Title: KNOW AND LEARN FROM YOUR FAMILY HISTORY

Focus: God calls us to remember our faith family history and learn from the good and the bad as we seek to live as Christians in today’s conflicting culture and society.

Function: To encourage the people to die to sin and self and to rise to a life of love that shapes the new self into conformity with the image of Christ.

Text: Hosea 11:12-12:14

I want to set the stage for God’s message to be heard by telling you some details of my family history. Those details are not commendable and should not be adopted by anyone of us here. When I was a teenager, I found myself frequently involved in fights with my peers. I was known, I think as a “driftkop,” someone who is feisty and quick to act whenever someone would step on my toes.

When I was 16 years old, I was sitting on the front desk in my classroom, minding my own business and having my briefcase filled with books on the desk. All of a sudden an 18 year old kid—who had made some derogatory remarks in the past about me and my mother—walked by my desk and swiped my briefcase off the desk. What happened next scared me greatly. Without any fore thought, I jumped up, flew toward the punk, grabbed him by the neck and slammed his head against the blackboard time and time again. Thankfully, someone else pulled me away from the punk.

I never had any problem with the guy ever since. But I was shaken deep inside. For I realized that if I had had a knife available, I might have possibly used it. That realization led me to self-examination and to far greater restraint. And I wondered where that impulsive, blood-boiling reaction came from?

The answer came to me in the form of puzzle pieces. You see, my father was a relatively patient man. He was not rash or impulsive. But as a kid I knew that Dad had a “line” you should not cross. If I did, my father’s wooden shoe might find my butt. One day, my younger sister came home, crying and bleeding from a wound on her head. It turned out that one of our neighbor kids had terrorized her with rocks as she bicycled down the road.

Here’s what my Dad did: he got up from his work in the greenhouse, sneaked over to where the neighbor boy with his friends were hiding behind a farm. My dad grabbed the main culprit and “beat the tar” out of him. My father was wrong in doing so. Today he would be in trouble with the law. But in those days, such things were done at times. I might add that the neighbor boy never caused trouble for us again. But where did my father’s boiling line impulse come from? And where did I get mine from?

When I emigrated at the age of 21, the puzzle pieces came together. I had not known my father’s father very well. But my uncle in Canada knew him from way, way back. So I asked him: “Uncle John, tell me something about my grandfather (opa Van Marion). What was he like?” My uncle smiled and said, “Oh, he was an entrepreneur—a forerunner and risk taker in the greenhouse business in the early 1920’s. But he also had a “short fuse.” People simply did not mess with him.” That’s when I put the dots together, and I knew something about myself by knowing and learning from my family history.

I told you a bit of my history to underscore the message in the text of Hosea 12. God calls us to remember our family history and learn from the bad and the good as we seek to live as Christians in today’s conflicting culture and society.

In the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, I want to encourage each one of us to die to sin and self, and to come alive to the new self, which is to be conformed to the image of Christ.

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In chapter 12, God speaks through the prophet Hosea and he directs the Israelites from the north and the south to look back and learn from their family’s history. Now the name Ephraim stands for the largest tribe in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And the tribe of Ephraim became synonymous with Israel.

Ephraim reminds us of the sons of Joseph when the Israelites lived in Egypt. Joseph had married an Egyptian woman; he had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim—sons who were blessed by Joseph’s father, Jacob, and who were incorporated and part of God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jacob, after wrestling with the angel of the Lord, received a new name: Israel. Now when you know the stories and family history of the Israelites, you’ll begin to recognize God’s call to learn from the bad and the good of the patriarchs.

Listen: “Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. And Judah (the Southern Kingdom) is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One. Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.”

Lies, deceit, political connivings and shenanigans with the Assyrians and the Egyptians—treaties to hold off war, and taxes to pay off tyrants in Assyria and Egypt—all of these are family traits that lead to disaster. Was not Jacob known for his trickery and deceit? Was not Jacob a selfish go-getter from the day of his birth?

Listen (vs. 2,3) “The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel.” Now God holds this family history before the people Israel, so that they will learn from the bad and the good.

For example, God hears the Israelites boast about their economic prosperity and riches. They find security in their possessions, but not in God himself. Thus the Lord says to them in vs. 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 your appointed feasts.” In other words, God would discipline the Israelites in Hosea’s days as he disciplined the Israelites in the desert during the days of Moses.

But God does not want us to learn only from the foibles of our spiritual forefathers and mothers; God also wants us to pick up on the good and exemplify that good in our lives. For example, God reminds the Israelites of the change in Jacob. Whereas he was known for his trickery and deceit, later in life, Jacob learned to live in dependence upon God; He wanted God’s blessings. He wanted to live within the boundaries of God’s design and will for him. Thus we hear Hosea say: “In the womb (Jacob) grasped his brother’s heel; (that’s the old Jacob in pursuit of self-interest) as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there—the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name of renown.”

That’s the new Jacob, who at that time received the name “Israel” (for he struggled with God and with men and have overcome) (Gen.32:28). And it’s in this context of learning and knowing their family history that God calls his people Israel to repent—to learn from the bad and emulate the good in their family history. Listen (vs. 6) “But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”

The industrialist, Henry Ford, used to say that “history was bunk.” He was wrong. God reminds us today that we are to learn from our spiritual family history. Know the good and the bad. And then we are to live as Christians in today’s conflicting culture and society applying the good and bringing delight to God. But how must we go about that?

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The other day I learned that most Americans think that committing adultery is morally wrong. More than 90% said so. But that’s only theory, because in practice marital infidelity is very common .

I also learned that in our culture infanticide—the taking of a potential human life in the womb—is morally acceptable. Though it must be said to their credit that the younger generation has more difficulty with the practice of abortion than the older generation.

We also know that gay marriage is becoming culturally more and more acceptable, and homosexual practice no longer is punishable by old laws against sodomy. Having children out of wedlock is now morally acceptable by a majority of Americans. And so is common-law living.

In America there is a strong impulse toward religious syncretism, where we are supposed to respect and accept all religions and faith practices as “ways to God,” and as having equal merit. There is also a huge impulse in our society to think of ourselves as “fixers” or as “gods.” With the right technology, science, and with adequate financial resources we can fix just about any problem. And with a strong military, backed by vast resources, we can feel safe and secure and divert any enemy threat.

It’s in this context, that you and I who claim to follow Christ must struggle to live a life that conforms to the image of Christ and that promotes his rule or influence in our world. Such a life is called “the conversion life.”

Using the Heidelberg Catechism’s insights from Scripture I will underscore the fundamental responses needed by us to counteract our culture and societies’ godless ways:

(Note the liturgy)

On the one hand:

I must be genuinely sorry for sin (reflect on this)

I must hate sin more and more (reflect on this)

I must run away from sin.

On the other hand:

There must be a coming to life of the new self, which is characterized by:

Wholehearted joy in God

Through Christ

And a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to do.

God’s Word as prophesied by Hosea provides us today with a lot of food for thought—and for action.

Let’s not ignore the prophetic Word of God. Let’s not ignore our spiritual family’s history. And let’s commit ourselves more and more to be shaped by the anvil of God’s Word and the hammer of God’s Holy Spirit. For it is through the power of God’s Spirit and the direction of God’s Word that we are to pilgrimage through life and await the day when Christ shall make all things new.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.