Hosea

Hosea 12: Turn to your God

Begin in prayer

Before you read about Jacob and about turning back to God, ask Him to help your family to wait on Him. Ask Him to give us hearts that turn.

The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go, unless you bless me.”

Genesis 32:26

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us that You found Jacob and that You call Your people to turn back and wait for You. Show us Jesus, the one way to You. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Ephraim feeds on wind, and Israel makes a covenant with Assyria and sends oil to Egypt, trusting the nations more than the LORD. The LORD has a case against Judah too, and He will repay Jacob's children for their deeds. Hosea remembers Jacob, who took his brother by the heel in the womb, and who struggled with an angel, wept and asked for a blessing. The LORD found him at Bethel, and Hosea says, “Therefore turn to your God”, and keep kindness and justice and wait for Him. A merchant with false scales loves to cheat, and Ephraim says, “Surely I have become rich”, as if wealth proved he was innocent. The LORD answers that He is the God who brought them out of Egypt, and He will make them live in tents again. Jacob served for a wife in Aram, and by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt and kept him.

As you read Hosea 12, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

The LORD, who found Jacob at Bethel, calls His people to turn back to Him and wait for Him.

Israel was Jacob's family, so Hosea tells Jacob's story to show them what they had become. In the womb Jacob took his brother by the heel, and as a man he struggled with God (verse 3). Genesis 32 tells how he held on and asked for a blessing, and Hosea adds that he wept (verse 4). Bethel, where the LORD found Jacob, now had a golden calf, which Hosea has already called Beth Aven (1 Kings 12). So the call in verse 6 is to turn to your God, keep kindness and justice, and wait for Him. Israel did the opposite, with dishonest scales and wealth taken as proof of innocence (verses 7 and 8). The LORD answers that He brought them out of Egypt, and He will make them live in tents again (verse 9). Tents recall the Feast of Booths, when Israel lived in shelters each autumn to remember the wilderness (Leviticus 23). Sinners now come to God through Jesus, the one mediator between God and people (1 Timothy 2 verse 5).

How does Hosea 12 show us that the LORD, who found Jacob at Bethel, calls His people to turn back to Him and wait for Him?

Jacob wept and asked God for a blessing.

Jacob struggled with the angel and prevailed, and he wept and made supplication to Him (verse 4). The LORD found him at Bethel, and Hosea says He spoke there with us, for that word was for Jacob's children too. He is the LORD, the God of Armies, and His name is one of renown (verse 5).

The LORD calls His people to turn back and wait.

Therefore turn to your God, Hosea says, and keep kindness and justice (verse 6). Wait continually for your God. Waiting is trust in the LORD who found Jacob. Jesus is the way back to Him, for no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14 verse 6).

Wealth and dishonest scales cannot hide sin from God.

Ephraim says he has become rich and no one will find in him any sin (verse 8). The LORD answers that He is their God from the land of Egypt (verse 9). He will repay Ephraim's contempt (verse 14).

Memorise

Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

Hosea 12:6

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, will I turn back to my God and wait for Him?

Jacob “wept, and made supplication” to the angel, and the LORD “found him at Bethel”. Then Hosea says to the people, “Therefore turn to your God”. Israel had become rich, and she did not see her sin.

No one can turn back by his own strength. Jesus is the one mediator between God and people. He gave His life on the cross as the price for His people, and He rose again. He lives to bring them to God, and His work cannot be undone.

So come to Him. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus, and wait for Him. Whoever comes receives forgiveness, and he is welcome to the Father.

Parent's note

Tell your children that the LORD calls sinners to turn back to Him, and that Jesus is the way to God. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that He calls us to turn back to Him, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:12-13

Lord God, thank You for finding Jacob, and for calling us to turn back to You. Thank You for Jesus, the way back to You. Please lead each one of us to trust Him and wait for You. Amen.