Hosea #7 Ch. 11-12 Hosea — Chuck Missler

We're going to continue our study in Hosea. You may remember when Moses went to Pharaoh and he said, let my people go, Pharaoh responded, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?

Hosea's Revelation of God's Sovereignty, Holiness, Justice, and Love

It's interesting, if Pharaoh could have read the book of Hosea, he would have known, first of all, that the Lord was a sovereign God. That's what chapters 1 through 3 were all about. He would have known that our God is a holy God.

That's what chapters 4 through 7 were all about. We would also discover that he is a just God, chapters 8 through 10. And for the remainder of the book, chapter 11 to the end, chapter 14, we discover the paradox or the predicament, in a sense, that God was in.

Because he was a sovereign God, a holy God, and a just God, but he also is a loving God. And what we're going to uncover as we get into, especially chapter 11 and 12, is the pain that he felt because he was a loving God.

If we just had the first three attributes, the disposition of not only them, but ourselves, would have been quickly taken care of. Now, it's interesting, obviously, Pharaoh never had the benefit of this information that you and I have, or the fact that Israel had, from the pen and from the mouth of Hosea.

And yet, Israel at the time, Hosea's readers and listeners, were just as stony-hearted as Pharaoh was back in the Exodus. You all remember that. His heart was hardened. And here's Israel, which had the benefit of not only all that history, but of the book of Hosea, who was just as stony-hearted as Pharaoh was.

Now, chapters 11 through 14 are going to bring us to the climax of God's plan of redemption for his chosen people. And everything that had happened to Israel for the previous two centuries and more were intended to instruct her and bring her back to God.

So what Hosea is going to now do in chapter 11, he's going to delve into the past, the present, and the future history of his redemption of his people. And the Lord's self-disclosure of himself in these illustrations that we're going to encounter is so intense that many rank the following chapter as one of the greatest in the Bible.

Now, that may be a rather extreme praise, but it's interesting that some at least have that view because of what we're about to encounter in chapter 11. And you could call it, if you want a title or if you want a note for the chapter, The Troubled Heart of God.

That's a strange phrase just to start right there. We speak of God, most of us think of an impersonal, you know, super thing somehow. The idea that he has a heart and that his heart is troubled, that he can grieve is a strange idea for this super being that was the creator of the universe.

We use God so casually, you know, from our New Testament vocabulary, but the whole idea of the creator of the entire universe, grieving, having a troubled heart, strange idea. Well, let's just jump in.

Israel's Redemption from Egypt and the Pain of Ingratitude

We'll first talk about the past, and you could call this where love encounters ingratitude. I don't know about you, that's one of the strangest emotions. I think you probably have to be a father to really experience the pain of ingratitude.

When your children or some beneficiary of your actions shows you absolutely no gratitude, or worse, actions of ingratitude, it's a strange feeling. It's not anger. When someone disobeys, when a child disobeys you, you can deal with that.

But ingratitude, there's nothing you can do except feel pain. I won't recount the anecdotes from the past. I may have already done that several times with this gang. We've been together so long, but I remember vividly a number of occasions where I experienced this strange pain, where I planned to do something very special for one of our children, only to come home and find out that circumstances required me to be the, you know, the disciplinarian, and all the little surprises I planned had to be deferred, put away, was inappropriate.

I remember the frustration and the pain. I had all these good things I wanted to do. I had a neat thing planned, and I couldn't. I had to deal with this situation in a different way. And I remember sitting and thinking about that and realizing how frustrating that was.

And then I realized what God was trying to tell me, how frustrated He must be with us. But anyway, let's just jump in. Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, is a very strange verse. It says, When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.

Now, when we read that verse, obviously it's talking about, you know, Israel when it was in Egypt, in bondage. And God, of course, redeems them. We all know how Charlton Heston confronted Yul Brynner.

You know the whole story. But it's interesting how God, speaking here through Hosea, speaks of Israel as His child, as His son. And there's several things. We know that love was the basis of election and the subsequent redemption from Egypt.

Why did God choose Israel as His chosen people? No real reason. He goes into that at some length, by the way. I didn't choose you because you were numerous or this and that. He just did. He just loved them.

Love was the basis of election. He has then encountered this strange phrase, and I called my son out of Egypt. This is one of those phrases that I believe is very instructive for you and I methodologically.

As we have these classes or gatherings or whatever you want to call them, we learn facts and things about the Bible. But we, even more important, learn things about how the Bible communicates. Tools that you will use later.

And here we have Hosea saying, or God saying through Hosea, I called my son out of Egypt. You say that, gee, one of the things that you get taught if you go to seminary or classical studies is the important thing in understanding a Bible verse is context.

The big unpardonable sin is to take a verse out of context. Boy, that sounds good. I've heard that for more than 40 years. And one of the first things I have had to outgrow are the blinders that it produces.

Context in what sense? Context of the verse before and after? Or context in the chapter before and after? And the more you start expanding it, the more you find all kinds of exceptions. What's the context?

The whole Word of God. Now, what makes this, the reason I'm in love with this particular example is Matthew in chapter 2 verse 15 quotes this verse as a prophecy when Mary and Joseph brought the babe back to Israel out of Egypt.

You remember your Christmas story? Herod killed all the babes in Bethlehem. But through a dream, Joseph was warned to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. And they stayed there until what?

Until Herod died. When Herod died, he was told, okay, it's okay to come back. And if you read chapter 2 verse 15 of Matthew, because Matthew not only recounts that, but quotes this verse as being fulfilled prophetically there.

When we read Matthew, boy, that sounds great. It's certainly true. It's in this Word of God. Out of Egypt, I have called, see, this is... In fact, turn with me, because sometimes you have to see this to believe.

Turn to Matthew chapter 2. Joseph, you know, and when he arose, he took, that's Joseph, took the young child, his mother, by night and departed into Egypt, verse 15. And he was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets, saying, out of Egypt have I called my son.

Boy, that sounds great. Wow, isn't that neat? You go on and read. Wait a minute, wait a minute, time out. Let's go back and see where is that? Well, it's in Hosea chapter 11 verse 1. When Israel was a child, I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.

Please explain to me how that applies in the context it's written. In the context it's written, it's all about the nation Israel, and how they were called out of Egypt. I hope you're confused, because it's important, because out of that confusion, you want to begin to draw some inferences.

The first thing you really learn, of course, is that phrase has more than one implication. It's used in a primary sense, because obviously in the context here, God is talking about Israel as a child, and He's using the idiom of son, and you're going to see in the subsequent verses how He cared for that son.

And here the son is the nation Israel. And I called my son out of Egypt. And indeed God did. But the first insight here, of course, is that it also has a larger meaning. And let me tell you something fascinating.

When you start searching these things down, and there are hundreds of them, every time that larger meaning points to whom? Jesus Christ. And I love that. Not because this is that big an example, but I want you, you're going to find all kinds of good advice in books about how to study the Bible.

And I'm not knocking it, don't misunderstand me. But take all of those things cautiously, and understand that every rule has its exceptions. The rules are helpful, and indeed the primary concern, especially as you read epistles and things, is to understand the context for sure.

But be alert to the Holy Spirit illuminating to you some larger meanings about our Messiah, about the one whom we have to... about your personal life. I urge you to have a daily Bible reading program.

Don't play Bible roulette. Gee, I've got a problem. Open up and do what the first word said. People like to play what some people don't. That's a roulette wheel, in the very true sense of the term. No, have a Bible reading, but what you do then is have a pad.

If you've got something on your heart, write down on your pad, but then continue your Bible reading, your regular Bible reading, and watch the Lord speak to you. Very, very exciting. Anyway, Kyle, who's one of the main Old Testament commentators, points out, quote, just as Israel grew into a nation in Egypt where it was out of reach of the Canaanite-ish ways, so the child Jesus was hidden in Egypt from the hostility of Herod.

There's a parallel there too. And again, to start this thing is, why did God choose to set His affection on Israel? Turn with me to Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy 7. This is going to be, I think, important for us.

Deuteronomy 7, 7, and 8. Easy to remember. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because you are more in number than any people, for ye are the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt.

God just chose them. Love is the basis. That's the basis that you're here right now. God loves you. Don't ever ask why. You know. Because that's a mystery. And the more you study that, the bigger mystery it is.

Don't ask. Just receive. He loves you. Let me tell you something else about God that you need to understand and embrace and learn. He keeps His promises. He takes pride in keeping His promises. He makes covenants, and He keeps them.

And He's given you promises in the Scripture. And one of the most biggest treasures you can accumulate is to get a card file and start writing down the promises in the Scripture. Some churches do that in their bulletins.

They have a promise every Sunday that you write down and take home. Collect promises. And understand those are not just little Bible verses to memorize. No, no, no. Those are commitments by the God of the universe that He will not break.

To you personally. Exciting collection. It's the best bargain. It costs you nothing. Take your Bible, and every time you come across it, make a special little card. Three by five or whatever. Put it in a little card file.

Make a collection of His promises. Now, this passage that we get into must have been the most stirring concept that Hosea would ever encounter in his listeners. Because the idea that God is a Father was not that widely understood in the Old Testament days.

See, we read this, we sort of take it for granted because we've been taught from a New Testament background. But stop and think. Now, this is ancient Israel. And God, as a Father, was a different idea.

Most of it is associated with the New Testament. And indeed, Jesus did, all but one occasion, always refer to God as My Father. My Father. Perhaps the best example is John 20, verse 17. We might turn to John, chapter 20.

Mary's in the garden, sees Him there. And Jesus says, Touch me not, or literally, don't cling to me, for I'm not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.

One of those places that Jesus makes it very clear that His relationship to the Father was like a father and a son. Do you know there's only one place that I know of where Jesus didn't call Him Father?

And that's when He hung on the cross in your place and mine, and He said, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He was wearing our shoes. And in that context, it wouldn't have been appropriate. Interesting.

If you want to learn more about that, read Psalm 22. It opens and closes with the first and last declarations from the cross. It reads as if it was dictated first person singular as He hung there on the cross.

And it opens with those very words. Now, in the Old Testament, God is called Father, but of Israel, never of an individual. Obviously, except, of course, the Son of God. Jesus, that's different. But He's always called the Father of the nation.

And it's interesting to me, how many times did it happen? Fourteen. Seven times two, interesting enough. And I won't go through those examples. You can chase them down yourself. They'll be in the notes.

So let's keep going. Verse 2. And as they called Him so, they went from them, and they sacrificed to Balaam and burned incense to graven images. In other words, God called them out of Egypt. And did He worship them?

No. They sacrificed to Balaam and so forth. In other words, Israel is like the prodigal son, in a sense. In response to the love of God, as seen in the redemption from Egypt, Israel turned a deaf ear to God's prophets, choosing Baal and idols instead.

Now, we're plunging right into the more contemporary situation Hosea is facing. It's interesting how after Egypt, they spent 40 years, as you know, wandering the wilderness, going into the land of Canaan.

It took only three days to get Israel out of Egypt. But it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel. But yet, as soon as they get into Canaan, what do they do? They start whoring after false gods. And you say, gee, those guys are...

That's terrible. That's awful. I've had friends say, when they watch the movie, The Ten Commandments, they can't get over. They get sort of into the whole thing. And here's the parting of the sea, and they're doing all this.

And just, it's not long after, they're building a golden calf and all this stuff. Can't get over the fickleness of these people. Then you stop and say, wait a minute, what about us? The miracles we've seen that God has done include those plus lots of others.

And what do we do? Shrug it off. Sort of find excuses to duck it, whatever. And I won't ask for a show of hands, but in your own mind, how many times do we rely upon God in our distress and then neglect Him after we get blessed?

When they were in bondage in Egypt, they cried out to God, and God delivered them. But as soon as they're free of bondage and they're on their way, they... Can you imagine how God feels about all that?

Let's go to verse 3. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them. Ephraim, of course, is used connotatively. It's an idiom for the whole northern kingdom.

See, the point that God's making here, He didn't just adopt them, He cared for them. One of the things we're going to get a sense here as the passage continues is how tenderly and how compassionately God cared for them, for His Son Israel.

And it's interesting that the words, as you read here, almost parallel Moses' description of Israel being carried through the wilderness as a father would carry his son, teaching his first steps and carrying him through.

You'll find that in Deuteronomy and the early chapters, like chapter 1 and also in 32 and so forth. Now, something that's also interesting to me is that if you remember the early chapters of Hosea and all that he went through with Gomer, his unfaithful wife and these children and all that, they must...

Hosea's own pain from his own unfaithful wife must have amplified his understanding of God's pain as God is faced... faced with, in effect, the equivalent of an unfaithful wife in the form of the nation.

Hebrew Wordplay and the Father's Love

I have to depart here and tell you a little bit about the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet is unique because the letters are not only phonetic, they're conceptual. If you understand the way the letters were originally written in the pre-Babylonian Hebrew, you understand the concepts.

The first letter is an aleph in the current Hebrew, but in the old Hebrew it was like a longhorn cattle. It was sort of like the antlers... it was like a cattle's... a cow's head. And it meant ox or strength.

So aleph means first or strength. The second letter in the Hebrew alphabet was a little line with like a teepee on it. It's our bet. You can see how that, through the years, the Phoenicians took it and turned it, became a bee, our bee.

But it was their bet. It meant house. So an aleph and a bet together was the leader of the house. See, the first letter meant first or leader or strength. So an aleph and a bet means the leader of the house.

That's the word for father, ab or abba. Okay? The hech is a letter that's like a breath. It's used to represent the spirit of something. The ruach Elohim, the spirit of God. Or it also can mean the essence of whatever the word...

If you take a word and put the hech in the middle of it, then it means the essence of whatever it meant before. So if you put a hech between the aleph and the bet, you have the essence of the father, right?

It's the word for love. Love is the essence of the father. Now, I find that breathtaking. Because in linguistics, all languages on the planet are either pictorial, like Chinese and whatever, or they're phonetic.

Hebrew is unique. It was the original language. Up until Genesis 11, they all spoke of one language, remember? And it's designed to communicate all kinds of things that go beyond most scholastic understanding even to this day.

But scientists are beginning to discover the incredible things that are tucked away in the design of Hebrew. But here's an example. Here we have the... Hosea is learning the essence of the father is what?

Love. The very word says that. The achab means that. And so... And I can't talk about this without plugging our book. Cosmic Codes goes into all of this stuff. What intrigues me, though, as you know Hosea and his pain personally, and here he is writing all these incredible disclosures about God, you don't find any remarks about his personal life.

He doesn't tie this together particularly. You have to infer it by just knowing the background. And the reason is the book is not about Hosea. It's about God. And it's not about Gomer's disloyalty to Hosea.

It's about Israel's disloyalty. And it's about our disloyalty. And a warning about ours. Verse 4. I drew them with cords of a man with bands of love. And I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and laid meat unto them.

This is an agricultural term where you release the animal so it can feed more freely. He's using that analogously, of course, and so forth. Well, now we're going to shift to the present. We talked about the past.

Judgment for Israel's Ingratitude

The past was when love met ingratitude. Now the present is when ingratitude is going to be met with punishment. The fatherly care that was exhibited in the past can't be counted on in the present because of their obstinate disobedience and lack of repentance.

Verse 5. He shall not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be his king because they refuse to return. See, the rejection of the divine king is going to lead them. They've been out of bondage.

They didn't acknowledge the guy that brought them out of bondage. So they're going into even worse bondage with the Assyrians. In Egypt they were in bondage, but they came out as a nation. They will go into Assyria and disappear from history as a nation.

Never come back. Judah, a century later, will go into slavery, into Babylon, but they will come out as a nation. But we'll go on here. Verse 6. A sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his branches and devour them because of their own counsels.

The Hebrew really implies a whirling sword. And it represents this exchange of kings. The king they rejected, okay, they're going to get the king of Syria instead. The word branches here, badim, is actually cross beams or gate bars.

What it's really saying is the security, the bars of the gates will fall. In other words, they will fail. They will fall. The bars will fall. Their security will not be effective. Verse 7. And my people are bent to backsliding from me.

Though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt Him. The word bent here is talah in the Hebrew. It means addicted to, impaled. They're impaled on the hook of sin is really what it's carrying the thought here.

God's Compassion and Israel's Future Restoration

Well, from verses 8 through 11, we're talking about the fusion. We've seen that the love is encouraging gratitude. The lack of repentance is going to result in the punishment. But the future, here's the bright spot, the future will bring ultimate restoration.

I was looking way further ahead. Verse 8 through 11 will deal with that. They'll sum up the central message of the entire book. It isn't just judgment on them. It's also going to, God is going to declare that He has unmerited love for His covenant people, and they will ultimately be restored.

Verse 8. How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel? How shall I make thee as Adma? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together.

This is the God of the universe expressing frustration. How can I give you up Ephraim? Now, He says, how can I make you like Adma and Zeboim? You may not recognize those names, but you all recognize Sodom and Gomorrah, don't you?

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, as you know. There were five cities on the plain. Sodom and Gomorrah are just the two best known. These other two were among them. So, you and I may not, we don't hear that that much, but Adma and Zeboim were like Sodom and Gomorrah.

There were five cities on the plain that were zapped, right? So, what He's saying, here's a nation that's deserving of annihilation in Sodom and Gomorrah, as a result of God's righteous anger. And yet, God's saying to Israel, how can I give you up?

See, they're special. And by the way, so are you. That's God's thing. And so, what you're hearing here is the voice of a loving Father that cannot surrender the Son that He's loved and cared for and nurtured.

So, this divine complaint, in effect, is expressed in self-directed questions, which lays bare the intensity of the covenant love in terms that are unsurpassed in the Old Testament. You won't find this expressed any more strongly than you find it here in Hosea.

This love is going to transcend the strict regulations of the law, because they would have dictated that a son guilty of this was subject to death. If he followed the law, they would be wiped out. And he's frustrated because he doesn't want to wipe them out, he loves them.

And how's he going to deal with that? That's the real problem. He's got holiness, he's got justice to deal with, he loves them so much that he doesn't want to inflict upon them that which they have clearly earned.

Now you're beginning to see how the Son in verse 1 ties to the Son that he's talking about in Israel. Because His basis to deal with them will be resolved by the Creator of the universe becoming a man and going to the cross.

And the Son that He calls out of Egypt in Matthew 2 is the basis by which He's going to be able to resolve His love for the Son that He called out of Egypt in Exodus. You with me? Do you see the conceptual tie together?

And by the way, if you see that conceptual tie together, you are having an insight that a surprising number of commentators miss. But that's really what the book's all about. Verse 9, I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger.

I will not return to destroy Ephraim. Why? Why not? For I am God and not man. Wow. The Holy One in the midst of thee. And I will not enter into the city. See, the key issue is that He's God and not man.

He's got resources. And what we also should learn here is that God is not some kind of distant clockmaker that created the universe and then stepped back in some sense of detachment. This is the same God that created the universe that would in His redeeming love enter His creation, become a man, and go to that cross so that He could reconcile that which He loved to Himself despite the obstinate rebellion and lack of repentance.

Verse 10, They shall walk after the Lord. He shall roar like a lion. When He shall roar, the children shall tremble from the West. And see, with this penalty of sin satisfied in Christ, the Lord can now create in His people a new heart.

Jeremiah talks about it in Jeremiah 31, 33. And also Ezekiel 36 deals with that. That's not just confined to John 3, be born again. No, that's introduced in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 deals with that issue.

And with the new heart implanted, Israel will then, this is future, again walk with the Lord. That's what He's declaring here. Now this lion's roar is a strange phrase. We find that in Amos 3 and other places.

It's like a lion in summons back of a pride of skittish cubs, calling them back. But there's a strange phrase here, by the way, that I haven't found any of the commentators pick up on. Where are they going to come?

Where shall they tremble from? Verse 10, From the West. That makes no sense in the Old Testament. Their enemies were either Assyria or Babylon or you name it, Persia. They were always to the East. They would tremble what?

From the East. What's this business of coming trembling from the West? It speaks of the diaspora after 70 AD. The Romans, the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world for the better part of 1900 years.

And as they're recalled from where? From all over, but certainly from the West, back into the land. I get goosebumps. As you read this, we take it so for granted because we're living it. I have no idea how Hosea dealt with that phrase.

From the West? What's that mean? Verse 11, They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria, and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord. That's a future thing.

And by the way, that verse ends chapter 11 in the Hebrew Bible. This is one of the strange places where there's a slight difference between the Hebrew reckoning and the way we're used to it. But Hosea now is going to leave the glory of a future day, which of course is what he embraced in the last few verses, to return back to contemporary realities, coming back to their people.

Hosea 12 and the Failure of Israel's Foreign Policy

During about 200 years since Solomon's death, of course, the northern and southern kingdoms went their own ways. And although they were separated in many ways, they were connected. And even though they declined at different rates, they both had forgotten God.

And so you'll find Judah increasingly mentioned as we go here. Verse 12, Ephraim compassed me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. But Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

At this time, Judah was still modestly faithful. There was not a good king in the northern kingdom. It went from bad to worse. The southern kingdom had its moments. Then it finally declines, and finally God uses Babylon to deal with them.

But Hosea chapter 12 is a re-reckoning. Verse 1, Ephraim feedeth on wind, and fouleth after the east wind. He daily increases lies and desolation. And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried unto Egypt.

Now this alludes to this very futile and insecure foreign policy. Because on the one hand, they should be trusting God. No, they're making alliances with their major enemy, Assyria. That's stupid. You know what's even more stupid?

To break the alliance. They covenant with Assyria, which is dumb. But having covenant, you better stick with it. No, no, no, no. Now they're dealing with Egypt. How do you think that went over with Assyria?

They didn't go for that. So it's Assyria that turns on them, ends up being God's instrument. Now you find the phrase east wind here. That's a dry, searing Sirocco that blows from the eastern deserts. In that part of the country, an east wind is hot off the desert.

That's like the fury that's going to come from Assyria and the rest. And verse 2, The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways. According to his doings, he will recompense him.

Jacob's Struggle, Repentance, and Transformation

Now, the allusion here to Jacob is kind of interesting because we need to understand the whole history here. Now obviously, Hosea's readers were Jews that were well taught in the synagogue. They all knew the story of the patriarchs in Genesis and so forth.

And from roughly 25 through 35, you find the whole story of Jacob. And this conniving character, Jacob, the ancient deceiver. And yet, how did he finally turn to repentance? And through, finally, that repentance, he gets the power of God.

Verse 3, speaking of Jacob, He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God. Now, you all may remember the story that when the two twins were in the womb, Esau was born first.

He was the firstborn. But the hand came out and grabbed, you know, the heel. And so they named him Heel Catcher. And the term there really refers to trying to supplant. Even in the womb, Jacob was frustrated by being number two.

You see? And he spends the rest of his life, pretty much, trying to overcome being number two. Even in the womb. You can call that prophetic if you like, however. But all the way until a very key event occurs.

You all know the story about how he, as he grew, he was not favored. Esau, firstborn, was favored by his dad. Can you imagine? Here he's frustrated. He's always number two. Mama's boy. Stay in the tents.

Esau was out there, hunter, you know. And you know the story how Jacob, it manifests that Esau didn't reckon his birthright as firstborn seriously. Being firstborn was a very big thing in their culture.

And Jacob wanted that. And he negotiated it for a mess of porridge. Very famous, that goes down through history. Then he goes further and, coached by his mother of all things, steals the blessing. Now, you know I don't relate to that because we don't understand what the blessing was all about.

It was a deathbed blessing. It was very, very key. It gave the firstborn the double portion. There's all kinds of issues that go with that blessing. And you all know the story how Jacob contrives. His mother helps him get the venison the way Esau always did it.

So his father liked that. And he even put hair on his hands so he could feel the apparent, you know, obviously Esau was very hairy. And so they deceived the father. And he gives Jacob the blessing. Later on, Esau comes home and the father realized he's been tricked.

And he says, can't you give me the blessing? We're not talking about just to bless you, my son. He could do that. No, that's not the point. It was a formal procedure in the situation that now is denied to Esau.

And, of course, Esau is really upset. He's so upset that he swears to kill Jacob. And so mother says, get out of town. And Jacob does for like 20 years. As you know, they go to Haran. And there he meets his uncle Laban who cheats him and cheats him and cheats him.