Hosea 11:3: “I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arm, but they knew not that I healed them.”
I remember when I was student at Moody and I asked my professor who Ephraim was. He said it was just another name for Israel. I asked why he just didn’t say Israel. I don’t remember his answer exactly but it was something to the effect that it was just a poetic expression. I do remember that the tone of his voice suggested he was really saying, “Why do you ask such annoying questions?”
I later learned from rabbinic teaching that God would call Israel Ephraim when Israel would do something that would break His heart. So what did Israel do here to break God’s heart?
He is saying: “I taught Ephraim to go.” The big question is going where? The words taught—to go in Hebrew is tiregaleti and has a very unusual conjugation. It is in a tiphal past tense form and is from the root word regal. A tiphal is sort of a combination hiphal and piel. That is the verb is in both a causative and intensive form. The word regal simple means foot in a noun form but as a verb it means to travel, move forward or simply to go. Traditionally we view this tiphal form as instructional and then the piel gives it some passion which is usually omitted in the translations because, well, that is just hard to put into English. Anyways, you have the idea of a foot being passionately instructed. Put that in your linguistical pipe and smoke it. This is where some translations will say taught to go and some will say taught to walk. That is why a word that is traditionally used as a noun becomes a verb and is rendered as, taught to walk which is much closer to the original thought than taught to go but still misses the point. The idea is not one of teaching direction but of teaching someone to walk. It is a picture of a father teaching his young child to walk.
In Hebrew tradition it is the father who teaches a child to walk. Yes, even teaching a child to walk is a religious ceremony. A ceremony is meant to be a picture of a spiritual truth or application. The Father is to teach his child to walk by causing the child to stand, then he takes a couple steps away from the child and calls for the child to come into his arms. When the child reaches his arms the father gives him a hug. Sometimes the child will stumble and fall while he is learning to walk. When that happens the father picks the child up, he does not scold the child for he realizes it is ultimately his fault that the child was hurt because he was trying to teach him to walk. The father’s heart is broken because he has brought some discomfort to his son. So he hugs him, soothing away any little bump or bruise he may have suffered in his fall while attempting to learn to walk. Sometimes a child can be head strong and when he falls and the father picks him up to comfort him the child will be too angry or frustrated to receive his father’s comfort and will resist him. Then the loving father suffers a double heartbreak for not only being the cause of his child’s hurt but then having his child resist his efforts to comfort or heal him.
Thus you have the picture that Hosea is showing here: “I taught Ephraim to walk taking them in my arms. But they did not know that I healed them. The word heal is rapha’ which means to heal but is also used to express comforting. In the context of a father teaching a child to walk and then comforting him when he stumbles, I believe a more accurate rendering would be to use the word comfort in this verse rather than heal.
Then he says, “they did not know that I healed (comforted) them. The word know is yada’ which means an intimate knowing or an intimacy. Hence God was teaching Israel to walk. When they stumbled He reached out to comfort them and encourage them but they would not accept his comfort. They resisted his hugs or attempts to be intimate with them.
Ever notice that when you are really seeking God, seeking to really know Him and serve Him and you are really longing for that hug from Him that you go through a season of trouble and hurt. I don’t know about you but whenever I enter a season of fasting and prayer, everything seems to turn upside down. My first reaction is like that of a stubborn little child trying to learn to walk so he can reach his father’s arms but not yet knowing how to walk, he stumbles and falls and then resists his father’s attempts to comfort him. “Well, thanks a lot Lord, some reward for trying to get close to you.” But you know, Hosea is teaching us that when we try to get close to God it is like trying to learn to walk. We will stumble, we will fall and we may get bruised or hurt. The Heavenly Father immediately rushes up to us and picks us up in His arms to comfort us. But like some spoiled little brat, we resist his comfort and instead say: “Daddy, you’re really mean, making me walk like this, why don’t you just carry me all the time.” Like Ephraim, we do not know that He is trying to heal us and comfort us and trying to teach us to walk. But we are just too focused on our little bumps and bruises to really understand what He is trying to do. In the wake we just leave God shaking his head and saying, “Oh Ephraim (the one who breaks my heart) I am only teaching you regal (to go or walk) to my outstretched arms so you can receive a hug.
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