12:1 Ephraim continually feeds on the wind; he chases the east wind all day; he multiplies lies and violence. They make treaties with Assyria, and send olive oil as tribute to Egypt.
Ephraim (Israel) was feeding on the wind, which is feeding on emptiness. Ephraim chases the wind all day long, but she can never catch it. Ephraim tells multiple lies and completes many evil acts. Instead of trusting God, Ephraim makes treaties with Assyria and attempts to bribe Egypt with olive oil.
12:2 The Lord also has a covenant lawsuit against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.
Judah is faithful, but she will later slip and be judged.
12:3 In the womb he attacked his brother; in his manly vigor he struggled with God.
12:4 He struggled with an angel and prevailed; he wept and begged for his favor. He found God at Bethel, and there he spoke with him!
Jacob struggled with the angel of the Lord until he was given a blessing. He wept, because he wanted God’s favor. He experienced God twice at Bethel. Bethel means “house of God.” Israel had turned this same location of Bethel into a house of demonic idols. Jacob actually spoke with God Himself. Jacob desired God’s blessing, but Israel desired spiritual adultery with false demonic idols made of wood and stone.
12:5 As for the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is the name by which he is remembered!
The name of God was to be remembered as יהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י הַצְּבָאֹ֑ות (Jehovah Elohi ha-tsavot), meaning the covenant-keeping-promise-keeping triune-creator God of the angelic army.
12:6 But you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.
If one really loves God, then he/she will keep His commandments. For ancient Israel, the commandments were the Mosaic Law. For the modern Christian, the commandments are the Bible doctrines of the New Testament. If Israel really wanted to return to God, then they would keep the Law. They would love others. They would give justice to others. Those who really love God deeply, study and apply the truths which they learn from God’s word.
12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; they use dishonest scales.
The Hebrew word for “businessmen” is כְּנַ֗עַן (canaa), meaning a Canaanite. Israel was to exterminate the Canaanites. Instead, they had become like the Canaanites. They loved to cheat in business by using dishonest scales.
12:8 Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich! I have become wealthy! In all that I have done to gain my wealth, no one can accuse me of any offense that is actually sinful.”
Ephraim (Israel) had become a very wealthy nation. They were engrossed in materialism. They trusted in their wealth instead of Jehovah. They thought that since they were so prosperous, that God must be blessing them because of their own righteousness. They did not understand that their materialism was a judgment from God.
During the Roaring 20’s, before World War I and afterwards most of the churches and seminaries taught liberalism from the pulpit. All of these nations were destroyed in World War I and World War II. It seemed that America escaped the judgment, except her judgment was actually the worst of all. Her judgment was materialism. Materialism is a terrible judgment, because it seems to be blessing a nation instead of cursing the nation. Materialism causes one to place his faith in wealth rather than in God.
Israel was like America, in that materialism was destroying their spiritual discernment and their spiritual appetite for God. At the time of Hosea, Judah glorified in God while Israel glorified in wealth.
12:9 “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old.
During the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will step into the rebuilt Jewish Temple and declare that he is God. He will begin a genocide program on the Jewish people, killing 2/3 of them. Many of the Jews will escape to Petra. They will live temporarily in tents until God redeems them with national salvation. While in Petra, God will sustain their needs.
12:10 I spoke to the prophets; I myself revealed many visions; I spoke in parables through the prophets.”
God warned Israel through the prophets of their coming judgment, but Israel did not listen.
12:11 Is there idolatry in Gilead? Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!
Gilead was a center of idolatry east of the Jordan. Gilgal was another center of idolatry west of the Jordan. All of Israel was filled with idolatry.
12:12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram, then Israel worked to acquire a wife; he tended sheep to pay for her.
Esau attempted to kill Jacob, so Jacob fled to Syria. Jacob loved God, so he did not want to marry a Canaanite. So he went to Syria and married a Jewish wife. He worked 14 years as a shepherd to obtain her. Esau married a Canaanite woman and became involved in idolatry.
12:13 The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet, and due to a prophet Israel was preserved alive.
Moses led Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. The Jewish people were not to intermarry with the Canaanites and become Canaanites. Instead, they were to exterminate Canaanites.
12:14 But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger; so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed, his Lord will repay him for the contempt he has shown.
When Ephraim (Israel) grew to adulthood, Israel provoked God to anger by sacrificing humans to demonic gods. Jehovah had taken notice. He will avenge those who had been sacrificed by the Israelites. He will punish Israel for the murders of innocent babies. God will also punish America for the killing of innocent babies through abortion. When a modern American commits fornication and then kills the innocent baby in the womb, America is playing God. Only God has the right to take that baby out of this life. God is the defender of the aborted babies that are murdered by the godless liberals.