Hosea 11:12-12:6 'Grasping or wrestling'

Hosea 11:12-12:6 – Are you grasping or are you wrestling?

I wonder how things are going for you.  The truth is that although we are all going through the same event, lockdown, our experiences of this event radically differ.  For some this is a period of quality time with your family, for others you feel isolated and alone.  Some of you are frontline workers who are daily exposed to risk, for others the virus is something we only encounter when we watch the news.  Some are busy with work, and others have extra time on their hands. 

Whatever your lockdown experience, this is a time when you can grow.  I mentioned last week that God does not willingly bring affliction on people (Lamentation 3:33).  He has gracious purposes for this moment.  He may be calling you to cast your anxieties on him and realise that he cares for you.  He may have changed your routine and calls you to make a greater priority of prayer.  He wants to bless us, whatever our lockdown experience, but we will not be blessed if we simply sit back and are passive.

In chapters 11-13 of Hosea, God gives Israel some lessons from the lives of three of their forefathers—Jacob, Moses and Solomon.  We are going to look at the lessons from drawn from Jacob.

1.      Jacob is a great example of grace.

The name Jacob means ‘he grasps.’  He grasped right from his birth.  Jacob was a twin.  But as they were being born, Jacob was grasping at the heal of his brother, Esau.    

Jacob was a deceiver.  When their father, Isaac, was an old man, and had gone blind, Jacob pretended to be Esau in order to grasp the blessing that their father wanted to give to Esau, as the elder of the twins.  Obviously, Esau was furious, and Jacob had to go on the run.

One night, while he was on the run from Esau, Jacob begged God for help.  God graciously listened to him and spoke to him in a dream.  God showed him a ladder going up to heaven.  In John’s gospel Jesus picks up on this picture and teaches that he is the ladder to heaven.

Jacob called the place where he had that dream Bethel, meaning ‘house of God’.  There God reaffirmed promises that he had given to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham.  The line of blessing that would ultimately lead to Jesus would flow through Jacob.  God graciously tells Jacob, ‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go …’ (Genesis 28:15).

Are you finding lockdown hard?  Never forget that Jesus is with you.  He promised the disciples that he would be with us to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).  You may be lonely, but you are never alone.  You may be worried, but you are invited to cast your anxieties on the one who cares for you.

Why would God show such kindness to a grasping deceiver like Jacob?  Surely, he knows that Jacob is only turning to him because he is desperate.  It is called grace.  God does not treat us as our sins deserve but according to his unfailing kindness (Psalm 103:10).  It may have taken a lockdown to remind you of your need for God, but Jesus never turns away anyone who comes to him (John 6:37).

2.    Jacob is an example of the power to change

Jacob would be later named Israel.  Through the prophet Hosea, God is addressing Jacob’s descendants that are called by that name.  He calls Israel to change.  They have been like the grasping deceiver Jacob.  ‘Ephraim [another name for Israel] has surrounded me with lies, Israel with deceit … He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt’ (11:12-12:1).

Israel had made promises to God, but they broke those promises.  They constantly disobeyed God in their worship of idols and their dishonesty in business dealings.  Then when God put them under pressure, so that they would come back to him, they turned instead to the superpowers of their day, the Assyrians and Egyptians. 

We are so foolish.  God lovingly calls us to himself, but we are slow to come.  We feel empty, so we fill our lives with noise rather than prayer.  We feel guilty, but we don’t trust his sure promises of forgiveness.  We are under pressure, but we refuse to cast all our anxieties.  We feel defeated by sin, but we don’t lean on him for the power to change.

God calls Israel to change.  ‘But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice and wait for your God always’ (6).  But I am slow to change.  It feels like we give in to the same temptations again and again.  Our temper, our lusts, our lack of self-control, our people-pleasing, our greed and our self-obsession seem so slow to change.  Take heart.  Progress may be slow, but God is faithful.  Verse six more literally reads, ‘so you, by the help of your God, return’ (ESV).  In the face of temptation and sin don’t proudly depend on your own strength saying, ‘I am better than this’, for we are helpless on our own.  Lean heavily on the God who gives us the power to change.

Jacob was changes from a grasping deceiver to a man who wrestled blessing from God.

3.    Jacob wrestled blessing from God

Hosea points to another incident from years later in the life of Jacob.  The night before he was due to meet his brother Esau, he struggled with the angel and overcame him, he wept and begged for his favour’ (4).  God came to him in the form of an angel.  They wrestle all night until, just as dawning is breaking, Jacob overcomes God and wrestles a blessing from God.  This is the moment that God gives Jacob the name ‘Israel’, which means ‘fights with God’.

This is such a strange story.  How could a man overcome God?  How could the creator be overcome by a creature?  Only when God deliberately makes himself weak!  God let himself be defeated.  That is the story of the cross.  Jesus allows us to crucify him, in order to rescue us from our guilt.  God let’s himself be defeated so that he can bless us.

The fact that God is the one who enables us to change does not mean that we become passive.  The picture of wrestling for blessing captures the idea of urgency and passion. 

When feelings of guilt overcome us, we shouldn’t simply wallow in self-pity, we wrestle to accept the promises of God.  We actively preach the gospel of grace to ourselves until we begin to rejoice in God’s acceptance and forgiveness.

When anxiety overcomes us, we don’t simply give in to fear, we wrestle to daily cast our anxieties upon God until we begin to feel the assurance that God is with us and watches over us.

When our love for God is fading, we don’t simply live with coldness of heart, we turn to his Word and remember his blessings. 

We may feel lonely, but we wrestle to keep remembering that we are never alone.

We fall into temptation, but we don’t resign ourselves to defeat.  We plead with God to give us the desire and strength to be different.

We wrestle with God because God has promised to bless us.  This is a wrestling match that he wants us to win.

Conclusion:  Are you grasping or are you wrestling?

‘In the womb he grasped his brother’s heal, as a man he struggled with God’ (3).

Jacob sought his own way and grasped, but when he sought God’s blessing he wrestled.

Maybe you have no intention of growing in your relationship with God at this time, all you want is for things to go back to normal.  Your grasping for things to be the way you want them to be.  If that is you then you are missing out on God’s blessing.

But maybe you are wrestling with God at this time.  You feel trapped in the house with too many people, and that you need to grow in the fruit of patience and self-control.  You feel lonely, but you are reminding yourself that you are never alone.  You are casting your anxieties on the one who cares for you.  You are trusting the one who will never leave you.  You will only grow in intimacy with God if you are willing to spend time with him—so whether you have had to slow down or you are rushed off your feet, make prayer your priority.

God is gracious—he does not bless us because we deserve it, but because of his unfailing kindness.  God is gracious—he gives us the power to change.  God is gracious—he wants to bless us as we wrestle with him.  Let your lockdown experience be a time of growth!