setting in? Robert Penn Warren (the American poet and novelist) perhaps exaggerated when he declared that:

"The past is always a rebuke to the present."

Hosea in ch.12 of his prophecy most certainly does draw the attention of the people of his day to their own history. He wanted them to see that things did not need to continue as they were – real change was possible because their ancestors had already experienced just that in the past.

The LORD God was tremendously committed to His people. In spite of all the inappropriate ways in which Israel had responded to His love the LORD persevered with them. However the fact that He continued to evidence such love towards His people did not mean that He was content to overlook their aberration – sin spoiled not only their relationship with Himself but it also destroyed their lives. His love continued to seek a full restitution: He wanted a restored relationship and a reformed lifestyle that goes with it.

And Hosea's task was far from easy as he had to communicate with a people who lived in their own imaginary little make-believe world. Rather than face up to reality Ephraim (another name for Israel) had filled her national life with lies and deceit. Caught in this web of unreality Ephraim had totally lost her bearings: she was chasing dreams that always seemed to be just out of reach.

To "feed on the wind" is never going to satisfy – a mocking emptiness will be the result. Worse the east wind was a dry destructive wind (it was the type of wind that dried up and caused Jonah's plant or gourd to wither). The route Ephraim/Israel was following was the high road to destruction as they looked first to Assyria then to Egypt for help

How many folk live just like this today? Never settled, always turning to something new in the hope of finding that satisfaction that has eluded them up till now will. Perhaps that is true of us too – that we keep on trying something, anything but the Living God.

Hosea's next approach is to give Ephraim a history lesson and the history he wants them to consider is their own.

The people were descended from Jacob and he received his name at birth by the fact that he grabbed his brother's heel in the womb. He was from that moment on trying to get on in life by trickery and duplicity. Jacob was the twister and the deceiver. He was just the kind of man that you wouldn't want to but a second hand car from – he could be trusted to do just one thing and that was to promote his own selfish interests. Sometimes it seemed to work for him and at others it got him into great difficulties. Esau was at the wrong end of his brother's deceitfulness one too many times and Jacob had to flee for his life.

On his way God appeared to him at Bethel (you can read about this in Gen.28). There God and made promises to him, promises that he didn't deserve . Jacob responded. He made a vow in return though his vow did appear to involve an attempt to barter with the LORD. He set up a sacred pillar there too to mark the spot. Several years later he would indeed return there as the LORD kept His promises.

But Jacob's life was not yet redeemed. He was still the wheeler-and-dealer Jacob and he would stay like that for years to come. Nevertheless the LORD took care of him so much so that his wily old uncle Laban could not get the better of him even though he tried every trick he knew to do so. But still Jacob leaned on his own understanding and he decided to make a break for it – Laban chased angrily after him but God prevented him from harming Jacob. How Jacob benefited from the LORD's protection!

Carrying on his journey back to his homeland Jacob is brought news that Esau is coming to meet him with a large company of men. After the way Jacob had treated his brother Esau Jacob can only expect one thing and he is scared stiff.

At the Jabbok river he stays behind while the rest of his family crosses over. Then he is involved in an encounter that will thoroughly change and for good!

He wrestles with God. Hosea reminds his contemporaries that Jacob, their ancestor, strove with God. He, finally after years of thinking that he could get by living on his wits, realized that he couldn't get by any more. He wrestled and prevailed in an interesting way.

Hosea tells us he wrestled with tears – he wept and desperately sought the favour of God. He was fighting yes, but now he was fighting with the weapons of weakness! The power that prevailed was the power of a helpless man who could do no more than to cling on. The angel with whom he had been struggled had touched his hip crippling him and all Jacob could do was cling on pleading for blessing! (The story is recorded in Gen.32).

The encounter transformed Jacob – even his name was changed. No longer to be called Jacob – the twister/the cheat but Israel a name which refers to this encounter of striving with God.

A short time later God directs Jacob to travel on to Bethel, the place where the LORD had appeared to him so many years before. Once there the name change from Jacob to Israel is confirmed. To this new man Israel the covenant promises given previously to Abraham and to Isaac are renewed!

This is the history lesson Hosea wanted to remind his hearers about. Their ancestor, the wily tricky old Jacob had met the Living God and it had transformed him. Do you see the way in which Hosea insists upon this divine encounter? Just look at vv.4b-5:

"He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us – the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is his memorial name:"

In their own history their ancestor had met with this glorious God who is the LORD!

But if you look carefully at what Hosea said about the LORD's meeting with Jacob there is something unexpected. We expect to hear that the LORD spoke with Jacob but that is not what we read. We read instead "God spoke with us"!

The Scriptures are not just about events that took place in the past the Scriptures are that but they are also the living words of the Living God who speaks to men and women in all ages. The story of their ancestor Jacob's experience at Bethel is not therefore to be treated as nothing more than an historical curio it is an example of what can be Israel's own experience in their day – and our experience in our day!

What is the lesson to be learnt then from this?

Hosea's application is found in v.6

"So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God."

I want you to see the various elements of this application and to appreciate how relevant they were to Israel's actual situation. Beyond that they remain just as relevant to us in our own situations.

1.       The people are NOT being told that everything depends upon their efforts, upon their doing, upon their working. The sinful human heart likes to imagine that human effort is all that is called for. Tell us what we must do and we try to imagine that we will then be able to please God. How many people in our world today think that that is all that Christianity is – a new set of rules and regulations whereby to live.

Hosea begins by telling the people that they are to act with the energy God supplies! The Israelites weren't in a position to reform themselves they needed to be reformed by this wonderful transforming power of God. Jacob hadn't sought out God on either occasion when he met with God at Bethel – God came to him! And the initiative always rests with God.

The Israelites had not been wondering desperately how they might return to God – they were indifferent to it all foolishly thinking that all was well with them! No! It was God who came to them through the prophets and here through Hosea showing them their failings and calling them to repent and to return to Him.

2.       But return they must – that is the second part of Hosea's application. They needed to return because they had first wandered away. In order to make them realise this the LORD must speak to them of their sin – it is not that He loves to dwell on sin, He doesn't, Habakkuk tells us that His eyes are too pure too see evil and that He cannot look upon wrong – He must do so for it is their sin that has caused them to wander off and it is their sin that keeps them wandering. If they are to return they must understand what they have done and how dreadful what they have done really is!

Jacob had had to wander far away from the land that the LORD had promised to His people. It was his self-centred, twistedness that had brought this upon him but even on his way out of the land the LORD had spoken to him telling him that He would bring Jacob back to the same place and meet with him again there.

And it happened! If twisted old Jacob could return there was a precedent set – surely his descendants imitating the example of their ancestor could! Surely we too may return! Have I done so? Have you?

3.       In returning they will be able to do what they were so patently unable to do previously: they could hold fast to steadfast love and justice. Do you remember back in ch.6 how this was the subject of complaint on the LORD's lips? There He declared that His people's love was anything but steadfast – it was like the morning mist that is quickly dissipated. Now the people are exhorted to return in the power the LORD Himself supplies and they are to produce fruit worthy of repentance, the fruit that was previously so lacking in their lives.

4.       Finally they are exhorted to "wait continually for (their) God". Jacob's "waiting" had not been passive but He had clung with all his helpless might to the LORD refusing to let Him go without being blessed. We're not to understand this call to wait as anything different – a waiter in a restaurant is not passive or inactive but active in his service of the tables. So too the people are to actively resolutely and determinedly seek blessing from God. And the blessing that is to be sought so seriously is the restoration to a right relationship with God!

Hosea must continue to press upon the people the need they have of change and the things he has to say must have been very shocking to his hearers.

God does not shock for shock's sake but the fact He is prepared to shock demonstrates the depth and the reality of His love once again for His people. He simply refuses to give up on them!

What is Ephraim like, this people that the LORD is doing everything possible to restore to Himself? Well v.7 suggest that they are like a dishonest merchant who uses false scales. They were like their old ancestor Jacob in his unreformed days! He was known for sharp practice and so were they.

But worse than that is here described. The word translated "merchant" is actually the word "Canaanite". It was translated "merchant" because the Canaanites were known as traders. But God now breaks in and says that Ephraim has now become Canaan!

What is so serious about that? Well the LORD had originally sent His people Israel into Canaan to execute His justice against the corruption of the Canaanites but now those He had sent had become indistinguishable for them! Israel in this condition was utterly unable to represent God to the world – Israel had become as corrupt as the world.

And this is of course has been a great danger for the church down through the centuries. The church is never meant to become like the world but always to remain different from it testifying to the wonderful grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is always to be conflict between the two there can never be a proper peace – light has nothing in common with darkness and Christ has nothing in common with Belial. The world constantly tries to squeeze the church into its mould but the church is to be watchful. The church is to be the salt of the earth – preventing corruption and degradation – but the moment the salt loses its saltiness it loses it reason for being and is itself cast away as useless.

Israel as a nation had a high calling but was failing to fulfil that calling showing herself to be in as great a need of transformation as the world in which she found herself. Israel would find its true fulfilment in the coming of Jesus Christ who would not fail, who would not allow the world to gain a hold on Him, who indeed overcame the world.

The church of Jesus Christ is in her turn live as salt and light – witnessing to a needy world and serving it in proclaiming the good news of Jesus by life and lip. And the church must be careful not to go the way of Israel.

But would Ephraim listen? Up till now her responses had not been encouraging!

In the light of the repeated warning and appeals the best that Ephraim was able to do was to vainly and stubbornly protest her state of wealth and to declare her innocence.

Yes, she was economically prosperous and this she attributed not to the LORD's generosity but to her own efforts. Those efforts were corrupt and dishonest but Ephraim refused see it that way. She had worked hard for what she had and they weren't worse than anybody else. There wasn't really anything fundamentally wrong with what they'd been doing!

The church of Laodicea in the Book of Revelation was just the same. That church thought that it too was rich and well blessed. That church thought too that given such "blessings" she had absolutely nothing to fear. The reality was very different. Where the church focused upon her wealth the LORD saw this as poverty. When the church saw her finery the LORD recognized only blindness – it wasn't that this church was seeing things wrongly it wasn't seeing at all!

Are you one of the many people in our world today who shares the outlook of Ephraim and of Laodicea? You think that all is pretty good for you – you're well off and comfortable and you too think that you're no worse than anybody else – all this talk about sin leaves you pretty cold because you think your life commends you to God.

 Well the LORD hadn't finished with Ephraim – He hadn't finished with Laodicea either – but change was necessary!

The extraordinary thing is that He promises better things for Israel! And again another little example from history is cited. He had delivered His people from the mess of Egyptian slavery and taken them off into the wilderness where they dwelt in tents and celebrated their feasts unto the LORD. The LORD promises that the people will again dwelt in tents and celebrate!

Israel/Ephraim had no grounds for boasting or for being self-satisfied. Their ancestor Jacob had even had to exile himself to find a wife and when he did he had to work as a slave to gain her!

No Israel had no reason to boast in herself BUT the LORD had been and still was active.

He it was who had communicated with them – using a variety of different means –visions and parables as well as the clear speech of prophets. He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. If Israel were to persist in sin their guilt would remain on them but that is not why Hosea preached. He preached because the LORD God longed for transformation in His people.

The same God longs for transformation in your life! He warns you of sin and its consequences not to rub your noses in it but because He wants to bring you to Himself.

In the past He spoke by many different ways – parables, dreams, visions etc through the prophets – but we are not to expect Him to speak that way now because He has spoken far more clearly. He has spoken to us by His Son! Jesus Christ has come into the world and shown us what God is like and shown us the type of love that God has for us by laying down His life for us.

This Magnificent Son has made purification for sins and has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Have you kissed the Son lest He be angry and you perish in the way? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!

Amen.