Hosea 12: Check Yo self

What happens when we drift away from God's love? In this compelling exploration of Hosea 12, Pastor Brandon unpacks the powerful metaphor of "checking yourself before you wreck yourself" through the lens of ancient Israel's waywardness and God's persistent love.

The heart of this message centers on God's warning to Israel about their spiritual condition. They were "feeding on wind" and seeking alliances with foreign powers rather than trusting God. With surgical precision, Pastor Brandon connects this ancient struggle to our modern tendency to overcomplicate our relationship with God, forgetting the simple joy of salvation that once defined our faith.

Drawing from the story of Jacob wrestling with God, we discover a blueprint for authentic spiritual relationship. Jacob refused to let go until he received a blessing—and God calls us to that same tenacious engagement with Him. The contrast couldn't be clearer: Israel had become like "crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales," boasting of self-made success while forgetting who truly blessed them.

This episode offers practical wisdom for daily spiritual self-examination. Rather than continuing in struggle, Pastor Brandon encourages us to take time each morning to check ourselves: "Is there any area of my life where I've grown away from you, God? Help me stay close to the simple joy of my salvation." It's an invitation to return to the authentic wrestling with Scripture that characterized our early faith—moving forward with what we understand while working through what we don't yet grasp.

Whether you're feeling distant from God or simply seeking to deepen your relationship, this exploration of Hosea 12 provides both warning and invitation wrapped in God's reckless love. Listen now, and rediscover the path back to authentic spiritual connection.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, hosea, chapter 12, andtoday's title is Check Yourself,
check Yourself.
We are going to talk about thereality that God is just
challenging the nation.
Hey, listen, you got to lookout, because if you don't look

(00:22):
out you're going to get hitright.
And we're going to talk aboutthat today, and maybe the Lord
will speak to us as well aboutsome areas of our life, some
areas we're doing well and maybesome areas we need to kind of
check the dipstick on and makesure there's plenty of oil there
.
You know all that good stuffand we're going to do all that
in just a moment.
So, if you have your Bibles, Iwant to open up with me to Hosea
, chapter 12,.
While you're doing that, makesure, as always, you're taking

(00:43):
just a moment to like, share andsubscribe to the YouTube
channel and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
and make sure you're going tothe Bible Breakdown Discussion
on Facebook.
There's an amazing group ofpeople who do a wonderful job
there every day and, as always,the more we dig, the more we
find.
Now, once again, if you've beenwith us for a while.
You know that the overall ideaof the book of Hosea is God's

(01:05):
reckless love and you can seethroughout all these different
chapters that theme iscontinuing.
In the first little bit he wasshowing us through the narrative
of God telling Hosea to go andmarry a prostitute and save her
out of that prostitution, onlyfor her to then go back to it
again.
And God told him go get yourwife back.

(01:28):
Go get her back and continue tolove her.
And this is beautiful, like oldtestament soap opera slash.
You know Cinderella story ofGod, just not.
Or Hosea not giving up on Gomerthat was the lady.
And then he pivots to sayingthat's exactly how it is between
myself, god and the nation ofIsrael, the northern kingdom.

(01:48):
And for the past severalchapters we've been listening as
God is metaphoricallypositioning himself as this
fateful husband while thiswayward wife is going and doing
all the things right.
But all the way through it'sconstantly about God's reckless
love, over and over again.
And in chapter 12, god isshowing his reckless love again,

(02:11):
and this time by saying hey,you need to watch out, you need
to check yourself right.
And the first time I heard thisphrase check yourself was when
my daughter was in TK, she hadthis wonderful teacher named
Miss Scipio still one of myfavorite teachers my girls ever
had, and she taught them a bunchof little phrases and things

(02:32):
just to help them catch on tolike the rules of her class and
all this kind of stuff.
And one of those things wasthat she would say all the time,
you better check yourselfbefore you wreck yourself.
In other words, she would justtell them hey, pay attention to
what you're doing, because ifyou're making a bad decision
it's going to lead to bad places.
Right, and I love that phrase,and so it became something we
talked about in our family.

(02:52):
All the time we say, checkyourself.
And they would just say, I know, before you wreck yourself,
it's like, absolutely well, godis saying that to the nation of
israel be careful, watch out,notice where you're going,
because it leads to bad places.
And so let's see if we can seewhere it is they're going and
where God is saying watch out.

(03:12):
Okay, you ready, here we go.
Hosea, chapter 12, verse 1, saysthis the people of Israel feed
on the wind, they chase afterthe east wind all day long, they
pile up lies and violence andthey are making an alliance with
Assyria while sending olive oilto buy support from Egypt.

(03:32):
Now the Lord is bringingcharges against Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob forall his deceitful ways and pay
him back for all he has done.
Even in the womb, jacobstruggled with his brother.
When he became a man, he evenfought with God.
Yes, he wrestled with the angeland won, and he wept and

(03:53):
pleaded for a blessing from him.
There at Bethel, he met Godface to face and God spoke to
him.
The Lord, god of heaven'sarmies, the Lord is his name.
So now come back to your God.
Now pause.
Just in case you're unaware ofthis, this is talking about in
the book of Genesis, when theliteral Jacob because you had

(04:14):
Abraham Isaac his grandson'sname was Jacob.
He actually wrestled with theangel of the Lord and when it
was over with, he said hey,listen, I need you to bless me.
And so he's talking about howthere was this struggle, but yet
he prevailed and he was saying,just like that it is time for
you to take your relationshipwith God seriously.

(04:35):
Verse six he says this so nowcome back to your God, act with
love and justice.
So he's saying, just like thatcheck yourself from where you
are and wrestle with thesedifferent things.
Wrestle with where you havegone and come back to the Lord,
act with love and justice andalways depend on him.
But no, the people are likecrafty merchants selling from

(04:57):
dishonest scales.
They love to cheat.
Israel boasts I am rich, I havemade a fortune all by myself.
No one has caught me cheating,my record is spotless.
But I am the Lord, your God,who rescued you from slavery in
Egypt, and I will make you livein tents again, as you do each

(05:19):
year at the festival of shelters.
I sent my prophets to warn youwith many visions and parables.
But the people of Gilead areworthless because of their idol
worship, and in Gilgal too, theysacrifice bulls.
Their altars are lined up likethe heaps of stone along the
edges of a plowed field.
Jacob fled to the land of Aram,and there he earned a wife by

(05:43):
tending sheep.
Then, by a prophet, the Lordbrought Jacob's descendants out
of Egypt, speaking of Moses, andby that prophet they were
protected.
But the people of Israel havebitterly provoked the Lord, so
their Lord will now sentencethem to death in payment for
their sins.
Wow, so what God is saying isis he's saying remember the past

(06:06):
, remember in the pastgenerations where there was this
wrestling with God, just tryingto figure it out, trying to
figure out what was going on,and, as you trusted God, god
helped you overcome, as far asas a nation, all these terrible
things.
He was saying go do that again.
Go check yourself where you are, go back to those first things

(06:27):
so that you can be blessed.
He said, however, you don'twant to do that and because of
that, bad things are going tohappen.
And so the application for us isGod's reckless love warns us.
God's reckless love says hey,listen, remember how we used to
love each other.
Remember how you would wrestleback and forth with reading my

(06:48):
word and trying to understand it, and you move forward with what
you did know and you worked onwhat you didn't know and you got
it wrong, but at the same time,you'd get it right sometimes,
and it was just the simple joyof being saved.
Remember that.
Do that again.
Don't overcomplicate this thing.
Get joy of being saved.
Remember that.
Do that again.
Don't overcomplicate this thing.
Get back to the simple joy ofknowing the Lord and watch how
he can deliver you.

(07:09):
But then, in the nation ofIsrael, god is saying but you
don't want to do that, you'drather just struggle.
And, honestly, sometimes thatdoes feel like us, because God
tells us what to do but we say,nah, I'd rather just struggle.
But he always keeps his handopen.
And so the application for bothof us today me and you is let's

(07:30):
not do that.
Let's take time every morningand just say, god, I want to
check myself.
Is there any area of my lifewhere I've grown away from you?
Can I get closer to you?
Help me always stay close tothe simple joy of my salvation.
Check yourself daily so thatyou can stay close to God

(07:53):
faithfully.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for today.
Thank you, god, that you arewith us and you're for us in
every way.
I'm thankful, god, that youhelp us to know, to check
ourself so that we can stayclose to you.
I pray, lord, that everyone whois listening or watching this
today you'll remind us to takemoments just to just to check
and see.
Are we as close to you as wecould be?

(08:14):
Are we experiencing yourfreedom?
Are we are we thankful, lord,for the good things you're doing
?
If not, help us, lord, to bethankful every day.
Help us to walk in freedomevery day.
We celebrate you now In Jesus'name.
We pray Amen, amen.
Well, god's word said.
God says in Hosea 6, verse 6, Iwant you to show love, not
offer sacrifices.

(08:34):
I want you to know me more thanI want burnt offerings.
God's plan for us is for us toexperience his reckless love
every day.