Genesis 32–33; Hosea 11–12: Sick of the false allure of the temporary?

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The Torah reading וַיִּשְׁלַח Vayishlach (“and he sent,” Genesis 32:4–36:43) gives us an active example of what the apostle Paul calls the “ministry of reconciliation” (2Cor. 5:18). We see Jacob’s offering to Esau. The mission of the ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven is the same. Abraham went, Isaac went and now Jacob went out and returned.

The LORD sends us into the world to be His ambassadors and part of the kingdom of priests. Will we go? Will we face challenges of our own making or ones that are out of our control?

Division is toxic to the Kingdom of God. How are we living this out? The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were separated and they are still separated. But one of the great hopes we read in the TaNaK (Torah, Prophets and Writings, i.e., the Hebrew Scriptures) is that separation will be healed (Ezek. 37:15–22).

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” (Romans 12:18 NASB)

Yeshua tells us in the Beatitudes that those who make peace are happy and blessed. There are those who don’t want peace like we see in the history of the people of Edom, but even though not everyone wants to live in peace, we must strive for it without naiveté.

In other words: Get over it! If somenone offends us, in the name of peace, we need to get over ourselves and think of how to win our brother.

But division must exist between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Edom, between the realm of the eternal and the realm of the temporary.

Struggling with God has been an important part of the people of God from the beginning.

Adam and Chavah (Eve) “wrestled” with the instruction to trust the LORD or the voice of the serpent.

The appearance of an agent of Elohim to wrestle with Ya’akob is a reminder that the spiritual realm can use agents to act or speak for them, such as the serpent in Eden for the Adversary. We need to remember that much of the spiritual realm is beyond our senses yet it is very real.

Money and information are also spiritual. How is money spiritual? When there’s a crisis and we have stockpiled food and someone wants to buy some food from us for some pieces of paper with a dead president or dead monarch on it, would we be willing to engage in that exchange? Probably not, if we don’t know when we will have more food.

The only reason those pieces of paper have any purchasing power is because of the faith we have in the government that issues them. If there’s no more faith in that government, then the money they issue doesn’t have value either.

When we think of information or language as spiritual, we can download hundreds of video and books onto our computer tablets, yet the tablet weighs the same. The increase in information doesn’t increase the weight of the computer tablet but we still engage in something of value.

Abraham had a vivid vision of God as a torch in deep blackness, passing between the sacrifice pieces to seal the deal single-handedly with Abraham.

Though the account doesn’t say what time of day the LORD came after Moshe’s uncircumcised sons during the trip to Mitsraim from Midian, it could have been at night (Ex. 4:24–26). The account says they were “at the lodging place,” presumably after traveling by daylight. Zipporah seems to have “wrestled” with God on Moshe’s behalf.

Israel “wrestled” with God’s destroyer during the night of the first Passover, “prevailing” over the destroyer via the blessing of the blood of the Pesakh (Passover) lamb/goat.

Lesson: Apostle Paul admonished the Ephesian congregation to “put on all of God’s armor” — truth, righteousness, readiness of news about peace from the Kingdom of God, trust in God, God’s salvation and the word of God — because:

“our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12)

We can’t be complacent in the maintenance of our armor. Just as we have seen government engage in an “arms race” where one power comes up with a weapon and the other discovers an armor that will deflect it then someone comes up with a weapon to overcome the armor and the cycle goes on and on.

We’ll see that this battle has been going from Eden and will continue until the New Yerushalayim on the Day of the LORD.

What does it mean to struggle?

struggle = πάλη palē (G3823); wrestle in Gen. 32:25 LXX is ἐπάλαιεν epalaien, from παλαίω palaiō
- wrestle = אָבַק ’avaq (H79), “to stir up dust,” struggle.

Ya’akob really did have to wrestle with his “old man” (Eph. 4:17–24), i.e., his flesh, that which was tied to the things of Earth, that which can blow away like dust in the wind.

Although we are dust, we are also more than dust. We are very important to and cherished by the One who created us.

Eysau was called Edom, which means “red” but comes from the Hebrew word אדמה adamah, or “dirt.”

Eysau passed his dirt-man legacy — seeking the immediate over the eternal — to the kingdom of Edom, which became the kingdom of the flesh nemesis of the Kingdom of God. Edom is the blood-obsessed, violence obsessed kingdom, that celebrates the destruction of the Kingdom of God.

Although Jacob grasped Esau’s heel when they were born, now it is Edom who grasps at Jacob’s heels.

Ephesians 4:17-24 gives us a good summary of the difference between the Kingdom of God (Jacob) v. the Kingdom of this world (Esau). There is a large separation between the Kingdom of the Eternal v. the Kingdom of the Temporary.

When we are purposefully ignorant of the Kingdom of God, we can become entrenched in the Kingdom of the Temporary. Our hearts become insensitive and calloused towards the eternal yet very sensitive to the things that are temporary and ephemeral.

Romans 6:1-18 shows us the dangers of Rasputinism. It is not a good idea to presume to run headlong into sin and presume that God’s grace will tolerate it. We can be slaves of righteousness or slaves of sin but practicing sin won’t make us righteous.

Hosea 11–12: Wherever I may roam vs. remembering the in-tents experience

“Hosea’s ministry began about 750 BC and ended about 723 BC, shortly before the northern kingdom of Israel’s fall to Assyria, since Hosea never mentions that final fall.” (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series)

A resident of the northern kingdom, God assigns הוֹשֵׁעַ Hoshea (“salvation,” from יָשַׁע yasha, “to deliver”) to be a living prophecy of Heaven’s love and salvation, instructed to marry an adulterous wife, Gomer, and redeem her after her wandering.

The northern kingdom was dead in its rebellion and adultery:

Stone the rebellious son (Deut. 21:18–21)
No remarrying the divorced wife (Deut. 24:1–4)

Although the Northern Kingdom was really abhorrent, the Southern Kingdom of Judah weren’t much better. Ephraim had to die to their idolatry, their alterantive calendars, alternative temple, their refusal to worship HaShem where He placed His name. Hosea is telling us that Ephraim had to be “born again.” This is also what Yeshua reminded Nicodemus in John 3:1–8.

Ya’akob (Israel) had once “heeled” to Edom but matured to contend/rule with God, seeking Heaven’s favor and receiving the LORD as his memorial-legacy (Hos. 12:3–5).

Therefore (Hos. 12:6):

תָשׁוּב tashuv (H7725): return to God
שְׁמֹ֔ר shemor (H8104): keep/watch/preserve
- חֶסֶד chesed (H2617a): lovingkindness, loyalty
- מִשְׁפָּט mishpat (H4941): judgment, justice
- קַוֵּ֥ה qawweh (H6960a): wait/hope for
“your God תָּמִיד tamid (‘continually’)”

This is Hosea’s going-away message to Ephraim: lament the loss and hope for their restoration back to the family of God.

“‘And Ephraim said, ‘Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself; In all my labors they will find in me No iniquity, which would be sin.’

“‘But I have been the LORD your God since the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, As in the days of the appointed festival.’” (Hosea 12:8-9 NASB)

Lessons of Sukkot (Lev. 23:33-44; Zech. 14:16-19; 2Cor. 5:1-11)

Also called the Feast of Booths, or Sukkot in Hebrew, this is the celebration of the second wheat harvest as well as the bringing in of the olives for oil and grapes for wine.

Israel was to build temporary shelters, or tabernacles, out of certain species of trees and live in them for seven days. A mysterious Eighth Day follows this festival and became considered part of it. (Lev. 23:33–43)

One lesson of Sukkot is human life is fragile and temporary, like a makeshift shelter (2Cor. 5:4). However, God sent Messiah Yeshua to pitch His tent with us (John 1:14), and God plans to do likewise permanently (Lev. 26:11–12; Rev. 21:2–4).

What we see in Jacob and Esau is a profound message for us today, buried amongst sibling rivalry. We should strive to live at peace with everyone, but there still must be a division between the Kingdom of the Eternal and the Kingdom of the Temporary. God wants everyone to leave the Kingdom of the Temporary and join Him in the Kingdom of the Eternal, because the Kingdom of the Temporary will be destroyed on the Day of the LORD.