The Calling of Ephraim

By Dan and Brenda Cathcart

The video version of this teaching is available at: https://youtu.be/vc9J_9lSPsE

The prophet Hosea prophesied during the later years of the kingdom of the northern tribes of Israel. Judgment was soon to fall on the kingdom by the hand of the Assyrian Empire. This passage in Hosea opens with God reminding Israel about Jacob’s journeys outside the Promised Land and God’s presence with him during those journeys.

Hosea 12:12-13 NKJV 12 Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, And for a wife he tended sheep. 13 By a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet he was preserved.

The first time Jacob left the Promised Land was when he fled from Esau. This connects us with the Torah portion for this week, Vayetze, Genesis 28:10 through 32:3. While out of the Land, Jacob sought and found a bride or brides, and gained a fortune. When it was time to return to the Promised Land, God delivered him from the wrath of his father-in-law Laban and gave him the new name of Israel. The second time Jacob left the Promised Land was when he was fleeing famine. He sought refuge for his family in Egypt where he was reunited with his son Joseph. After Jacob’s death, God delivered his family from the slavery imposed on them by Pharaoh and made them into the nation Israel.

Why did God remind Israel of these particular events at this time? What message did He want backslidden Israel to take from the words of Hosea? How does this message encourage us today?

By citing these two events, God is reminding Israel of His faithfulness. As Jacob left the Promised Land empty-handed and in fear of his life, God assured him that he would be with him the entire time he was out of the Promised Land. God, also, reassured Jacob, that his exile from the land would not be permanent.

Genesis 28:15 NKJV 15 "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."

When it was time for Jacob to return to the Promised Land, God revealed how he had blessed Jacob. Jacob’s agreement with his father-in-law Laban was that Jacob would serve as his keeper of the flocks in return for receiving the animals born either speckled, streaked or spotted gray. God revealed that He was the one who caused the animals to bear speckled or streaked offspring so that Jacob would be blessed!

Genesis 31:11-12 NKJV 11 "Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, 'Jacob.' And I said, 'Here I am.' 12 "And He said, 'Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

Then again, when Joseph invited Jacob and the rest of the family to join him in Egypt during the famine years, God reassured Jacob that He would once again go with Jacob when he left the Land.

Genesis 46:3-4 NKJV 3 So He said, "I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. 4 "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes."

God was faithful to fulfill His promises to Jacob! He brought Jacob back to the Promised Land richer than when he left. God had proved His faithfulness. But now, after years in the Land, Israel had forgotten God. Instead of being grateful to God for the blessings of the Land, Israel turned to Baal. While God asked for obedience and adherence to a moral code which supported a cohesive community, worship of Baal promised the fulfillment of their own fleshly desires.

After reminding Israel about her past, Hosea returns to the present with a strong indictment of Israel’s behavior. He singles out Ephraim as representative of Israel because the first king of the northern kingdom was Jeroboam from the tribe of Ephraim, and Ephraim remained the largest and most influential tribe in the kingdom of Israel.

Hosea 12:14 NKJV 14 Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly; Therefore his Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him, And return his reproach upon him.

God, then, begins to outline all the ways that Israel or Ephraim sinned and the punishment for that sin. He, then, follows it up with what Israel needed to do to return to God. Both the punishments and the steps to return can be summarized in four particulars. Why four? E. W. Bullinger explains the significance of the number four in his book Number in Scripture.

“Now the number four is made up of three and one (3+1=4), and it denotes, therefore, and marks that which follows the revelation of God in the Trinity, namely, His creative works.”[i]

In other words, the number four represents the fullness of creation and God’s sovereignty over it. In particular, God has sovereignty over His covenant nation Israel.

Hosea opens with the pronouncement of death on Israel because they turned and worshiped idols.

Hosea 13:1-2 NKJV 1 When Ephraim spoke, trembling, He exalted himself in Israel; But when he offended through Baal worship, he died. 2 Now they sin more and more, And have made for themselves molded images, Idols of their silver, according to their skill; All of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, "Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!"

This death can be understood on multiple levels. Physical death awaits those in Israel when the brutal armies of Assyria overran the nation of Israel. The siege of its capital city Samaria took three years. The famine within the city was so severe, that mothers began eating their babies! But the death spoken of by Hosea can also be understood to be spiritual or eternal death. When Jeroboam accepted the decision of the ten northern tribes of Israel to become their king instead of accepting Solomon’s son Rehoboam as king, he worried that if the people still worshiped in Jerusalem they would return their allegiance to Rehoboam. To prevent this, Jeroboam set up golden calves for the people to worship in place of God.

1 Kings 12:28-30 NKJV 28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!" 29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.

Their worship of the golden calves which they intermingled with Baal worship brought in by Jezebel led to their spiritual death. Their worship of other gods broke the covenant relationship with God leading to covenantal death. This takes us to the second punishment, exile.

Hosea 13:3-4 NKJV 3 Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud And like the early dew that passes away, Like chaff blown off from a threshing floor And like smoke from a chimney. 4 "Yet I am the LORD your God Ever since the land of Egypt, And you shall know no God but Me; For there is no Savior besides Me.

Jeroboam told the children of Israel that the golden calves were their god that had brought them out of Egypt. God, through the prophet Hosea, corrected that erroneous statement! Because they trusted in idols, they would be dispersed throughout the Assyrian empire. Hosea describes the dispersion with four similes, the morning clouds, the dew, the chaff and smoke from a chimney, each of which quickly disperses!

When Israel broke the covenant, God, Israel’s covenant partner, invoked the curses embedded within the covenant provisions. If Israel broke the covenant, certain consequences would follow.

Hosea 13:7-8 NKJV 7 "So I will be to them like a lion; Like a leopard by the road I will lurk; 8 I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, And there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.

In the Hebrew, there is a word play that reveals the instrument God chose for Israel’s punishment. The English phrase “I will lurk” is translated from the Hebrew word “ashhur,” the imperfect future tense of the word “shuwr.” Asshur sounds exactly like the Hebrew word, Asshur, for Assyria! This word play tells us that Assyria will descend down the road to destroy them.

Instead of God helping Israel, He allowed Israel to be destroyed. They had rejected God as their king, and now must rely on the kings that they had demanded God give them to help them. However, their kings could not help them!

Hosea 13:9-11 NKJV 9 "O Israel, you are destroyed, But your help is from Me. 10 I will be your King; Where is any other, That he may save you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'? 11 I gave you a king in My anger, And took him away in My wrath.

God gave Saul to be king when the children of Israel demanded a human king. He took him away when Saul’s pride and desire to please the people had him turning away from God. However, God, also, gave the northern tribs of Israel Jeroboam as their first king, but Jeroboam caused Israel to sin. Every king after Jeroboam followed Jeroboam’s sin and continued to cause Israel to sin. Now, God is taking away the king of Israel in His wrath against the nation. The final king of the kingdom of Israel was Hoshea.

2 Kings 17:6 NKJV 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

Hoshea, number 1954 in Strong’s Concordance, is a variant of the name Hosea and Oshea. It means deliverer. King Hoshea was unable to deliver Israel from Assyria! The prophet Hosea, who announces the coming destruction, names God as their only true deliverer!

The fourth punishment on Israel was devastation both of the land and the people.

Hosea 13:15-16 NKJV 15 Though he is fruitful among his brethren, An east wind shall come; The wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness. Then his spring shall become dry, And his fountain shall be dried up. He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize. 16 Samaria is held guilty, For she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, And their women with child ripped open.

The name Ephraim, number 669 in Strong’s Concordance, means doubly fruitful. Ephraim was the younger son of Joseph that Jacob blessed before his older brother saying that he would be the greater of Joseph’s two sons. Later, when Jacob blessed his sons before he died, he described Joseph as a “fruitful bough.”

Genesis 49:22 NKJV 22 "Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall.

Ephraim did not fulfill his early promise and bear fruit for God! He did not further God’s kingdom by upholding God’s covenant in the sight of the nations. Moses had promised that the nations would see the righteousness of Israel.

Deuteronomy 4:6 NKJV 6 "Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

Ephraim’s descendant Jeroboam did not follow God’s commandments, statutes and judgments. Jeroboam did evil and led the children of Israel away from God and His commandments. God sent judgment on the house of Jeroboam during the reign of his son Nadab because of the sins of Jeroboam.

1 Kings 15:29-30 NKJV 29 And it was so, when he (Baasha) became king, that he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, 30 because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.

Yeshua tells us that He will prune out any vine in His Father’s vineyard that does not bear fruit.

John 15:5-6 NKJV 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

All four of these punishments came on the northern kingdom of Israel. Yet God still stated that He was their God and their only savior! No other would be able to deliver them. God was not done speaking to Israel! How should Israel respond to the judgments poured out on them? Hosea outlines four steps they are to take to return to God!

Hosea 14:1-2 NKJV 1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity; 2 Take words with you, And return to the LORD. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.

The first thing Israel was to do was to confess their sins and ask God to take away their sins. King David, when confronted with his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba confessed his sins.

Psalms 51:1-3 NKJV 1 <> Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

The apostle John tells us that when we confess our sins we have an advocate with the Father.

1 John 2:1-2 NKJV 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

The second thing they were to do was to change their attitude. Their sacrifices belong to God and only to God. It is to Him they were to thank for the blessings God gave them. Earlier in Hosea, God chastises Israel for giving thanks to their idols instead of Him for the blessings that He brings.

Hosea 2:5 NKJV 5 For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.'

Paul encourages us to come to God with an attitude of thanksgiving and praise.

Philippians 4:4-7 NKJV 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The next thing Hosea called on Ephraim to do was to return his trust to God and acknowledge that God alone could save him.

Hosea 14:3 NKJV 3 Assyria shall not save us, We will not ride on horses, Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, 'You are our gods.' For in You the fatherless finds mercy."

They were to acknowledge that salvation did not come from Assyria, and follow that up with action. Action is the fourth step in their return to God. They were to renounce and turn from their worship of idols.

Hosea 14:8 NKJV 8 "Ephraim shall say, 'What have I to do anymore with idols?' I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me."

Yeshua tells us that He is the one sent by the Father to bring salvation and there is no salvation except through His name.

John 3:35-36 NKJV 35 "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. 36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

We must follow up our faith with action. Yeshua says that our words are not enough. We can’t just say to Him, “Lord, Lord!” We must change our actions to meet our words.

Matthew 7:21 NKJV 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

John tells us that if we truly know Yeshua, we will follow Him and keep His commandments.

1 John 2:3-6 NKJV 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Hosea brought his words to Israel when they were at the decision point that would determine whether they would be destroyed as a nation. God’s desire was for Israel to repent and turn back to Him! His desire was that they remain a nation set apart for Him. But Israel did not repent and judgment came. However, this was not the end of Hosea’s message. When Israel repents, God will restore her.

Hosea 14:4 NKJV 4 "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him.

God has not turned His back on His covenant people, nor will he ever do so. He continues to call out to Ephraim. We, also, have this assurance. When we turn from sin and fully embrace God, He will heal us from our sins and pour out His love upon us. In fact, He has already done so by sending Yeshua to die for us.

Study Questions:

1. This portion of scripture opens with a five line poem in Hosea 12:12 describing God bringing Jacob and Israel back to the Promised Land. How would Hosea have written about Yeshua’s role in delivering Israel?

2. Jeroboam had set up calves for Israel to worship instead of worshiping in Jerusalem Hosea described those who made idols as saying to Israel “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves” in Hosea 13:2. How does Psalm 2:10-11 respond to this instruction?

3. Read God’s promise to Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:37-38. Compare this promise to God’s promise to David in 1 Chronicles 17:9-14. What was God’s indictment of Jeroboam when Jeroboam’s wife came to the prophet Ahijah when her son was ill in 1 Kings 14:6-16?

4. Yeshua says in Mark 12:30 that loving God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength is the first and greatest commandment. Compare this to the four steps Hosea outlined for repentance: Confession, Attitude, Trust, and Action.

5. In what way is God calling Ephraim? How does this apply today?

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[i] Bullinger, E.W. Number in Scripture. Eyre and Spottiswoode. ©1894. Reissued Cosimo, Inc. ©2005. P. 123.