“When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”
~ Hosea 13:6
Hi Ben and Meg,
Has your dad and/or ma ever told you ‘I told you so’ after they have punished you after you have said or done something that they have told you not to say or do. Joseph was a good guy. Joseph had one bro and ten half bros. Jacob was Joseph’s dad. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite kid. Joseph’s half bros were jealous of Joseph because Joseph was their dad’s favorite kid. Joseph did not ingratiate himself with his half bros when he thought that he needed to tell them about a couple of dreams that he had. Joseph told his half bros that he understood his dreams to mean that his half bros one day would come to him for help and that they would bow down to him when they did. Joseph got so on his half bros nerves that they decided to get rid of him. Have you ever gotten on the nerves of your dad and/or ma? Joseph’s half bros first threw Joseph down into a dry cistern. Reuben – Joseph’s oldest half bro, was planning to get Joseph out of the dry cistern later and taking him home to his dad. Before Reuben could get Joseph out of the cistern, an Ishmaelite caravan was spotted passing nearby on their camels. This caravan of Ishmaelite or Midianite merchants was on their way to Egypt with spices, myrrh and balm to sell in Egypt. Judah – another one of Joseph’s half bros, was able to convince his bros and half bros who were with him to sell Joseph to the Midianite merchants for twenty shekels.
If Judah had not convinced his bros and half bros to sell Joseph to a nomadic caravan of Midianite merchants for twenty shekels, Joseph would not have ended up in Egypt. Joseph would end up becoming a trusted right hand guy for an Egyptian Pharaoh. After Joseph interpreted a perplexing dream that the Pharaoh had – after none of the sorcerers, diviners and sages in Egypt were able to do so, Joseph was given the authority by the Pharaoh to see to it that grain was stockpiled ahead of an impending famine. The dream that Joseph interpreted for the Pharaoh foretold of a famine that would last for seven years. A famine is when it does not rain over a long period of time leaving crops unable to grow resulting in guys, gals and kids having nothing to eat. The famine was so widespread that it even affected where Joseph’s family was living. When Joseph’s family heard about the stockpiled grain in Egypt, some of Jacob’s sons traveled to Egypt to buy some of the grain. Joseph did not hold against his half bros what they had done to him when they sold him to Midianite merchants. Joseph had his dad, little bro and half bros and their families move to Egypt to live – settling them on a fertile piece of land called Goshen. Manasseh and Ephraim were a couple of Joseph’s sons. Ephraim’s name means fruitful. Ephraim would receive his granddad’s blessing even though Manasseh was older than Ephraim. Joseph’s two sons would have their extended families become two of the thirteen Israelite tribal clans. God had Ephraim’s tribal clan become an influential tribal clan. Joshua – who was one of the two spies who thought that God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids could go directly into the land that God had promised them that they would always have to live in as their very own land, was from the Ephraim tribal clan. Joshua became after Moses the second Israelite people group’s super leader. The Ephraim tribal clan can even claim Samuel. Samuel was the first Israelite people group’s prophet. The Ephraim tribal clan had a legacy going headlined by God-fearing guys.
After having a genuinely good, forgiving dad like Joseph, a strong, risk taking leader like Joshua and a kid who grew up to be a committed, faithful spokesman for God, it seems to your grandpaa that the Ephraim tribal clan’s guys and gals may have copped an attitude that they were thee tribal clan among all the other Israelite people group’s tribal clans. A minor prophet – Hosea, nears the end of his Hosea Book writing about God’s reactions to the failures of the Ephraim tribal clan. Hosea – in Hosea 13, recounts the history and legacy of the Ephraim tribal clan. Your grandpaa believes that the Ephraim tribal clan was primarily responsible for God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, splitting into two land areas with two different kings. Two southern tribal clans – Judah and Benjamin, wanted to stay with a king who was from David’s extended family. The rest of the tribal clans – the northern tribal clans which included the Ephraim tribal clan, allowed Jeroboam to be their king. Jeroboam was from the Ephraim tribal clan. Hosea wrote in verse 6 God’s pronouncement on the Ephraim tribal clan, “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” God had the Ephraim tribal clan’s guys and gals in a good place but . . . the Ephraim tribal clan in the end became a voice against God and a voice for Baal worship. The Ephraim tribal clan made their own idols, sacrificed their own kids to these idols and kissed the idols that they made. Do you think that God really cared whether or not that the Ephraim tribal clan’s guys and gals worshipped silver calf-idols instead of Him? Instead of remaining a leading voice among Israel’s thirteen tribal clans, God would turn the Ephraim tribal clan into no more than something resembling mist or dew or chaff or smoke – all of which disappears with a slight breeze. God would send an ‘east wind’ – the Assyrian people group’s army, to carry away the northern tribal clans. Your grandpaa wonders that just maybe God used the Ephraim tribal clan to send a signal ‘I told you so” to the other tribal clans. Ephraim is often mentioned in the Bible. The Ephraim tribal clan had guys who trusted in God to help them and who could testify that God helped them but . . . in the end, the Ephraim tribal clan rejected God’s help and God had them suffer for it.
Hosea 13 (279)