When Israel Was a Child
The word of the Lord came to Hosea the son of Beeri concerning His people, saying, “When Israel was a child I loved him and I called my son out of Egypt.” God told Hosea to give the message of repentance to Israel His son. As a father cares for, nurtures, and protects his child, so did the Lord with tender care lavish His affection over Israel. With a mighty hand and extravagant show of power did the Lord deliver them out of Egypt. He bore them on eagles’ wings out of the land of bondage. And in the wilderness, He took care of them, feeding them with the bread of heaven and water out of the rock. He drew them with cords of human kindness, and with love He removed the yoke of bondage from their necks.
He took care of Israel. He fed them with food of angels. But Israel, His sons, forgot the Lord God their Father. They went a-whoring after Baal and the gods of the Canaanites. Israel forsook the Lord their God that delivered them out of slavery, and did evil continually by serving “Baal, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him” (Jdg 10:6).
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. The more I called them, the farther they went away. They sacrificed to other gods—the Baals, and they burned incense to idols. I was the one who taught the people of Ephraim to walk. I took them by the hand. But they didn’t realize that I had healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ropes of love. I removed the yokes from their necks. I bent down and fed them” (Hos 11:1-4).
God called and reasoned with Israel His child to come back, but Israel was an unrepentant prodigal son who habitually ran away from home. A child is expected to grow up, and so was the child Israel, who was delivered, pampered, and protected; but the child refused to grow up.
“Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not” (Hos 7:8, 9).
Perhaps God is speaking to you or me through Hosea with this message to Ephraim, a tribe in Israel. Perhaps God is telling us to recognize our situation like Ephraim and pray, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God” (Jer 31:17). For there is hope for you, and there’s hope for me, because the Lord our God will never leave us or forsake us.
“And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God” (Jer 31:17, 18).
God Expects Us to Grow and Not Continue to Be Babies
When a child is born, yes, God knows and expects that the child will behave like a child for some time. He will talk like a child, and act like a child. But a time will come when this child will put away childish things and begin to act like a responsible grown-up. God does not expect a sixteen-year-old to still be in diapers or crying for milk while sucking a pacifier. God expects that a time will come when we His children grow up, stop being babies, and become grown-up enough to take care of ourselves, and even start feeding young ones who were born after us with the sincere milk of the Word. He expects us to move on toward maturity.
Think about when you were born again. How long ago was it? How far, spiritually, have you traveled from that initial point?
Have you grown in your first love? Do you trust Him more today? Are you more confident in faith today?
Do you handle life’s stressful situations better today? Have you learnt to cast your cares upon Him?
God took Israel out of Egypt to transport them to their inheritance and turn them into overcomers. His plan was to watch them grow into maturity, and then establish them where He dwells, so they might dwell in His presence. He wanted to dwell with them, to be their God and have them be His people. His purpose was to reveal His mind to them and teach them His ways. He began to unfold His plan and purpose by sending Moses to deliver them out of the house of bondage.
“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb” (Exo 3:1).
And so it was that God found a man at the backside of the desert whom He could teach His ways. Israel had been in slavery in Egypt after the death of Joseph for several years. They cried unto the Lord, and He heard them and located a man called Moses at the backside of the modern Saudi Arabian desert.
“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
“And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
“And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exo 3:2-6).
No one narrates this event in the life of Moses and God’s people better than Stephen before he became the first martyr:
“This is the Moses whom the Israelites rejected by saying, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’ This is the one God sent to free them and to rule them with the help of the messenger who appeared to him in the bush.
This is the man who led our ancestors out of Egypt. He is the person who did amazing things and worked miracles in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years.”
This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet, an Israelite like me.’
This is the Moses who was in the assembly in the desert. Our ancestors and the messenger who spoke to him on Mount Sinai were there with him. Moses received life-giving messages to give to us, but our ancestors were not willing to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt.
They told Aaron, ‘We don’t know what has happened to this Moses, who led us out of Egypt. So make gods who will lead us.’ That was the time they made a calf. They offered a sacrifice to that false god and delighted in what they had made. So God turned away from them and let them worship the sun, moon, and stars. This is written in the book of the prophets”(Act 7:35-42).
Moses the Man of God, as an Example
Let’s continue this thread of meditation with this example of the life of Moses, the man of God. Let’s examine his character and explore how he represents Christ in certain ways: the shadows of Christ in the lives of men of God who have walked this way before us. The ultimate goal of this book, as stated already, is to help us concentrate on Christ who is our strength. The Messiah’s life and character during His earthly tenure with us down here is portrayed in part by many pictures and shadows in the Old Testament persons, patterns, sabbaths, feasts, and ordinances, which, when all collated and aggregated together, give us a true picture of our Christ. The right place to go to learn of His nature is the Scriptures concerning Him. The things concerning Him are stored in Scriptures, and it behooves us to search for them and dig them out.
“Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).
The Lord Jesus expounded unto the two brethren on the road to Emmaus things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Which Scriptures did He use? From which books of our Bible did He quote? Was it from Matthew? Mark? Luke? Or John? Was it from the Book of Acts? Or the Epistles? Or from the Book of Revelation? No, not from any of these, for none of these books had been written yet. He taught all these from the Jewish Scriptures, from the Torah. He taught this from the five Books of Moses, and from the prophecies of the “writing prophets” we talked about earlier.
Let’s read the twenty-seventh verse again. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Therefore, we can get to know Him if we ask the Holy Ghost, who is our Teacher, to expound to us things concerning our Christ from the life and prophecies of Moses, the man of God. Yes, Moses was a prophet.
“And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Num 12:5-8).
The Lord God himself testified of Moses’ ministry and the quality of his intimacy with God. He was no mere prophet. In fact, Mariam found that out the hard way. He was the prophet the Lord anointed to be an Old Testament type of the true Prophet of the New Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. For God said:
“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him” (Deu 18:18).
Moses was a mighty prophet of God. God sent him to bring deliverance to His people who were in bondage to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Scripture testified of Moses that he was the meekest man on the face of the earth:
“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num 12:3).
This meekness spoken of with respect to Moses is not shyness or passivity, but quiet inner strength. It is humility and gentleness toward others, and being willingly submissive and totally obedient to God. It is having a quiet but confident trust in the Lord God and being willing and able to do whatever He commands. This is spiritual strength. And Moses possessed that quiet imperturbable strength because he was close to God and knew His ways.
He was a type of Christ in this attitude of meekness; not a perfect picture, but a shadowy representation nevertheless. Of Jesus, the Scriptures declared in the prophets:
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law” (Isa 42:1-4).
This prophecy speaks of the meekness of Christ the Messiah, of whom Moses was a shadowy and imperfect type. The passage described how He would not be arrogant, loud, or obnoxious, but humble and gentle in both words and actions. A meek person like Moses, when opposed by Miriam, would not automatically jump in to defend himself. Peter, speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ with respect to meekness, wrote:
“Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.” (1 Pet 2:23)
A meek person will not jump in to defend himself when accused wrongly, because he has a quiet, confident, and unshakable trust in God. Therefore, he does not get discouraged, and because of his unshakable confidence in God, he never fails. This meekness found in Christ Jesus may look externally like weakness, but it is the utmost supernatural strength. We seek a prototype of meekness in Moses, and God testified of him as the meekest of all men that lived upon the earth, but Jesus is the ultimate example of someone who was meek. He had all the power of the Godhead within His reach while here on earth, yet He did not use any of that to defend Himself against His accusers, opposers, and torturers. Instead, He used it to help others and finally lay down His life for us all. He had several opportunities to get revenge or attack those who attacked Him, but instead He interceded and sought forgiveness for those killing Him.
Let the Beauty of Jesus Be Seen in Me
O, that the mind and attitude of Jesus Christ would be in you and me. O, that His beauty will be found in me. Let’s sing the song:
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me
All His wonderful passion and purity
Oh Thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me
(Albert Orsborn/Tom M. Jones)