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Ephraim Came out of Egypt. So, What Does That Have to Do with Us?

            Do you feel the let-down?  We were all wrapped up in the big build-up for Christmas.  Preparation for Christmas is a lot of work – travel plans, shopping, presents to be wrapped, writing of the annual Christmas letter, Christmas cards to be signed and sent, house cleaning, menu planning, grocery shopping, food preparation, midweek Advent services, (if you’ve got kids) the family Christmas service practices, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services, and Christmas dinner.  Then there are dinner dishes to clean-up, the after-Christmas rush to return items that don’t fit or don’t work, sales to hit, and then it’s over.  Another Christmas come and gone, and it’s back to the old grind.  Sure, you might have some New Year’s plans and parties, but you’re at the point of, “Do we have to go?”  Kind of a let-down feeling?  How do we keep the warm embers of Christmas’ blessings and beauty glowing?  I suggest there’s no better way than to read from one of the “minor prophets.”

            At the end of the Old Testament there are twelve little books known as the “minor prophets.”  If you took a little time to read one or more of those twelve little books, you’d find out in a hurry that they are not minor.  They’re only minor in the sense of not lengthy when compared to big Bible books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.  But they’re not minor in content.  They each carry a sharp jab to the face and right upper cut to the jaw.  They each throw power-packed punches to our spiritual solar plexus.

            In order to grasp the full meaning of what God wants to tell us through each of these twelve little gems, we have to have a handle on the history, geography, and geo-political landscape of world powers at the time each was written.  Alongside that information, we will also need to know the history of the ancient nation of Israel, the people God had created and chosen to bear his promise to send the Savior.  There are several momentous events in the development of the ancient nation of Israel.  Two are of special interest for us today to get some meaning from the verses before us.  Number one – God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to lead them to the Promised Land.  That rescue took place about one thousand four hundred forty years before Jesus was born.  Event number two – The nation of Israel split, north versus south, in a civil war five hundred years later.  Originally, twelve tribes named after the twelve sons of Jacob made up the nation of Israel.  The civil war pitted ten northern tribes verses two down south.  But now we’ve got a problem.  What are we going to call the two halves to tell them apart?  The south became known as Judah, named after the dominant tribe there.  The north kept the name Israel, but sometimes was called by the name of the dominant tribe there, Ephraim.

            Now we’re ready to dig into the first of those twelve “minor” prophets, Hosea.  We turn to the eleventh chapter and discover a message that is intended to breathe a little air on the Christmas embers glowing in our hearts.  On this Sunday after Christmas Hosea brings us this news, Ephraim Came out of Egypt, and we rightly ask, So, What Does That Have to do with Us?  I invite you to listen carefully for the connection of –Israel … Jesus … Us.

            Can you picture a little boy about a year old just learning to walk?  The little guy has had health issues and is kind of sickly.  Now picture Daddy reaching down with tender loving care, extending his fingers, and the little boy grabbing on.  Daddy carefully lifts him to his feet and, standing behind the little guy whose arms are raised with his little hands wrapped around Daddy’s fingers, the two of them begin to walk.  Slowly at first, but, sure enough, the little guy takes his first steps.

            After God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, it never really made sense to me that within months they were dancing around a golden calf and worshiping it.  Only later did I realize that those Israelites coming out of Egypt were spiritually immature children.  The Lord God bent down, extended his fingers, and invited them to grab on.  He carefully lifted them out of Egypt and got them taking their first steps.  Such tender love!  The Lord himself spoke through Hosea, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son … It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.  I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.”

            Now picture the little boy who has grown to be a teenager.  He has his driver’s license and, even though he has been carefully schooled by his father and lovingly warned about the dangers, he keeps hanging out with nasty friends, going to wild parties, and driving drunk.  The more the dad called out to him and loved him, the farther the boy wandered away and even ran away from home.  He became downright evil.  What could Dad do?  He had no choice.  He called the cops and put an end to the destructive behavior which was not only putting the boy in jeopardy but also endangering others and breaking Dad’s heart.  But it had to be done, and the boy landed in jail.

            We’d like to think, when the Lord took the Israelites by the hand and led them out of Egypt, that they would be eternally grateful.  They weren’t.  The record of Old Testament history over the next centuries leading up to their civil war is a downward spiral of wicked, rebellious, destructive behavior spilling out of hearts that had become cold and callous toward God’s tender love.  Finally, what could God do?  He called the cops.  He allowed the Assyrians, a major world-power from way up north, to come storming in.  The Assyrians slaughtered thousands in Ephraim, the northern half of the land.  Those they didn’t kill they enslaved.  So, because of their own sin and rebellion, Ephraim ended up back in Egypt – not literally in the physical land of Egypt, but back in slavery.  “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?  Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans.  My people are determined to turn from me.  Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.”

            Here’s a connection we never would have guessed.  The gospel writer Matthew quotes the prophet Hosea and connects the Christ-child with the Israelites who had started out in slavery in Egypt.  King Herod heard about a baby king having been born in Bethlehem and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under(Matthew 2:16).  The heavenly Father stepped in and sent an angel to warn Joseph, “Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you”(Matthew 2:13).  That’s how the baby Jesus ended up in Egypt.  In a sense, he was in slavery, stuck there and unable to live in the Promised Land because others were mean to him.  Eventually, the coast was clear because God cleared it by eliminating Herod.  Then, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel”(Matthew 2:20).  So, just like the Israelites, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

            But that’s where the parallel with the Israelites ends.  This Child did what the children of Israel did not do.  He remained faithful and loyal to the heavenly Father and carried out his mission willingly and perfectly.  He came out of Egypt and stayed out of Egypt because he never sinned, not even one time.  Then, he did even more.  He went back to Egypt – not the physical country (keep in mind that for Israelites back then “Egypt” equals “slavery”).  He went where people are stuck in the slavery of sin and paid the price to set them free.  So, this relatively minor fact from a minor prophet, that God called his Son out of Egypt, is not really minor because it proves that God keeps his word.  It demonstrates the historic link between the people of promise and the One who fulfilled all God’s promises about a Savior from sin.

            Ephraim came out of Egypt.  The Christ-child came out of Egypt.  So, what does that have to do with us?  One of the thrills of Bible reading is discovering all the links, the connections.  Ever work on a jigsaw puzzle?  I mean a really big one that fills the dining room table with twenty-five hundred or three thousand pieces.  It’s impossible to put together with the pieces just dumped in a pile on the table.  The key is sorting the pieces by color, building each color-section.  Then comes the most exciting part – that one piece which connects one large section to another.  That’s the thrill of Bible study, when grand truths and historic events are linked and come together so that we learn a little more about how much God loves us.

            God has called us out of the Egypt, out of the slavery of sin.  He has extended his hands toward us and lifted us up to take our first spiritual steps.  But do you feel sometimes like you’re loosing your grip on God’s fingers and falling back into the Egypt of sin because of guilt over past wrongs?  Have you been sliding into the Assyria of addiction?  Do you wonder if you’ll ever overcome the urges to do what you know is wrong?  Are you frustrated that the snow blanket of the Christmas celebration has turned into dirty slush, leaving you feeling let down with old habits and hard feelings that still bother you?  Do you wonder if God’s tender love is for others but can’t really be for you personally?  Then listen to the Lord speak through Hosea.  See his arms are extended for all, and if for all, then you and I must be included.  See him demonstrate lion-like power to roar louder than the prowling, sneaky devil-lion.  Listen to your heavenly Father’s appeal, “How can I give you up, Ephraim?  How can I hand you over, Israel?  How can I treat you like Admah?  How can I make you like Zeboiim(places near Sodom and Gomorrah that also got toasted in God’s anger)?  My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.  I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.  For I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you.  I will not come in wrath.  They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion.  When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.  They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria.  I will settle them in their homes,” declares the LORD.”  The sharp jab to our spiritual solar plexus is that we are Ephraim.  But why go back to Egypt with sinful thoughts and actions when the Lord Jesus has called us out of Egypt, out of the slavery of sin, to live with him now and to be settled in our eternal home?

            There will never be a let-down in God’s love for us.  His mercy is steady and unrelenting like the unending waves that slide on the beach time and time again, day and night.  Because his love is unending, we know that he has called us out of the Egypt of our sin to live with him.  That’s God’s message for us through this “minor” prophet named Hosea.  That’s what keeps the Christmas embers glowing in our hearts.  That’s what turns the let-down after Christmas into a lift-up for the New Year and years to come.  Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on December 30, 2007

Services

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Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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