Hosea 12
In vs.1-6 God continues His complaint against Ephraim,
charging them
specially with the pursuit of vain and futile courses to
their great detriment.
Instead of repairing to the true and everlasting source of
safety and
salvation, they had recourse to foreign alliances to
support and strengthen
THEIR DECAYING STATE AND THEIR SINKING INTERESTS.
And yet the only staying power was JEHOVAH! . The controversy now
embraces
with such punishment as their doings deserved. The mention
of their great ancestor
Jacob naturally suggests a contrast; while his conduct is
proposed to them for an
example. They are
accordingly invited to follow in his footsteps, imitate the piety
and wisdom of his course, and so entertain good hope of
similar success from
THE UNCHANGING AND UNCHANGEABLE GOD of their pious
ancestor.
1 “Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth
after the east wind:” - “Wind”
is employed figuratively to denote what is empty and vain,
of no real worth or
practical benefit.
really afford neither; while
following after the east wind is
Ø
to pursue vain hopes
and ideals which are unattainable. According
to this view, the prominent
idea of the east wind is its fleetness,
which passed into a
proverb; thus Horace says, “Agents nimbos
Oeior Euro.” To outrun the swift and stormy east wind would
represent an undertaking at
once impracticable and hopeless.
Ø
But it is rather the
blasting influence of the east wind that is
referred to, so that it is
a figurative representation, not so much of
what is vain and hopeless,
as of what is pernicious and destructive.
Thus their course was not only idle, but INJUROUS; not only
delusive, but DESTRUCTIVE;
not
only fruitless, but FATAL!
Their career, which is thus represented,
included their idolatry and
foreign alliances Kimchi explains this clause as follows: “In his
service of the calves he is
like him who opens his mouth to the wind and
feeds on it, though he
cannot support life thereby.” -“and followeth after
the east wind; ‘ he repeats the sense in different
words, and mentions
the east wind because it is
the
strongest and most injurious of winds to
the sons of men. So with them: it is not enough that the idolatry of
the
calves does not profit them, but it actually injures them.”
·
The Septuagint
rendering is Ὁ δὲ Ἐφραὶμ πονηρὸν
πνεῦμα ἐδίωξε καυδώνα, – Ho de Ephraim ponaeron pneuma edioxe -
equivalent to “But
Ephraim is an evil spirit; he has chased the east
wind” - “he daily (rather, all the day) increaseth lies and desolation;”
Ø
Some understood these
words as descriptive of Ephraim’s
attitude
towards Jehovah; and thus
what is figuratively set forth in the
first
clause is here represented
literally. Thus Kimchi
says, “He does not
turn back from his
wickedness, but all the days he
multiplies lying
which is the worship of the
calves, and so increases the
desolation and destruction
that shall come as a punishment for their
service. And with all this he does not perceive nor return from the
worship of the calves to
the worship of the blessed God.”
Ø
But we prefer
understanding the second clause of Ephraim’s conduct
towards his neighbor or
fellow-man. Thus, Hitzig, who shows that שֹׁד cannot refer
to their conduct towards Jehovah, nor could their lies and
desolation continue the
whole day if referred to His service. חָמָס
וָשׁד,
“violence and robbery,”
or “spoil,” are also jointed in a similar manner
In Amos 3:10 and Jeremiah
6:7, to characterize men’s conduct
towards their neighbors. In
the passage before us, if we refer the words,
“lies and desolation,”
as we think they ought to be referred, to
Ephraim’s conduct towards
men, the ריב and שד may
be distinguished
thus: the former designates
low lying and fraudulent dealing; while the
latter expresses that brutal violence by which
dishonest men
unscrupulously
take possession of their neighbors’ property.
“and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is
carried into
This fondness for foreign alliances is specified as a positive proof of their
apostasy from,
and want of confidence in, Jehovah. This is well explained by Kimchi in the following
comment: “But what doeth Ephraim? When oppression of the enemy comes
upon him,
they make a covenant with Assyria for their assistance, and
likewise with
one time with this, another time with that.” The expression כרת ברית,, “to cut a
covenant,” has its parallel in the Greek ὀρκία τεμνεῖν – orkia temnein - and Latin
foedus fetire, as also in the Arabic, doubtless from the circumstance of slaying the
victims in its ratification. The
conduct here censured is Ephraim’s faithlessness to the
then static covenant rather than their treacherous maneuvering in
“playing off”
against Assyria, and Assyria against
abounded in oil-olive and honey, as we read in Deuteronomy
8:8 and
elsewhere. The object of sending it to
Egyptians to secure their interest and help against
properly explained both by Rashi
and Kimchi. The former says, “And their
oil they bring to
them;” the latter likewise, “They bring their oil to the
Egyptians for a
present, for oil came to
The
Worthless Soul-Food (v.1)
“Ephraim feedeth on wind.” Delitzsch renders this clause,
“Ephraim
grazeth wind.” The idea is that it sought for support and
satisfaction in
those things that were utterly unsubstantial and worthless
— “wind.:
happiness in the gratification
of their senses, in the free indulgence
of their appetites: but all this
is nothing but “wind;” it leaves the
soul more hungry
than ever. Souls die with hunger in
the pampered
body of the gourmand and
voluptuary. “Man cannot live by bread
alone!” (Matthew 4:4)
seek food for their souls in worldly
titles, honor, and fame. But these
are “wind.” The souls of our
grandees are perishing with hunger. Walk
Rotten Row in the height of the
season, and in the countenances of
hundreds of those rolling in the
stream of dazzling chariots you see
moral hunger depicted. What are
they doing? They are grazing
wind.
through religious formalities in
search of spirit-food. They crowd
temples, synagogues, cathedrals,
churches, chapels, rigorously
attend to the mere ceremonies of
religion, and return from their
devotions with
HUNGRY and UNFED SOULS! At the altars
they have been grazing wind. “Wherefore do ye
spend money for
that which is not bread? and your labor for
that which
satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:2)
2 “The Lord hath also a
controversy with
punish (margin, visit
upon) Jacob according to his ways;” - God here
presents Himself at once as plaintiff and judge, widening
the range of His
pleadings. The controversy with
comprehends
though
proportionate to their delinquencies — those like
shall suffer less; while the more heinous transgressors,
such as
proved to be, would come in for severer punishment. To
Jacob, here
embracing the ten tribes of
would be meted out in exact accordance with his ways. The apparent
contradiction between v.12 of last chapter, where, as most
translate it,
and the present inclusion of
a rendering and explanation of this verse which Aben Ezra declares to
be both ungrammatical and unscriptural. “He” says Aben Ezra.” who
explains that
Scripture makes no mention of Jehovah having a controversy
against
Judah, but [employs] עם the sense being that Jehovah and Judah have a
strife against Ephraim, errs from the way of Scripture and
grammar, for the
prophet has written above (ch.
5:13), ‘
Ephraim to ride;
them He says,’ Ye shall eat the
fruit of lies’ (Ibid. v.13). He also forgets
‘The herdmen of Gerar did strive with (עם) Isaac’s herdmen’ (Genesis
26:20);
‘And the people strove with Moses’ (Numbers 26:9); and many
other places
[i.e. where עם
is found with the sense of ‘contending’].
Therefore He joins
Ephraim with
and will punish Jacob according to his ways, because this
name (i.e. Jacob)
comprehends them both (Ephraim and Judah).”
The meaning is given concisely and correctly by Rashi thus: “He
(Jehovah) announces to them the words of His controversy
which their
brethren of the house of
if He would punish (literally, ‘visit on’) Jacob according
to his ways.” The
change in the case of
subsequent apostasy, especially that of their kings, as
follows: “Although
He said, ‘And Judah yet reigneth with
God’ (ch. 11:12); He meant, although
he holds fast by the service of God in the house of the
sanctuary; so afterwards
they practiced evil deeds as their kings were evil;
therefore he said,’ Jehovah has
a controversy and correction with Judah and Jacob to visit
upon them
according to their doings, as their kings were evil, for
they did not
remember my mercy with them and with their father Jacob,
because the
whole was for sake of his posterity; and I showed him a
sign which should
be to his seed after him, if they gave their heart to
me.... And the sign
which I showed them is only done for sake of his seed. But
they have not
acknowledged this, for if they had acknowledged this, they
would have
cleaved to me and my service, and I would have ratified to
them the
blessing of Jacob their father.’” The infinitive with le
is not infrequently
employed in the sense of our future, thus, לפקד, it is to be visited,
equivalent to “He shall or must
visit upon it’ This idiom is common in
Syriac, but always with atid - “according to his doings will He
recompense
him.” The milder expression is applied to
with him, but will punish Jacob, restricted by some to
Ephraim or the ten
tribes. Better understand Jacob of both
BE RECOMPENSED, each according to his works.
3 “He took his brother by
the heel in the womb, and by his
strength he had power (margin,
was a prince, or, behaved himself
princely) with
God.” In this verse and the
following the prophet looks away
back into the far-distant past; and this retrospect, which
is suggested by the
names Jacob and
of the patriarch (Genesis 25:26; 32:28). The meaning and intention of this
reminiscence are differently interpreted. The two leading
views are the following:
of warning, and to mention a
trait of Jacob’s overreaching
cunning, and
likewise of his violence, and
thereby show that Jacob had incurred guilt
in a manner resembling
that of THE THEN PRESENT GENERATION,
that is to say, his conduct
had been like to theirs in deceit,
lying, and violence.
in these verses is to admonish
them to imitate the conduct of their
progenitor, and to remind them
of the distinction which he had obtained
thereby, as an encourage-merit
to them to go and do likewise.
admit that Jacob’s laying hold
of his brother’s heel in the womb is
proposed to his posterity by the
prophet for the purpose of emulation and
encouragement, at the same time
to exhibit God’s electing grace from
eternity. Thus Jerome: “While he
was yet in the womb of Rebekah, he laid
hold of his brother’s heel, not
by his own strength, it is true, who was
incapable of perception, but by
the mercy of God, who knows and loves
those whom He has
predestinated.” So also Rashi: “All this I have done
to
him; he took his brother by the
heel for a sign that he would prevail over
him.” Calvin explains more fully
thus: “Their ingratitude is showed in this,
that they
did not acknowledge that they had been anticipated, in the
person of their father Jacob, by the
gratuitous mercy of God. The first
history is indeed referred
to for this end, that the posterity of
Jacob might
understand that they had been elected by God before they were born.
For Jacob did not, by choice
or design, lay hold of the heel of his brother in
his mother’s womb; but it was an extraordinary thing. It was, then, God
who guided the
hand of the infant and by this sign testified his adoption
to be gratuitous. In short, by saying that Jacob held the foot of his brother in
his mother’s womb, the same
thing is intended as if God had reminded the
Israelites that they did not excel
other people by their own virtue or that of
their parents, THAT GOD HAD OF HIS OWN GOOD PLEASURE
HAD CHOSEN
THEM!” The gist of the
passage is to exhibit Jacob’s
earnestness in seeking the
Divine blessing as an example to his posterity.
Already in his mother’s womb,
before he saw the light of the world even in
his condition of unconsciousness,
he had laid hold of the heel of his elder
brother Esau, in order to
anticipate him as the firstborn, and thereby appropriate
the Divine promises.
struggled for the position
of preeminence, sorely struggling for the Divine
blessing. In the maturity
of his manhood he wrestled with God, or rather
with the angel of the
covenant, and prevailed so that his name was changed
to
imitation, with
implied promise of LIKE HAPPY RESULT! Though
Aben Ezra and Kimchi, in their
exposition of the verse, rather explain in their
own way the significance of
the original event as recorded in Genesis than the
application which the prophet
here makes of it, yet it may not be out of
place to subjoin their comments,
which are as follows: Aben Ezra, “With
respect to him who explains ‘in
the womb’ in the sense that Jehovah then
decreed the matter of the
birthright and blessing, I know not how the
meaning of ‘in the womb’ bears
on that, as the Scripture says, ‘Before I
formed thee in the womb I knew
thee.’ According to my opinion it should
be taken according to its
literal sense, that ‘ he took his brother by the heel
in the womb; ‘ and this is made
clear by’ and his hand took hold on Esau’s
heel.’ Now the purport is, ‘Why do the sons of Jacob not remember that I
chose their father, and
effected preeminence for him over all that are born?
For when he was in the womb I
gave him strength to lay hold of the heel,
and this was as the working of
a miracle, for the fetus has, in the womb and
at the time of the opening of
the matrix, no strength to lay hold of anything
until it comes forth from the
womb into the air of the world. And lo! when
he was in the womb I gave him
strength; and afterwards he wrestled with
the angel, and he (the angel)
did not prevail over him, although one angel
slew the whole host of
in terror as David who was
frightened; how much was it to wrestle with
him.’ The meaning is that all the children of the world should
know that his
(Jacob’s) seed
shall endure for ever, and in the end conquer his enemies.
But Ephraim thinks
that Ephraim himself has found the power.”
It is no small thing to have a godly parentage. To be born to the heritage of a
good name and of religious influences brings heavy responsibility and
noble
privilege. The man who turns from the path in which his
godly
ancestors walked commits a greater sin, in the judgment of
God, than the
godless who have never known the advantages of a religious home. Among
the
nations, “
people was a reminder of the prayer in which their great ancestor obtained
self-conquest, knowledge of God, and grace to keep justice and do mercy.
Hence they are reminded by Hosea of what their father was, that they
might know what was still possible to themselves. The prophet refers here
to
Jacob’s agonizing prayer at Jabbok, and speaks of a “strength” which
was in him, which consisted not in holiness or merit, but (as the next verse
suggests) in “supplication and tears.” God could not overthrow his faith
and constancy. He could not, because he would not. The touch which
shriveled Jacob’s thigh showed what he could do. The delay and struggle
were only imposed on the suppliant (as by Jesus on the woman of Syro-
began at first to seek. The incident is related in a highly poetic form, and to
Jacob the conflict was so terrible that it seemed an actual struggle with a
living man. The voice and the presence were not material, but they were
nonetheless real. We do not attempt to distinguish between the subjective
and objective in this great conflict, yet we believe that Hosea’s words
respecting it are true, “There God spake with us,” and that we are called
upon
to incline our hearts to the inference in the sixth verse, “Therefore
turn thou to thy God!”
4 “Yea, he had power over
the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made
supplication unto him:” - As Jacob’s position at birth symbolized
the preeminence which God’s electing love had in store for
him, and as in
his manhood’s
prime he put forth such earnestness and
energy to obtain the
blessing, so
TO LIKE STRENEOUS EXERTION
with like certainty of success.
The
example is more fully described and dwelt on in this verse
for the purpose of more
powerfully stimulating the Israelites of the prophet’s day
to imitate it. From
this verse we learn the following facts:
entire identification with God
in the preceding verse, but the organ of
Divine manifestation; and
supplication, in a word, THE
INSTRUMENTALITY OF
PRAYER and the true way of
prevailing with God, which is REAL
HUMILITY and SINCERE
SUPPLICATION, not stiff, necked
and defiant resistance to THE DIVINE WILL AND WORD
like that of
It was a great wonder for a man to wrestle with an angel.” כָבָה; “He wept
and
Asked him, when he said, ‘I
will not let thee go, unless thou shalt have blessed
me!’ For the
wrestling was that which he engaged in with the angel,
holding him by prayers that he might bless him, not by the
strength of
work. If any one weeps and exercises penitence, and
supplicates the Lord,
he shall find Him in the grief of his heart, and when he
has invoked Him, he
shall hear Him answering.”
- “he found Him in
with us.” The prophet here records the result of Jacob’s faithful
wrestling.
There in
found a home, God had manifested Himself to the
patriarch. The fruit of Jacob’s
victory was that
The historical basis of the prophet’s statement is not
Genesis 28:11,
which narrates the appearance of God to the patriarch as he
fled into
Mesopotamia, but Genesis 35:9, when the new name of
with God,” was
confirmed to him, and the promise of all the families of the
earth being blessed through his seed renewed. Of the two
visions at
the second is the one here referred to, as it comes after
that at Penuel, the
scene of the patriarch’s wrestling with the angel; while
the accompanying
circumstances keep us to the right understanding of the
expression, “he
found him in
occasion prepared himself and household for seeking God by
putting away
the strange gods that were among them, by ceremonial
purifications, and
putting on change of garments. Thus, seeking with holy
purpose and
prepared heart, he found the Lord at
fellowship with Him there.
“Let it be observed,” says Lackemacher, as
quoted by Keil, “that God is said
to have talked at
but with all his posterity. That is to say, the things
which are here said to have
been done by Jacob, and to have happened to him, had not
regard to himself
only, but to all the race that sprang from him, and were
signs of the good fortune
which they either would or certainly might enjoy.”
5 “Even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his
memorial.” Here
we have at once a confirmation and a pledge of previous
promises. Jacob
had wronged Esau, and thereby incurred his displeasure; he
had offended
God by the injury inflicted on his brother. He is
consequently in a position
of peril with
respect to both God and man; he repented of his sin, and with
many and bitter tears supplicated safety — salvation in the
highest sense.
Jacob, or
to greater danger; the same unfailing remedy is recommended to them, and
the same way of safety is laid open before them; let them only repent, turn
to the Lord, and with tears of genuine sorrow seek his
face and favor free;
and the prospect would soon brighten before them. The Name of God was
a sufficient guarantee: HE IS JEHOVAH THE EVERLASTING and
therefore UNCHANGING ONE — the
same to Jacob’s posterity as He had
been to the patriarch himself, equally ready to accept their repentance
and equally
willing to bless them with safety and salvation. He is God of hosts, and
thus the Almighty
One, governing all creatures, guiding all events,
commanding all powers both heavenly and earthly, and
ruling the whole
history of humanity. His name is a remembrancer
of all this, and thus His
people were assured that He neither lacks the will nor the
power to bless
them with all needful blessings, and do them greatest
good. The name of an
individual is that whereby he is known; on mention of his
name the memory
of him is recalled. The
mention of the Divine Name not only reminds us of
His being and Godhead, but recalls to our memory HIS
ATTRIBUTES!
Rashi
has the following brief comment on this verse: “As I have been from the
beginning, so am I now; and if ye had walked with me in
uprightness as
Jacob our father, I would have dealt with you as dealt with
him.” Thus to
Abram in a land of strangers, imperiled and defenseless, God revealed
Himself as God Almighty; to Moses, after centuries of unfulfilled promise,
He made himself known as the Unchanging
One, still challenging the
confidence of His people; to Hosea He brings to mind His
unchanging
counsel in regard to all the events of time and His
unlimited control over all
the realms of space and their inhabitants, and so the
suitability of His
attributes to the multiplied necessities and varying
circumstances of His people.
“Even the
Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial.”
The God who
appeared to Jacob, who conversed with him in reference to his posterity as well as
himself, and whom Jacob found at
the God against whom they had trespassed,
but to whom they are now urged to turn.
That God is Jehovah, the self-existing One whose
title is “I
AM THAT I AM”
(Exodus
3:14) which is a sort of paraphrase of the name Jehovah. He is the first of
all beings, the greatest of all beings, supreme over all
beings, whose being
is without limit of time-everlasting, and without bound of
space; infinite,
having all being in Himself, and giving to all creatures
life and breath and all
things. He is Jehovah, the ever living and never-changing
God, the same in
kindness, the same in covenant relation to His people, and
the same in
accessibility. What He
did to Jacob HE WAS READY to do for the posterity of
the patriarch, yea, HE IS
WILLING TO DO FOR ALL PEOPLE that call
upon Him in truth,
seeking His face and favor free.
command, the
inhabitants of the earth are subject to His will, the
powers of nature
and all the forces of the universe are under His control.
This expression is
employed in allusion to those hosts of God that met him after
he had wrestled with God, after
his name had been changed, and of whom
we read, “The angels of
God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he
said, This is
God’s host,” and in relation to
whom he called the place
Mahanaim, the two camps or
hosts of God. (Genesis 32:2)
to keep up their remembrance;
but the name Jehovah is the Divine
memorial, the name by which He
wishes to be remembered through all
generations, as He says
elsewhere, “This is my name for ever, and this is
my memorial to
all generations” (Exodus 3:15). This term may have
reference to the memorial stone
which Jacob had set up for a pillar, to keep
up the remembrance of
the gracious vision that had been vouchsafed to him,
and as a memorial of his vow.
memories; for oh, how
deceitful our hearts are; how treacherous our
memories in the things of God! We need helps, and means, and memorials,
and remembrancers,
but pictures are not needed for this purpose,
images
are not needed. GOD’S NAME,
as indicating His nature, is
SUFFICIENT
MEMORIAL OF HIM. His Word and His
works are to
keep men in remembrance of Him.
The name Jehovah is God’s memorial;
every time we read, or hear, or
speak that name, we are reminded of the glory
and greatness of Him who is the
first and best of beings, as also of His goodness
and grace. We are reminded by
that name of the unchangeableness of His nature
(Malachi 3:6) and His never ceasing mercy to man — THE SAME TO THE
THE POSTERITY OF
JACOB, THE SAME TO US
AND OUR
FOREFATHERS, the God of our fathers being still the God of their
succeeding
race. “There is no shortening of
His power and no darkening of His glory, but
with whatsoever power God has
wrought, in whatsoever glory He has appeared,
in former times, HE MAY MANIFEST FOR US NOW!
6 “Therefore turn thou to
thy God: keep mercy and judgment,
and wait on thy God continually.” God’s
character in itself, and His
conduct towards the great forefather of the Hebrew race,
call at once for
confidence and contrition. The evidence of their repentance
is twofold: one
aspect is manward, consisting of
mercy and judgment; the other is
Godward, being a constant waiting upon God. The literal rendering
brings
out the meaning more clearly; it is, “And thou, in
[or, ‘by’] thy God thou
shalt return.” If we
render the preposition by “in,” we may understand it to
imply entire dependence on God, or close and cordial
fellowship with God;
if we take it to mean “by,” it signifies the power or help
of God; while the
return is moral and spiritual, with perhaps material and
literal restoration
implied A parallel for be in the signification of
“by” occurs in the first
chapter of this book at the seventh verse: “I will save them by (be) the
Lord their God;”
also in Deuteronomy 33:29, “O people saved by (be)
the Lord.” We prefer the former sense as more simple and suitable; it
is
concisely and correctly explained by Keil
as follows: "'שׁוב with בְ is a
pregnant expression, as in Isaiah 10:22, ‘So turn as to
enter into vital
fellowship with God; ‘ that is, to be truly converted....
The next two
clauses are to be taken as explanatory of תשוב.. The conversion is to
show
itself in the perception of love and right towards their
brethren, and in
constant trust in God.” The difference between שׁוּב בְּ and שוּב אֶל is
that
the latter signifies “to return to,” and the former
“to return into,” and thus
expresses inward union with Him. The general sense of the
clause is thus
expressed by Aben Ezra: “If thou
wouldst return to God, He would be thy
help to bring thee back to Him” (“As
many as received Him, to them
gave
He power to become the sons of God.” John 1:12) and by Kimchi
as follows: “But thou who art the seed of Jacob, if thou
art willing, canst return
unto thy God, i.e. thou canst rest in Him, as ‘In returning and rest shall ye be
saved’ (Isaiah 30:15).” The second point of the verse has an
instructive
parallel in Micah 6:8, “What
doth the Lord require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God?” In regard to
the waiting upon God, of which the last clause speaks, Aben Ezra has the
pithy remark, “Depend not upon thy riches nor thy strength,
for the
strength thou hadst from him,
also the riches.” Kimchi comments on the
same more fully, as follows: “On this condition thou canst
rest and not be
afraid of the enemy, if thou wilt observe to do mercy and
judgment: for His
conditions are as He said, ‘I am
the Lord which exercise loving-kindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these
things I delight, saith
the Lord’ (Jeremiah 9:24). And although He does not mention
righteousness here,
yet He has said in another place, ‘Keep ye judgment, and do justice [literally,
‘righteousness’] (Isaiah 56:1).’ And He says here, ‘And wait upon thy God
continually;’ now it is righteousness and equity that thou waitest on thy God
continually. And even when thou shalt
have great possession and riches
and wealth, thou shalt say to
thyself, ‘ IT IS ALL FROM HIM; thou shall
remember Him continually and wait on Him, as He says in the
Law
(Deuteronomy 8:18), ‘ Thou
shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is
He that giveth thee power to get
wealth; not like Ephraim, who says, ‘I am
become rich, I
have found me out substance.’” The
Septuagint has ἔγγιζε –
eggize - equivalent
to “draw near to,” having probably read קְרֹב instead of קַוֵּה
Reproof, Retrospect, and Exhortation (vs.
1-6)
Ephraim is reproved for the pursuit of empty and vain
courses, and courses
detrimental to their best and real interests.
threatening which follows. They are exhorted to follow the
example of the
patriarch which is proposed for their imitation, with
implied promise of
similar success. The UNCHANGEABLENESS
OF GOD who not only
accepted Jacob,
but blessed and prospered him, is held out to the
descendants of
Jacob as a guarantee of like blessings in case of their
turning to God and bringing forth fruits meet for
repentance.
feature of the natural heart is
patent in the case of Ephraim. The people of
the northern kingdom spared neither pains nor expense to
obtain
human help rather than seek help from
God.
Ø
We notice the expensive nature of their
proceeding. They made a
covenant with the
Assyrians, and that was an expensive compact; for
Menahem King of
thousand talents of silver
for the desired help (II Kings 15:19-20),
and Hoshea
became tributary to Shalmaneser, and gave him costly
presents (Ibid. ch. 17:3); while the national bank was drained in
another direction, valuable
exports of olive oil being sent into
(v.1)
Ø
Wasted energy in pursuit of their purpose.
They are represented as
“following after,”
and “daily
increasing.” They
imposed more
toil on
themselves TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM GOD
than they would
have required TO TURN TO GOD! . They had
“no less pains by going out of God’s way
than if they had kept in it;
but God’s way, as it is
undoubtedly the surest, so in many respects it is
even the easiest,
course.” (“The way of the transgressors is
hard” –
Proverbs 13:15).
Ø
The empty consequences of
this course. (Basically, their economic
endeavors, like ours in the
their assets “into a bag full of holes.” – Haggai 1:6 – CY – 20-12)
Their hopes were doomed to
bitterest disappointment, and their human
helps proved hurtful in the
extreme. The presents which they had lavished
on the Egyptians had no
other effect than to compromise them with the
Assyrians; while the issue
was the imprisonment of this prince and the
captivity of the people. SO IS IT STILL: men’s carnal confidences
deceive them, like wind which may
fill but cannot feed them; and not
only deceive, but draw
down on them greater calamities than those
they hoped to escape
from. Thus they prove not only profitless as the
wind but pernicious as the
east wind. The OUTCOME of all is not
only lying
vanities but DESOLATION!
PARTIAL AND TEMPORARY, IS JUSTLY PUNISHABLE. God
does not connive at sin in His
saints that serve Him, any more than in sinners
that have never sought Him;
neither do men’s ordinary good deeds atone for
their occasional misdeeds. Sin in the people of God is sure to bring
chastisement in some form. At first sight it might seem strange, or even
contradictory, that the Lord
should have a controversy with
whom it had been asserted a few
verses before that “
God, and is
faithful with the saints.” (Consider
how far
sunk into apostasy in the last
sixty years – going from a Christian nation to
A MUCH
BALLYHOOED PROGRESSIVE,
CY – 2012) But a ready and right solution of the apparent difficulty
is found
in those striking statements of
the Apocalypse, in which God, after bestowing
deserved commendation on certain
Churches for this or that course of conduct,
immediately adds, “Nevertheless
I have somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love”
(Revelation 2:4). Their goodness, of whatever
kind it was, did not cause their
ill deserts to be overlooked. “Some there
are,” says an old writer,” who,
if there be any evil in men, can see no good
in them; this is wicked, But
there are others that, if there be any good in
them, can see no evil; this is
too much indulgence. They err in both
extremes.”
Ø
It is not a little
strange how men sometimes try to screen themselves by
the sins of
others, or to palliate their
wrongdoing by the yet greater
wrongdoing of others. It
might have been so with Ephraim; they might
have pleaded the sins of
charged the Most High with
uneven dealing with them in punishing
their sin as did
“The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now,
O house
of
When a righteous man turneth
away from his righteousness,
And committeth
iniquity, and dieth in them; for
his iniquity
that he hath
done shall he die. Again, when
the wicked man
turneth away from his wickedness
that he hath committed,
and
doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his
soul alive. Because he
considereth, and turneth
away from
all
his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely
live, he shall not die. Yet saith
the house of
of the LORD is not equal. O house of
equal? are not your ways unequal? THEREFORE I WILL
JUDGE YOU, O
HOUSE OF
ACCORDING TO HIS
WAYS, SAITH THE LORD GOD.
Repent, and turn
yourselves from all your transgressions;
SO INIQUITY SHALL NOT BE YOUR RUIN.” (Ezekiel
18:25-30). They might have said, “We are not so very much
worse than
then, should
say, “We are not worse than
others; we have our faults, so have
our neighbors; if we
deserve punishment, so do others as well.”
(Dear Reader, Just because
everybody is doing it is not
Justification before A HOLY GOD! Misery Loves Company
may be a defensive mechanism that is utilized in this
world, but
in the next world, separated
from God by the “BLACKNESS
OF DARKNESS FOR EVER” – Jude 1:13 – something to
the equivalent of getting
lost in orbit outside the earth’s
atmosphere,
but in this sense, AWAY FROM THE
KINGDOM OF GOD – see Luke 16:26 – CY – 2012).
God shows us that His ways
are equal, that he will not punish
Ephraim and allow
EVERY MAN as his works shall be. (Romans 2:6;
Ecclesiastes 12:14)
Ø
But their plea might
be easily turned against them to their great
discomfiture. If
the true worship of Jehovah
though with certain drawbacks, and
if
worse case, might it not be
asked in words similar to a New
Testament Scripture, If
even with Judah God has a controversy,
how can
saved, WHERE SHALL THE UNGLODLY AND THE
SINNER APPEAR?” (I Peter 4:18)
Ø
Though every sin
deserves the severest judgment, being an infinite
offence against the
infinitely Holy One, yet He proportions His
chastisements to the degree
and aggravation of each offence, and
the obstinacy of the
offender. GOD IS
A JUST GOD, HE
IS ALL-KNOWING,
ALL-POWERFUL AND EVERY
WHERE! (I recommend – Genesis 17 – Names
of God –
El Shaddai – by Nathan Stone – this web site – CY – 2012)
AND THEIR LESSONS. These
histories record the three great struggles
of the patriarch’s life.
Ø
His birth, when he takes his brother by the heel, gives evidence of a
Divine instinct or a
divinely directed inclination to struggle for the
birthright and its
blessings.
o
The first lesson
taught us in the Scripture record of Jacob’s birth
(Genesis 25:22, 26) is the
electing love of God, or that gracious
Favor which God is pleased to
extend to men, and that without
respect to their works of
merit or deserts of any kind. Not only
are the People of God
chosen by Him from eternity, as we read,
“He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the
world” (Ephesians 1:4), and consequently before they have
done either good or evil,
but sometimes they are made partakers
of His sanctifying grace
from the womb; thus we read of Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 1:5), “Before I sowed thee in the belly I knew thee;
and before thou earnest forth out of the womb
I sanctified
thee;”
so also of John the Baptist (Luke 1:44), “Lo, as soon as
the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine
ears, the babe
leaped in my
womb for joy.”
o
Jacob’s struggle to
anticipate Esau in being the firstborn, and so
to secure the birthright
and its blessing, presaged the high
spiritual position to which in the purpose of
God he
was to attain. Even the lack of success of the effort does
not lead Jacob to relax his
efforts or relinquish his object, till
grace compensated his natural
disadvantage and crowned his
persistent struggling with
success.
o
The posterity of the
patriarch are here taught not to fall back on,
and boast of, the dignity
and privileges of their ancestor, but to
bestir themselves as he had
done to secure spiritual blessings.
o
When God bestows grace
on any it furnishes abundant cause of
thanksgiving, but especially is this the case when that grace
is granted in
early life, so as to prevent those youthful follies
and lusts that war against the soul, and which, in the case of
those afterwards
converted, often make them to posses the
iniquities of their youth and embitter all
their after-years.
Ø
The wrestling with the angel and prevailing formed
the next great
epoch in Jacob’s life. This
which is recorded in Genesis 32, was a season
of great terror and
distress, as well as of no little danger from his brother
Esau. But he did not give
way before the dangers that threatened him,
nor succumb under the
difficulties of his position; he bravely faced the
discouragements that
surrounded him — not, however, in his own
strength. By the strength which God gave he had power with God;
in the vigor of his
strength he wrestled with the Angel of the covenant
and prevailed. He saw the
providence of God in all that betided him,
and wrestled for the Divine
favor and succor, The wrestling symbolized
the intense earnestness and
energy which he put forth; the object for
which he strove
so earnestly and energetically was the blessing
of his God; the means employed were prayers and tears and fervent
supplications; the
persistence with which he prayed and pled is expressed
in the words, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Thus as
a prince he had power with God and with men,
and prevailed.
(Genesis 32:26,28).
o
What evidence we have
here of the riches of Divine grace! The
Omnipotent One gives us the
power in virtue of which we prevail
with Him, even with
Himself! The method by which men prevail
with God is the
ordinances of PRAYER and SUPPLICATION
which He has Himself appointed;
while the spirit suitable to
such employments
is A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART
for such the Lord will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
Jacob was
truly magnanimous, and yet
tender-hearted and contrite, and his
weeping was the outpouring
of his
tenderness of heart and
contrition of spirit.
o
The choicest blessings
of providence and grace are often
bestowed upon men after
seasons of affliction and distress;
and bestowed after intense wrestlings, earnest prayers, and
solemn supplications. Here
was a lesson for the People of the
prophet’s day to encourage
them against the dangers and
difficulties that were fast
crowding upon them, and. to instruct
them. by the example of
their honored progenitor to put their
confidence IN GOD and not in MISERABLE,
DISAPPOINTING HUMAN
CONFEDERACIES.
Thus
by the power of Omnipotence itself they might retrieve
their sinking fortunes,
surmount all difficulties, and triumph over
all enemies. Here, too, is
a lesson worth learning by us all.
POWER BELONGETH
UNTO GOD, that power
we may
partake of; prayer
brings that power near and allies it to
our side, and in virtue of that power we shall prevail over all
enemies whether temporal or spiritual.
Ø
The third era in Jacob’s history was marked by his finding God at
o
Twice God had been
pleased to manifest Himself to Jacob at
Padan-aram, as recorded in Genesis 28., when he saw that
wondrous vision of the ladder
connecting heaven and earth, the
creature and the Creator,
while angels as heavenly messengers
ascended and descended upon
it. The other occasion was when
he was in great trouble and
terror in consequence of the
slaughter of the Shechemites To this, which is narrated in Genesis
35., the prophet specially
refers in the passage before us. The
occasion was a memorable
one, and in one respect a melancholy
one, in Jacob’s history. He had forgotten the vows, or at
least failed to pay
them; he had neglected duty of a solemn
and binding
character. And now he is in danger and
distress, yet finds God, and in Him succor and support.
God had been with the
fugitive who returned a prince and a
patriarch; He had prospered
him and brought him back in
safety and in peace,
causing him to find grace in the sight of
his brother Esau, father of
the dukes of Seir. Arriving at
Succoth, Jacob had built
him a house, made booths for his
cattle, and there his
grazing flocks and herds, his peaceful
dwelling, his large and
powerful family, ALL ATTESTED
TO THE
FAITHFULNESS OF THE COVENANT
GOD. But
for long there is no word of
no remembrance of the vow
he had made to repair thither on
his return, make that place
a house of God, and allot the tenth
of his substance to its
maintenance. He left Succoth, passed
the
passed on, some seven or eight years elapsed, and still
deep family affliction, sad
family dishonor, and dark
family guilt united to
afflict, perhaps punish, the patriarch; and it
became necessary for God
himself to remind Jacob of Bethel,
and the wondrous vision he
had seen there, and the solemn vow
he had made there, all of
which seemed to have faded from his
memory, and might perchance
have been entirely forgotten, had
not God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to
35:1). In his distress he sought the Lord, and the
call of God
reminded him of his
duty. Under such circumstances he found
Him at
prevented Jacob by a vision
the first time,
and with a call the
second time, and of Jacob
who found God there when he
sought unto Him.”
o
Thus, after a period
of forgetfulness or neglect, soon as Jacob
was stirred up
to seek the Lord, he found Him. Here was
encouragement for his
erring posterity to seek that God who
never said to the seed of Jacob any more than to Jacob himself,
“Seek ye my face in vain.” (My fellowman! Our response
to God’s invitation to seek His face should be as the Psalmist,
“When thou
sadist, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto
thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek!” - Psalm 27:8 – CY –
2012)
o
It is well worthy of
note that the means whereby God is pleased
to have communion with His
people is His Word, as we may
rightly infer from the
expression, “THERE HE SPAKE
WITH US” (v.4). And it is
further noticeable, that
God’s revelations of
Himself of old remain the heritage of
the Church in all after
ages. The words “there He spake with us”
show that
the communication was not merely personal to Jacob,
but for his posterity. God spake with them as though present, and
what He said concerned them
though they were yet in the loins
of their progenitor. So
with the Church and people of God still;
“what was
written aforetime was written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures
might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)
STATEMENTS. The
application which the prophet makes of the subject is
introduced with a “therefore” (v.6). This “therefore” gathers up the several
foregoing thoughts into one
urgent appeal.
Ø
Motives to repentance. By the fact of Jacob’s wrestling with God and
the success of this
spiritual struggle, by the memorial of the name Jehovah
as an index of the
unchanging mercifulness of His nature, and by the
implied spiritual
declension of his descendants, the people of both the
northern and southern
kingdoms in general and EACH INDIVIDUAL
IN PARTICULAR, are earnestly admonished to turn to God, their
fathers’ God, their own
God, as it is stated, “Therefore turn
thou to thy
God.”
Ø
Fruits meet for repentance. The amendment answerable
to repentance
comprises the duties of the
so-called second table of the Law. Justice and
mercy may be regarded as a
summary.
o
The golden rule of all
justice is that royal law of Christ, “All
things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to
them; for this is the Law and the prophets”
(Matthew 7:12). It would be out of place to enter into the details
of justice; this one
principle includes all, it is plain to all, it is
applicable to all; it comprehends princes and people, masters and
servants, brothers and
sisters; it extends to all stations and relations,
it is unvarying in its
application to all persons in all matters and at
ALL TIMES, it embraces not
only all the business transactions
of buyers and sellers, but
all situations and stations in which we
can stand towards our
brother man, whether as inferiors or
superiors or equals; it is a rule easily understood, easily put in
practice, and commends
itself to every man’s conscience. Thus
reading the Scripture text
before us in the light of our Lord’s
teaching, we have a rule of
justice easily accommodated to all
cases, and of ready adaptation
to all the vast variety of
circumstances that bring us
into relation with our fellow
creatures. In this duty of keeping judgment or justice,
which is
the same word (mishpat) in the original, you have only to make
the case of your fellow-man
your own, to conceive circumstances
changed with him and
yourself in his position; and then whatever
you could reasonably expect
of him, supposing yourself to be in
his circumstances, that do
to the utmost of your ability to every
child of man. This principle not only includes that more obvious
duty of acting justly in
all the transactions of life which the
apostle enjoins, saying, “Let
no man go beyond or defraud
his brother in any
matter,” (I Thessalonians 4:6) but
also
prohibits those acts of
injustice that might not chance to fall
within the bounds of human
law or of civil enactments, by
awarding to
every one his due — “honor to whom honor
is due, fear to whom fear, tribute to whom
tribute
(Romans 13:7), instruction
to the ignorant, relief to the
oppressed, bowels of compassion to
the poor, and, in the words
of Solomon, by withholding
not good
(of whatever kind) from
them to whom it is due when
it is in the power of thine hand
to do it. (Proverbs 3:27).
o
Strict justice is
much, very much more than, alas! is often
dispensed; yet it is not
enough. There must be mercy too,
and mercy tempering
justice. When we have done full justice
to a fellow-being we have
not done all that God requires of us
towards our
fellow-creature; He has other claims upon us, and
God has given him those
claims. Reversing the order of the
words according to the
parallel passage in Micah, “Do justly
and love mercy” (Micah 6:8), we may say, “Just first and
kind next” is the
requirement of this Scripture; “Just first and
then generous “ is a common
saying. We might exact strict j
ustice for ourselves, standing upon our bond like him of old
and demanding our pound of
flesh, we might exact what is justly
our due, but what
benevolence would not and mercy could not
claim, and so verify the
old Latin proverb about the “height of
justice being the height of
injury;” but the requirement of mercy
prohibits and
prevents that. Then, O man, love mercy — it is
the
characteristic of your heavenly Father, who is the
FATHER AND
FOUNTAIN OF MERCIES, love mercy,
that generous,
large-hearted benevolence
which does good
according to its power to
all men under
all circumstances,
“especially to
them who are of the household of
faith” (Galatians 6:10), love mercy, that heaven-born
principle which, if even an
enemy hunger, feeds him, if he
thirst gives him
drink, if he be naked clothe him
(Matthew 25:35-36). “And,” to borrow the well-known
words, “as in the course of
justice none of us should see
salvation, we do therefore
pray for mercy, and that same
prayer doth teach us all to
render the deeds of mercy.”
o
Further, we are
not only to do justly and to love mercy,
BUT TO DELIGHT
THEREIN! Thus we shall not only
do some acts of justice and
perform some acts
of mercy, but
keep them both; mercy first, as having the preeminence
and being the consummation
of justice — the one the fruit,
and the other the root. In
this way we are required to keep
mercy and justice, that is,
to observe uniformly and practice
habitually mercy and
justice. For a pattern of mercy, read the
parable of the good
Samaritan (Luke 10:30-36); for the
opposite, the story of Hazael (II Kings 7-15), and the parable
of the man who owed ten
thousand talents (Matthew 18:23-35)
AND TRUE EVIDENCE, THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR DUTY TO
GOD AS WELL AS TO MAN.
The former duty is here expressed in the
words “wait on thy God continually” (v.6). The
connection of the words is
very suggestive. Repentance is
put to a practical test and its sincerity proved;
the proof consists of a right
discharge of the duties we owe both to man
and God. The duties to man are
put first, because we not infrequently find
persons showing a zeal for the
outward ordinances of religious worship
and yet neglectful of mercy and
judgment to their fellow-creatures; and, on
the other hand, such duties are
never discharged aright where God is not
truly worshipped; they may be
determined by fits and starts (remember
Jesus’ teaching, “Therefore
if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee;
Leave there thy
gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy
brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
(Matthew 5:23-24), but not steadily and continuously as the
keeping
of them requires, unless there
is genuine godliness. Thus morality has
its root in religion, and religion without
morality is only a name without
reality. In order, therefore, to keep, in the sense of regularly
observing
mercy and
justice, there must be CONTINUED WAITING UPON
GOD!
want and weakness and danger on
our part, as also that God is the Source
of fullness, of strength, and of
sufficiency. It also implies service. “As
the
eyes of servants
look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of
a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our
eyes wait upon the
Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon
us” (Psalm 123:2).
Waiting on God denotes waiting
on Him in expectation, trusting in
Him for help, looking to Him for
deliverance.
Ø
The whole of
religion is at times summed up in the
expression,
“waiting on
God;” in this sense the psalmist uses
the words three
times in a single psalm.
After confessing his own faith in God, he
prayed for all that
possessed like precious faith, saying, “Let
none
that wait on
thee be ashamed.” Again, addressing
God his Savior
and supplicating Divine guidance and
Divine instruction, he says,
“On thee do I
wait all the day.” And a third time, referring to
the might and multitude of
his enemies and supplicating deliverance,
he pleads his own
relationship to God, using the same words,
“for I wait on
thee,” and adding, “Redeem
of all his
troubles” (Psalm 25:3,5,21-22). Similarly in the Book
of the Prophet Isaiah, in
reference to the spread of the true religion,
not only over the broad continents and
countries of earth, but
throughout those
multitudinous and distant islands that rise in beauty
and rest in sunshine amid
the wild waves of ocean that roll and rage
around them, we read, “He shall set judgment in the earth,” and
“The isles shall wait for his law” (Isaiah 42:4).
Ø
Reasons for and
motives to waiting on God. There is good
reason for
waiting on God. God is the
God of providence, and therefore all wait
upon Him. “The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them
their meat in due
season; thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest
the wants of every
living thing” (Psalm 145:15-16). (Dear Reader,
God’s desire for you and me is eloquently explained in Psalm 81:10-16.
“I am the LORD
thy God, which brought thee out of the land of
would not
hearken to my voice; and
So I gave them
up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked
in their own
counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto
me, and
subdued their
enemies, and turned my hand against their
adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted
themselves unto
him: but their time should have endured for
ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat:
and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.” –
This cannot be improved upon! – As I think of this principle of God’s
dealing with mankind, I think of another which has been mentioned in
Hosea with God’s dealing with Ephraim. “Ephraim is joined
to
idols: let him alone.” – ch. 4:17 – Today was a tragic day in
to God for the
solution, but to GUN CONTROL LAWS. My
question, is
where is the American Civil Liberties
to help console
the bereaved? Their role of neutering religion
in American life
has brought this on because, for sure, the
However,
religion can. When God
said, “THOU SHALT NOT
KILL” – a person’s religion can keep him from killing. TO
IGNORE THIS IS A
GREAT SIN. Like in
MANY FACTORS in this scenario.
Back on God has greatly contributed to this event today –CY –
December 14, 2012) God is the Author of every good gift and of
every perfect boon, ruling the
changing year, making everything
beautiful in its season, causing the sun to
rise and the shower to fall,
and by that gentle shower and
genial sunshine preserving to our use
the kindly fruits of the earth;
all His people acknowledge His goodness
and wait upon His bounty. “Are there any among the vanities of
the Gentiles,” asks Jeremiah, “that can cause
rain? Or can the
heavens give
showers? Art thou not He, O Lord our God?
Therefore we will
wait upon thee, for thou hast made all these
things.” (Jeremiah 14:22). He is the God of grace and
salvation
especially, and therefore we
wait upon Him; thus
“I have waited
for thy salvation, O Lord;” (Genesis
49:18)
and in like manner the good old
Simeon, who is called a just and
devout man, is represented as “waiting for the consolation
of
of mercy, in Him compassions
flow; and therefore it is our privilege
as well as our duty to wait upon
Him, and say in the language
of ancient piety, “And now, Lord,
what wait I for? my hope is
in thee; deliver
me from all my transgressions, make me not
the reproach of the foolish.” (Psalm 39:8)
Ø
Manner of waiting
on God and exhortation to the duty. Wait
on the
Lord in faith, for without faith it is impossible to please Him
(Hebrews 11:6) and whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23).
Wait on the Lord in prayer;
“In all things by prayer and
supplication… let
your requests be made known unto God”
(Philippians 4:6), for He heareth prayer, and UNTO
HIM
SHALL ALL FLESH
COME! (Psalm 65:2) - Wait on the Lord
in patience, and let
patience have its perfect work; “for patience
worketh experience and, experience hope” (Romans 5:3-4).
Wait on the Lord with
resignation; say in your heart as you pray
with your lips, “Thy will, O
God, be done; It is the Lord; let Him
do what seemeth him good.” (I Samuel
3:18). Wait on Him in
the ordinances which He has
appointed, reverencing His sanctuary,
keeping holy His day of
rest, observing those seasons of communion,
which are green spots in
the desert, where the good Shepherd feeds
His flock, making them to
lie down in green pastures (Psalm 23),
leading them by still
waters, and causing them to rest at noon. Wait
on Him by fulfilling the
vows of God, which are upon you, paying
those vows in spite of the
world, and in sight of God’s people all.
Wait on the Lord in your
family, and wherever you have a house
let God have an
altar; and let the incense of prayer and praise
regularly ascend from that altar to the God and Father of all
the families of
the earth. Wait on Him in closet prayer, entering
thy chamber, shutting to
the door, praying to your Father who heareth
in secret, and who will
reward you openly (Matthew 6:6). Wait
on the Lord, not
occasionally merely, BUT CONTINUALLY, not in
certain spasmodic efforts, BUT HABITUALLY, not after
long intervals, BUT AT ALL TIMES! Wait on the Lord, and you
will thereby renew your
strength. There were giants in the earth in days
of old. A terrible struggle
once took place, as we read in classic story,
between two lusty giants.
Prodigious they were in strength, fearful in
prowess; they struggled
hard and wrestled long, but one of them,
every time he touched the
earth, renewed thereby his strength and
prevailed over his
antagonist. We need not stop to inquire whether the
story be a fiction or a
fact; it matters not, as it serves equally well the
purposes of illustration.
Scripture records a fact which that fiction
illustrates. The giant
renewed, his strength every time he touched the
earth; the believer renews
his strength, not by touching earth or
groveling among the things
thereof, but by laying hold of the throne
of grace in heaven
and waiting on the Lord. “Let us therefore
come boldly unto
the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
Power with God (vs. 3-6)
The people are incited to repentance by the example of
their progenitor Jacob.
His wrestling for the blessing sets their unfaithfulness in
darker contrast.
Before Jacob was born God had
said, “The elder shall serve the younger”
(Genesis 25:23). Yet the
blessing had to be striven for, and won from
God by wrestling and
supplication.
Ø
Jacob had from the first an impulse to realize his
destiny. (v.. 3.)
Even as an unconscious babe
he gave token of this. He struggled in
the womb (Genesis 25:22).
His hand took hold of the heel of his elder
brother Esau as he was born
(Ibid v.26.). As he grew older we see the
same impulse manifesting
itself, not always in right ways. The
catching of his brother’s
heel was a type of the attempts he
afterwards made to take the
blessing from Esau by force and
guile. He got Esau to sell the
birthright for a mess of pottage
(Ibid. vs.29-34). He obtained
the blessing from his father by
fraud (Genesis 27.). The acts were
indefensible, but they
testify at least to his
appreciation of the blessing, and to
his desire to obtain it.
Ø
His efforts were purified as years advanced. (v. 4.) The blessing
Was at length won, but by far
other means than Jacob had at first employed. It was won from God by earnest,
agonizing supplication.
The narrative is given in
Genesis 32:24-32. There Jacob, as
a
prince, had power with God, and prevailed (Ibid. v.28).
OBTAIN BLESSING FROM HIM.
Ø
He draws near to man. God drew near to
Jacob at Peniel.
He seemed to be a “man” (In the late 1960’s, our pastor,
Marion Duncan, preached a
powerful series of sermons on
The Premanifestations of the
Incarnation of Christ and this
is one of the passages which
he used – CY – 2012), but Jacob
recognized in his
mysterious Visitant an angel — that Angel
of the covenant in whom God’s Name was. He accordingly
laid hold of him,
wrestled with and entreated Him, and would
not let Him go
till He had blessed him. So there are
awful
moments in our experience
when, “left alone,” the infinite
Presence draws
near to us, overshadows us, touches us,
invites us to
wrestle with it for the supreme good of existence.
Ø
He gives man power.
If Jacob wrestled prevailingly with God,
it was because God gave him
power to do so. It is in God’s
own
strength that we
wrestle with God. God puts Himself in
our
power, not crushing us by
His majesty, but meeting us as on
a human footing, and
permitting us to prevail over Him.
Ø
He invites man’s requests. Jacob “wept, and made supplication.”
Prayer is a real wrestling.
God wills man thus to wrestle with Him.
He gives us the promise of
blessing if we ask, seek, and knock
(Matthew 7:7-8). Jacob’s prayer was
o
earnest,
o
persevering,
o
mighty.
Jesus prayed “with strong
crying and tears,” and “was
heard in that he feared” (Hebrews 5:7)
GRACE TO THE GENERATIONS THAT COME AFTER.
Jacob was:
Ø
spake with us” (v. 4).
The promises given at
reference to the
descendants (Genesis
35:9-12). The blessing
was to be theirs also, if
they chose to claim
it as Jacob had done.
(“For the
promise is to you, and to your children, and to all
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall
call.” - Acts 2:39)
Ø
An example. He who spake with Jacob was “THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS:
THE LORD IS HIS NAME (v. 5).
The unchangeability
of God is our guarantee that, if we act
as Jacob did, we shall meet
with like reward. (Malachi 3:6)
Ø
The consequent duty.
“Therefore
turn thou to thy God: keep
mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God
continually” (v.6).
There is here indicated the need:
o
of earnest
desire. “Turn
thou to God.”
from other aims, and set
their heart upon the blessing as
Jacob set his.
o
of obedience.
“Keep, mercy and judgment.” For it is
only
in the way of obedience
that God will meet us.
o
of perseverance
in seeking. “Wait thou.” It was thus that
Jacob waited; wrestling
even till daybreak.
Verses 7-14 contain a fresh description of
prophet is led by the preceding train of thought. When he
called to mind
the earnestness of the patriarch to obtain the blessing,
the sincerity of his
repentance, and the evidences of conversion, consisting in
mercy and
judgment and constant waiting on God, he looks around on
finding those virtues
conspicuous by their absence., he REPEATS
THE STORY OF THEIR DEGENERACY!
7 “He is a merchant (margin,
are in his hand: he loveth to
oppress”
This verse is more exactly
rendered,
to oppress. How the sons have degenerated from the sire! No longer do we
see Jacob wrestling in prayer with the angel of the
covenant, and knighted
in the field with the name of
merchant Kenaan, seeking to aggrandize himself by cheating and
oppression. His conduct is the opposite of what God requires; instead
of
the mercy and judgment and trust in God enjoined in the
preceding verse,
we have the Canaanitish (Phoenician) trader, with his false scales in
his
hand and the love of oppression in his heart. The word Kenaan sometimes
denotes
sometimes the
γονυ γνυ
γνυπετεῖν – gonu gnu gnupetein - genu, knee; then “to be low”
or “depressed”) as opposed to אֲרָם
or” highlands” (from רוּם, to be high);sometimes
Phoenicians having been famous as merchants, a man of
merchant, so Job 41:6
and Proverbs 31:24, just as Kasdi Chaldaean is
applied to an astrologer. At the time of Hosea, the Phoenicians
were the great
merchants who had the commerce of the world in their
hand.
figurative designation of Ephraim in their degenerate
condition as indicated by
the false balances and love of oppression. The verse
is well explained by
Theodoret: “And thou, Ephraim, imitating the wickedness
of
unjust balance of mind: thou despisest
justice, thou greedily desirest unjust power,
thou art high-minded in riches, and dost arrogate to
thyself very much in
prescribing and determining the conditions thereof.”
Rashi more briefly remarks,
“Ye depend upon your wealth because ye are merchants
and defraud; and of
your riches ye say, ‘Yet I have become rich, and shall not
serve the Holy
One;’” while Kimchi marks the
contrast between
and
and righteousness), but thou art like the Canaanite, i.e.
as the merchant, in
whose hand is the deceitful balance.” The character of the
Phoenician trader is
thus given in the ‘Odyssey’ — “A false Phoenician of
insidious mind, Vers’d in
vile arts, and foe to humankind.” But, in addition to
secret fraud, open violence
is here charged against
8 “And Ephraim said, Yet I
am become rich, I have found me out substance:” –
Ephraim in this verse boasts of his riches, though procured
by fraud and violence,
while he maintains at the same time that he has not sinned
thereby so as to expose
himself to punishment or deserve severe reprehension. The particle — אַך
— hastwo principal meanings:
“surely”
and “only.”
in v. 6 to wait on God, and may signify, “No
doubt I have become rich, yet
not through Divine help, but by my own exertions;”
done nothing else; I have
done nothing amiss”
Aben Ezra regards אַך as introducing the apodosis, and explains it nearly
in the sense
of (surely),
thus: “The sense of אַך
is, ‘God has not given me the wealth, but
I by
myself [i.e. my own unaided efforts] have
become rich, for I am not as the Canaanite,
’ that is, the merchant, as ‘There
shall be no more the Canaanite’ (Zechariah
14:21) ;”
he then proceeds to show the connection, “And the meaning [according to the context]
is,
‘Why does He say, Keep mercy and judgment, and be not an oppressor
like the
Canaanite [nor am I]? yet all is my own honest earning;
none of the sons of
men shall find that I have sinned.’” The interpretation of Kimchi is similar,
but somewhat simpler, thus: “The words, ‘I am become rich,’
are the
opposite of ‘Wait on thy God
continually.’ But he (Ephraim) does not wait
on God the
blessed, and he does not acknowledge that He gave him
strength to
acquire wealth, but says, ‘My own power and the strength of
my hands have made for me this wealth,’ and he forgetteth God the
blessed, who gave him power to work, as it is written in the
Law
(Deuteronomy 8:14), ‘And
thou forget the Lord thy God.’ This is
what
he (the prophet) means by ‘I have become rich;’ he means to
say, ‘I have
become rich from myself,’” i.e. by my own labor. The
word און denotes
both physical or bodily strength, and also, like חַיִל, riches, Latin opes,
probably as procured thereby.
The flourishing state of the kingdom during
the reigns of Joash and Jeroboam
II. may have induced their overweening
self-confidence and their amazing forgetfulness of God, and
at the same
time this surprising ignorance of their real condition.
The Septuagint rendering is εὕρηκα ἀναψυχὴν ἐμαυτῷ - euraeka
Anapsuchaen emauto - I have found
refreshment for myself - and Jerome,
“Inveni mihi
idolum,” as if אָוֶש ; had been read instead of און – “in all my labors
they shall find none iniquity
in me that were sin.” - margin, all my labors
suffice me not: he shall bare punishment
of iniquity in whom is sin. Here two
modes of construction
are possible and each has had its advocates; thus, יְנִיעַי may
be:
shall be found available for him
on account of the sins he has committed.”
This is the rendering followed
and interpreted by Cyril and Theodoret.
verb, may be employed absolutely
or with the ellipsis of a preposition, as in
the Authorized Version; thus:
“As to my labors, or the fruits of my labors,”
for יני is used in both senses.
The meaning of the passage then is that, besides the sins of
fraud and oppression,
Ephraim did not shrink through shame to vindicate his
conduct and to maintain that
in all the riches he had acquired with such labor, no one
could show that those
riches had been unjustly acquired by him, or that there was
sin contracted
in their acquisition. Thus Kimchi:
“He (the prophet) mentions another vice,
saying that he (Ephraim) oppresses, and asserts that, in
all he has labored
for and gathered together, they shall not be able to find
any riches of iniquity
and sin. אי תי is the same as
iniquity and sin, and thus (Ecclesiastes 5:18)
‘it is good and
comely’ (asher
here also for vau).
Or the explanation of it is: They shall not find with me iniquity. nor any
matter in
which there is sin pertaining to me. And חי is less than עי iniquity,
for sin comes
sometimes by reason of error.
Or the explanation of ‘iniquity which were is: Iniquity in which
there was sin to me;
as if he said, with regard to which I had sinned; for if
riches came into my hand
through iniquity and robbery, it was not with my knowledge;
he means: so that I
sinned in relation to it, and took it by iniquity with my
knowledge; and in this way
(Leviticus 22:16) ‘they lade themselves with the iniquity
of trespass; עי
being in
construct state, that is to say, iniquity with regard to
which they trespassed.” לִי
signifies "belonging to me;" while חטא is
read, not as a noun, but as a verb in the Septuagint, α{ς ἅμαρτεν.-– has hamarten – that is sin..
(The Chaldee, which is explained by Rashi,
gives an explanation
identical, though only partially so, with the marginal
rendering of the
Authorized Version, namely, “It were good for thee if thou consideredst
with thyself: all my riches do not suffice me, in order to
expiate the iniquity
which I have committed.” This, and the marginal reading —
both where
they coincide and where they diverge — we must
unhesitatingly reject as
far-fetched, artificial, and having no real basis in the
text. To their other
sins
protestation of a falsehood.
The clause may admit another sense; thus: If in my gains by
labor iniquity should
be found, that indeed would be sin; but such is not the
case. Thus, like the
Pharisees of a
later age, did they justify themselves before men; but God
knew their hollow-hearted hypocrisy.
9 “And I that am the Lord
thy God from the
yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of
the solemn
feast.” This verse consists of two parts which in the original are
coordinated; but in the Authorized Version the one is
subordinated to the
other by supplying an awkward and unnecessary ellipsis. It
is better,
therefore, to translate thus: And I am the Lord thy God,
from the land of
Egypt: I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in
the days of the
solemn feast. Some
understand this verse as a threatening; not a few as a
promise; while others combine both.
interpreters, comments thus:
“That thou mayest understand this and learn
wisdom by thy calamity, I will
bring thee back again to that point that thou
must again dwell in tents and
wander as an exile in a foreign land.”
promise with an implied
threatening, and thus combine both. His exposition
is as follows: “Even so am I
ready to bring you forth out of the captivity
where ye shall Be, as I did when
I brought you forth out of the land of
am I ready yet again, when I
shall have brought you forth out of the lands
of the Gentiles, to cause you to
dwell in tents in the wilderness by the way,
and to show you wonders until ye
shall return to your land in peace.”
other, present time, taking עוד, not in
the sense of “yet again,” but in the
equally allowable meaning of
“further,” or “still further;” thus his rendering
of the verse is, “And yet I am
thy God from
tents, as in the days of the
solemn feast.” Thus we have a remembrance of
God’s goodness to
present, including the
celebration of their feasts, especially that of Taberuncles,
the most joyful of them all.
This is favored by the interpretation of
Aben Ezra, which is the following: “The sense is, ‘Shouldst thou not
remember that I brought thee up
out of the
which thou didst not labor, and
nourished thee in the wilderness when thou
wast in tents?’ In like manner he shall be able to do unto thee
as in the days
of the solemn feast of thy
coming out of
We prefer, notwithstanding, the exposition (Kimchi) which includes, or rather
implies, a threatening of being driven out of their good
land into a
wilderness state, because of their forgetfulness of, and
ingratitude to, God,
as also because of their proud self-confidence; while, with
this implied
threat of punishment, God holds out to them the promise and
prospect of
like guiding care and sheltering guardianship, as in that
early period of their
history, the remembrance of which was still kept up by the mo’ed, or Feast
of Tabernacles, during the seven days of which the people
dwelt in booths,
in commemoration of their having dwelt in booths in the
wilderness after
they had been delivered out of the
has well observed, “the preterite
is changed into a future through the
ingratitude of the nation.”
Verses 10 and 11 prove God’s continual care for the
spiritual welfare and
best interests of
of
controlling their own destinies in the matter of wealth and
prosperity; while
multiplied prophecies and visions testified to both, viz.
to God’s care and
prepared them for and precipitated the punishment.
10 “I have also spoken to
the prophets, and I have multiplied
visions, and used similitudes, by
the ministry of the prophets.” The vau
before the verb in the beginning of the verse is
copulative, and the verb is
in the preterite as the accent is
on the penult; if the vau were conversive of
the preterite into the future,
the verb would have the accent on the ultimate.
The preterite denotes what has
been taking place up to the present. עִל is
Explained by Knobel to denote
that the Divine revelation or inspiration
Descended on the prophets from heaven; but Kimchi explains it as equivalent
to אִם with; thus: “‘Upon (עִל) the prophets ‘ is the same as ‘ with (אִם) the
prophets,’ as (in Exodus 35:32), ‘And they came both men
and women [literally,
‘men,” עַל "with, or rather in addition to, women’]. He (Jehovah) says, ‘What
could I do o you and I did not do it, so that ye should not
forget me? And what
did I do with your fathers? I spoke constantly with the
prophets to admonish you
from me, and I multiplied visions to you many days.’”
The Authorized Version employs “by” as the equivalent of עַל here. The
pronoun v’anoki is
emphatic, viz. “I even I,” as though He said, “I and not
another;” while the preterite
proves Jehovah to have continued His visions
to the very moment at which the prophet speaks. To the word
אַדַמֶּה,
use similitudes, some supply
a verbal noun of corporate sense, דְמוּתות or
דִמְיוּנִים
This, however, is unnecessary, as a verb often includes itscognate noun, of which we have several similar ellipses,
e.g. Genesis
6:4, “They bare children [יְלָדִים
] understood] to them;” also Jeremiah 1:9,“They shall set themselves in array [הֲערָכָה understood]
against her.”
The Septuagint has ὡμοιώθην –
homoiothaen - I was
represented; and
Jerome renders it assimilatus
sum. The three modes of Divine communication
here referred to are:
The word for vision, חָזון, is used here as a
collective; it differs from the dream
in being higher degree of Divine revelation, also the
senses of the receiver are
awake and active, while in the dream they are inoperative
and passive. Of the
similitude, again, we
have examples in Isaiah’s parable of a vineyard (Isaiah 5.),
and in Ezekiel’s similitude of a wretched infant, to
represent the natural state of
comparisons that ye might understand me;” and Kimchi, “I have given emblems
and parables by means of the prophets, as Isaiah says, ‘My well-beloved
hath a
vineyard’ (Isaiah 5:1); and
Ezekiel, ‘Thy
birth and thy nativity is of the
of
emblems and similitudes as
(Leviticus 10:11) ‘which the Lord
hath spoken unto
them by the hand of Moses’” Thus, GOD LEFT NO MEANS
OF
ADMONISHING THEM UNTRIED!
God’s Method in Teaching the Great Teachers
of the World (v.10)
“I have also
spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and
used similitudes, by the
ministry of the prophets.” God is the great Teacher
of mankind. “Who teaches like Him?” He teaches the best lessons, in the
best way and for the best purpose; He teaches man through
the works of
nature, and through the best of men. God has always
employed prophets in
His great school for humanity. Into every age He has sent
men above the
average of the race — men gifted with high intellect, lofty
genius, and
special inspiration. They are evermore His prophets, and
these He Himself
teaches; they are in His “normal school.” He teaches them that they may
teach others. The
text indicates His method of teaching them.
spiritual realities, opens their
spiritual eyes, and BIDS THEM LOOK! What
wonderful visions Isaiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Paul, and the Apostle John had!
They saw wonderful things; but
what they saw was not with the outward
eye, but with the eye of the
soul. These visions serve to show three things.
Ø
The distinguishing glory of the human mind. What is that? It
is a
Power to see the sensuously invisible,
the universe that lies beyond the ken of mortal sight. What a universe came to
the eye of the sightless
bard of
than in others. He who has it in
the highest extent is the poet, the
prophet, emphatically the seer.
Ø
The accessibility of the human mind to God. Man can only address
the mind through the
senses; the Almighty can do it when all the
senses are closed up, in
the “visions
of the night.” He can take into
it at His pleasure a whole
universe, and bid it gaze on its objects and
listen to its sounds.
Ø
The reality of spiritual things. The bodily eye does not see realities,
but mere forms and shadows.
The soul alone can see the real, hence
God brings the real into
it. (The body connects the soul with the
world; the soul connects
the body with the spirit; the spirit
connects
the soul with God – CY –
2012) By visions I think the Almighty
has ever taught the great
thinkers of mankind, not only in ancient
but in modern times. All
the true discoveries of men of science
God told man in the Garden
of Eden to “subdue the earth” which
means “find out its
secrets” (Genesis 1:28), all the
creations of
sacred bards, all the
flashes of the true evangel, are but visions
from God. “In visions of the night.”
showed them the invisible by the
visible, the spiritual by the sensuous. He
gave them parables. “Without a parable spake he not
unto them” (Mark
4:34). Hence the prophets spoke in parables; and the
great Prophet of the
world, who was like unto Moses.
There are good reasons for this mode of teaching spiritual truth. Two may be
mentioned:
Ø
It makes the spiritual more attractive. All men, whether they will
or not, from their very bodily
constitutions are vitally interested in material objects. They live in them and
by them; and without direct impressions from God, we can scarcely conceive of
spiritual truth
being made clear to them but by
their means. (Even my 2 ½ year
old grandson likes to go in the
attic and browse around – CY – 2012)
Ø
It makes the material appear more Divine. Flowers, trees, streams,
and stars, when they have
become emblems to the soul of spiritual
truth, become invested with a mystic charm. The picture that has
hung in your room for years,
and on which your eyes have rested a thousand times, becomes invested with a strange fascination after
you have made the acquaintance and
come to love the person whom
it represents. Thank God for His parabolic method of teaching.
Extent of
unlike they were to the
patriarch of whom they boasted, and how far they
fell short of admonitions that
had been addressed to them.
Ø
They were like the Canaanite whom they despised
than the
patriarch from whom they
were descended. They had become more
like fraudulent merchants
than God-fearing members of the
of God. To fraud they added
oppression where they had the power.
Ø
The love of money was the root of this evil
trait of Jewish
character — a trait that shows itself too frequently at the present
day, and which is not
confined to the Jew, but comprehends the
Gentile also (See I Timothy
6:9-10). Men
hasten to be rich,
and cannot long
be INNOCENT!
Ø
There is no greater aggravation of sin than the
love of it. The
people of
sin of covetousness or
greediness of gain, but were actually enamored
of their sin. One of the
worst features of wicked men, which the apostle
has so vividly photographed
in that black catalogue of sin, is that,
“knowing the
judgment of God, that they which commit such
things are worthy of
death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1:32)
Ø
Men addicted to covetousness and whose hearts are set on
getting
gain make light of the doctrines of religion. Thus in the days of
our Lord “the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these
things: and they
derided Him” (Luke 16:14). Sacred truths and
Divine mysteries were
despised, while the ways and means of amassing
wealth were their delight.
So here the connection of v. 7 may be the
prophet’s complaint of his
countrymen’s neglect of his exhortations,
owing to their
covetousness. “The scope of the prophet and the
connection here is — We may
exhort, but so long as their hearts are
covetous, and set upon
their way of getting gain, they will never regard
what we say; they will not
turn to God, they will not hear of it, but will
rather turn a deaf ear to
all entreaties.”
and palliate their sins.
Ø
Success furnishes them
with a plausible plea for self-vindication. The
prosperity of fools, we are told, destroys them; while the
worldly
prosperity of the wicked is frequently fatal to their SPIRITUAL
WELFARE.” (Proverbs 1:32) “Fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his way,”
says the psalmist, afterwards adding,
“for evil-doers
shall be cut off” (Psalm 37:1;
34:16). It has been
well and truly said that “prosperity in sinful
ways is an old snare,
hindering men from heeding challenges or God’s anger
because of them.”
Ø
The boastful spirit of the wicked; they glory in their gains as self-
procured; they attribute
all to their own skill, or strength, or ingenuity, or
industry, or ability, and
refuse to acknowledge God. Nor is it, indeed,
possible they should, for
how could they bless God for what they have
acquired by sin or gained
by fraudulent dealing? (“If I
regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” – Psalm 66:18)
Ø
False refuges to
which wicked men resort: they divest themselves of all
dread of Divine displeasure
or of danger on the ground of prosperity; they
force themselves to believe
that if their conduct were either displeasing to
God or fraught with danger
to themselves, they would not be so
prosperous in getting gain
or have such success in sin. Another false
refuge is to seek relief
for a guilty conscience from the outward comforts
procurable by ill-gotten
gain. (Beware of the way of
Cain! - Jude 1:11 –
CY – 2012). Other false shifts or hypocritical evasions
are, as is here
intimated, resorted to by sinners.
Sometimes they gloss over their sins
with fair names; thus their
dishonesties, whether by fraud or force, take
the name of the fruits of
their labors, the earnings of their industry, or
the profits of their
calling. Sometimes they depend on secrecy and defy
detection, and, while they
feel themselves free from discovery, they
fancy themselves safe in
their sin, as though the eye of God did not
penetrate such thin
disguises, or as if God had not said, “Be sure
your sin will find
you out” (Numbers 32:23). Sometimes they
hypocritically profess
abhorrence of sins they habitually practice; or, if
they acknowledge sin at
all, they salve their wounds of conscience by
he consideration that their
sins are very venial offences, and such as are
incidental to their
situation, or common to their calling, or peculiar to
their trade. Thus they
minimize their culpability and impose on their
own souls.
repent of sin (Romans 2:4),
aggravates the sin of the impenitent.
Ø
God’s claims on
manifold, as well as from
ancient times. The glorious deliverances
He had wrought for them,
the low estate from which He had lifted
them, the great exaltation
to which He had raised them, the good
land into which He had
brought them, the rich grace He had
bestowed on them, and the
religious privileges He had conferred
on them, — all these
blessings, having been ABUSED, increased
the sin of their ingratitude and INTENSIFIED
THEIR GUILT!
Ø
God cannot hold the
sinner guiltless. Sin, wherever it is found or by
whomsoever it is committed,
cannot pass unpunished. The offences
of God’s own dear children
bring down chastisement upon them;
He will not spare their
faults. A father does not love his son less
because he corrects him; he
pities while he punishes; his bowels of compassion move while his hand holds
the rod. So
been unmindful of God’s mercy,
must be exiled from their goodly
pleasant land, and go into a
bondage BAD AS OR WORSE THAN
Ø
Yet God for all that
does not renounce His interest in His people;
He will give them occasion again
to remember His goodness and to celebrate His redeeming love. Their preservation
and restoration
should again afford abundant
matter for gladness and thanksgiving,
when they would join trembling
with their mirth, and celebrate the
solemn Feast of Tabernacles, with joy drawing water out of the wells
of salvation (Isaiah 12:3).
Whether the reference be to a literal joyful restoration of
in gospel times, the
encouragement is gracious and the prospect
glorious. Nor is it less so from the contrast between
the chastisement
so deserved and the
consolation promised.
OF THOSE PRIVILEGED THEREWITH.
Ø
To his people in the
past God spake at sundry times and in divers
manners (Hebrews 1:1, or in
divers portions, as they needed or
could bear it, and in
divers ways, by prophecy, by visions, by
similitudes (v.10), and by the ministry of the Word. The means
of grace were
thus ABUNDANT and MULTIPLIED.
Ø
However different the
modes of ministration were, the speaker was
still one and the same. It
is God who thus speaks to us by His
messengers. If we reject the message and the messenger that brings
it, we reject the Author; if we receive the message
from the lips of
the messenger, we
receive Him who gave the commission.
(“He
that receiveth
you, receiveth me, and he that receiveth
me
receiveth Him
that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet shall receive a
prophet’s reward; and
he that receiveth
a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” - Matthew 10:
40-41). What a grave responsibility! What need to take heed
how we hear as well as what
we hear! (Luke 8:18) And how
incumbent on ministers also
to take good heed, not only to the
matter, but to the
manner in which they convey the message
they have received,
remembering that they stand between the
living and the dead, like
Aaron when he took his censer and
ran into the midst of the
congregation till the plague was stayed.
(Numbers 16:46-48)
Ø
The inexcusableness of
those who, like
privileges. The plainness,
the variety, and the frequency of the
DIVINE TEACHING, impose a weighty
responsibility, for unto
whomsoever much
is given, of them much shall be required
(Luke 12:48), it is even a human principle practiced among
men,
that to whomsoever men have
committed much, of him they ask
the more. How God has left
us all without excuse, seeing that in
these days of light and
liberty GOD HAS GIVEN US SUCH A
CLEAR REVELATION
OF HIS WILL, so many
ministries to
explain and
enforce it, so much freedom to exercise
our
judgment upon it, and derive light and leading
from it, while
we sit, like
and safety, none daring to make us afraid! (Micah 4:4)
11 “Is there iniquity in
this clause has been variously rendered. Some take אִם affirmatively, in the sense
of certainly, assuredly; others translate it interrogatively, as in the Authorized Version,
though even thus it would be more accurately rendered: Is
following the common version, explains it as follows: ‘The prophet
asks the question
in order to answer it more peremptorily. He raises the
doubt in order to
crush it the more impressively.’ Is there iniquity in
was nothing else. Surely
they are vanity; or, strictly, they have become
merely vanity.” There
does not appear, however, sufficient reason for
departing from the ordinary meaning of the word, namely, if thus, If
iniquity (worthlessness), surely they have become vanity.
The clause thus
rendered may denote one of two things — either:
decay followed by physical — sin
succeeded by suffering; or
To the former exposition corresponds the comment of Kimchi, as follows: “‘If Gilead
began to work vanity (nothingness),’ for they began to do
wickedness first, and they
have been first carried into captivity. אך שׁ can connect itself with what precedes, so
that its meaning is about
would be repeated in different words. Or its sense shall be
in connection
with Gilgal. And although zakeph is on the word היו, all the accents of the
interpreters do not follow after the accents of the
points.” Similarly Rashi:
“If disaster and oppression come upon them (the Gileadites) they have
caused it to themselves, for certainly they are
worthlessness, and sacrifice
bullocks to idols in Gilgal. The
verb הָיוּ is a prophetic perfect
implying the
certainty of the prediction, as though already an
accomplished fact.” The
exposition of Aben Ezra favors
the second - thus: “If the Gileadites, before I sent
prophets to them, were worthlessness, surely they have
become vanity, that
is, instead of being morally better, they have become
worse.” To this
exposition we find a parallel in Jeremiah 2:5, “They have
walked after
vanity, and are
become vain.” - “they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal;” –
שְׁוָרים for שׁוםרים, like חֲוָחִים from חוחַ.. The inhabitants of Gilgal on
the west were no better than the Gileadites
on the east of
kingdom, in fact, was overrun with idolatry. The sin of the
people of Gilgal
did not consist in the animals offered, but in the unlawfulness of the place
of sacrifice. The
punishment of both Gilgal and
following part of the verse – “yea, their altars are as
heaps in the furrows
of the fields.”
heap”. The latter was mentioned in ch.4:15 and 9:15 as a
notable
center of idol-worship (“all their wickedness is in Gilgal”) and
retained, as
we learn from the present passage, its notoriety for
unlawful sacrifices,
sacrifices customarily and continually offered (viz.
iterative sense of Piel);
the former was signalized in ch.6:8 as “a city of them that work
iniquity,” and “polluted with
blood.” The altars in both places are to be
turned into stone-heaps; this is expressed by a play on
words so frequent in
Hebrew; at
stones, such as husbandmen gather off ploughed and leave
in useless heaps
for the greater convenience of removal, חֶלֶם, (related to tell, a
hill, that
which is thrown up) is a furrow as formed by casting up or
tearing into.
The ruinous heaps of the altars implied, not only their
destruction, but the
desolation of the country. The altars would become dilapidated heaps, and
the country depopulated. The Hebrew interpreters, however, connect with
the heap-like altars the idea of number and
conspicuousness: this they
make prominent as indicating the gross idolatry of the
people. Thus Rabbi:
“Their altars are numerous as heaps in the furrows of the
field. תי שי is the
furrow of the plougher, called telem;” Aben Ezra: “כני is by way of figure,
because they were numerous and conspicuous.” Pococke combines with
the idea of number that of ruinous heaps — “rude heaps of
stones, in his
sight; and such they should become, no one stone being left
in order upon
another.” Kimchi’s comment on the
verse is the following: “The children of
Gilgal were neighbors to the
them; they learnt also their ways (doings), and began to
serve idols like
them, and to practice iniquity and vanity, and sacrificed
oxen to strange
gods in the place where they had raised an altar to Jehovah
the blessed, and
where they had set up the tabernacle at the first after they
had passed over
made an altar in Gilgal to idols,
but they also built outside the city altars
many and conspicuous, like heaps of stones on the furrows
of the field.”
12 “And Jacob fled into
the country of
served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 13 And by a prophet the
Lord brought
The connection of this verse with what precedes has been
variously
explained. The flight of
Umbreit, “to bring out the double servitude of
which the people had to endure in their forefather; the
second, the one
which they had to endure themselves in
understand them to give prominence to Jacob’s zeal for the
blessing of the
birthright, and his obedience to the command of God and his
parents.
Pusey says, “Jacob chose poverty and servitude rather than
marry an
idolatress of
providence, he should have bread to eat or raiment to put
on; with his staff
alone he passed over Jordan (Genesis 32:10). His voluntary poverty, bearing
even unjust losses, and repaying the things which he never
took, reproved their
dishonest traffic; his trustfulness in God, their mistrust;
his devotedness to
God, their alienation from Him and their devotion to
idols.” There may be
an element of truth in each of these explanations, and an
approximation to
the true sense; but none of them tallies exactly with the
context. There is a
contrast between the flight of the lonely tribe-father
across the Syrian
desert, and the guidance of his posterity by a prophet of
the Lord through
the wilderness; Jacob’s servitude in Padan-aram
with
from the bondage of
Shepherd of
them to
with the exaltation
of his posterity. The great object of this contrast is to
impress the people with the goodness of God to them in
lifting them up out
of the lowest condition, and to inspire them with
gratitude to God for such
unmerited elevation and with thankful yet humble
acknowledgment of his
mercy. Calvin’s
explanation is at once correct and clear; it is the following:
“Their father Jacob, who was he? what was his condition? He
was a
fugitive from his country. Even if he had always lived at
home, his father
was only a stranger in the land. But he was compelled to
fit into
how splendidly did he live there? He was with his uncle, no
doubt, but he
was treated quite as meanly as any common slave: he served
for a wife.
And how did he serve? He was the man that tended the
cattle.” This, it
may be observed, was the lowest and the meanest, the
hardest and worst
kind of servitude. In like manner Ewald
directs attention to the wonderful
care of Divine providence manifested to Jacob in his
straits, in his flight to
delivered out of
wilderness so that one scarcely knows what to think of
encountering such PERILS and DISTRESSES, and
out of SHEER
DELIGHT INIQUITY, SO
SHAMEFULLY FORSOOK THEIR
BENEFACTOR! Such is the substance of Ewald’s view,
which presents
one aspect of the case, though he does not bring out so
fully the fact of
elevation and the humble
thankfulness that SHOULD BE EXHIBITED
therefore. The exposition of the
Hebrew commentators agrees in the main with
what we have given. Rashi says,
“Jacob fled to the field of
who says, ‘Let us return to the former narrative which we
spoke of above;’ and
he wrestles with the angel; and this further have I done
unto him; as he was obliged
to fly to the field of
“Ye ought to consider,” says Aben
Ezra, “that your father when he fled to
was poor, and so he says, ‘And He will give me bread to eat’ (Genesis 28:20).
And he served for a wife,’ and this is, ‘Have I not served thee for
Rachel?’ ‘And for
a wife he kept sheep ;’ and ‘I made him rich.’”
The
exposition of Kimchi is much
fuller, and is as follows: “And they do not
remember the goodness which I exercised with their father,
when he fled
from his brother Esau. Yea, when he was there it was
necessary for him to
serve Laban for a wife, that he
should give him his daughter, and the
service consisted in keeping his sheep, and so for the
other daughter which
he gave him he kept his sheep in like manner. And I am He
that was with
him and blessed him, so that he returned thence with riches
and substance.
And further, I showed favor to his sons who descended into
were in bondage there; and I sent to them a prophet who
brought them up
out of
were in the wilderness they were guarded by means of a
prophet whom I
gave them, and they wanted
nothing. But all
these benefits they forget,
and provoke me to
anger by abominations and no-gods.”
14 “Ephraim provoked Him
to auger most bitterly: therefore
shall He leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall
his Lord
return unto him.” Instead of humble thankfulness and due devotedness,
Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly. Therefore his blood-guiltiness
and consequent
punishment are left upon him; his sin and its
consequences are not taken away. The dishonor done to God by Ephraim’s
idolatry and sins shall bring back
a sure recompense and severe retribution.
Reproofs and Remembrancers
(vs. 11-14)
Ø
The richest temporal blessings are blighted by sin.
fruitful and pleasant
region, as may be inferred from references to
it in Scripture, as when
God says, “Thou art
the head of
and when its productions
are spoken of, and its pasturages
celebrated.
It is still a beautiful
district, with its hills and dales,
wooded slopes, luxuriant pastures, lovely flowers, and refreshing streamlets. In
addition to the natural
advantages of the country, there was the
city of
many a region “where every
prospect pleases, and only man is vile.”
The inhabitants are branded
as transgressors of both tables of the
Divine Law; iniquity characterized
their conduct towards man, and idolatry their worship of God; while the
priests, instead of hindering,
only helped the people in their
sinful service. However incredible
it might appear, nevertheless it
was a fact; nor were they improving
at the time to which the prophet
refers — nay, they seem to have
been going
from BAD TO WORSE!
Ø
The vanity of will-worship. Will-worship may
show much zeal, as
appears to have been the
case with the Gileadites; yet, without a
Divine warrant, it is
vanity all the same. They contravened the
institution of the Most High, which had appointed ONE
Church Age, there is “ONE
LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE
BAPTISM, ONE GOD
AND FATHER OF ALL, WHO IS
ABOVE ALL, AND
THROUGH ALL, AND IN YOU ALL.”
(Ephesians 4:5-6)
Severely, too, had they suffered for their
sins. Inhabiting a border-land, they were exposed to the inroads and
attacks of enemies, and
much needed the Divine protection; but
by their sins had
forfeited that protection. (Liberal
America gets
upset when attention is called to the tragedy of 9/11 as being
prevented, had
Progressives do no comprehend the teaching of God’s Word which
says, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even
his enemies to
be at peace with him.” -
Proverbs 16:7 – And
why does not the Liberal Progressive understand? There are
two reasons: first,
Like Cain, their own works are evil, and
his fundamentalist brother, righteous! - I John 4:12; second,
the idea is foolishness to him, neither can he know them,
because he is not SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED! -
I Corinthians 2:14 – CY – 2012) Consequently they “were
threshed,” as a contemporary prophet tells
us, “with threshing instruments of iron” (Amos 1:3), and, being among the first
that fell under the power
of
captive from their
goodly, pleasant land.
Ø
Superstition no substitute for spiritual service. Nearness to God in
outward relation or
profession may coexist with absence of right
religious principle; and where
such is the case, outward observances neither secure from sin nor shield from
its punishment. Thus the people
of Gilgal,
though west of the
nearer the temple, and so nearer
in outward relation to its worship,
yet were quite as bad as the
trans-Jordanic Gileadites.
They had the externals of religion, and were no doubt zealous about them; they
presented rich sacrifices and possessed numerous altars; but the
altars they had set up were
either to strange gods in opposition to
the true God, or to the true God
in opposition to his own
appointment. “Whosoever
they be, this side or the other, who profess
to come nearest, if they
mingle their own inventions in worship, God
will be more sorely
displeased with them: the more piety and holiness,
the more we profess to come
close to the Word of God, and yet withal mingle our own inventions, the more is
God displeased; Gilgal offends more than
Jacob, but misread his history;
they gloried in his greatness, but forsook the
God who made him great. It is a
common thing for people to boast of their
family and forefathers, however much
they may have degenerated from
those forefathers; and not
infrequently, the more they have degenerated the
louder is their boasting.
Ø God reminds them of the humble origin and lowly
condition of the
patriarch, of whom they boasted so much as their progenitor. The
facts of which He thus
reminds them conveyed instruction to them,
and teach valuable
practical lessons still.
o
The flight of the
patriarch; his exile in Padan-aram; his
poverty and servitude;
having no dowry to give, his service
was substituted instead;
his hard shepherd-life; — all these
were calculated to teach humility,
and to put an end to the
vanity of their boasting.
o
Though Jacob had been
obliged in early life to turn his back on
his father’s house, he never
turned his back upon his father’s
God, or the worship
of that God. Here was another lesson, at
least by implication, for
his descendants to learn. In
circumstances unspeakably
more favorable they had turned
aside from both, and wasted
their energies in sinful courses
and selfish idolatry,
either vainly worshipping God, or
transferring the worship
due to Him to those vanities that
were no gods. Thus the lesson of their sad apostasy was
next to be
unlearned.
o
The secret of Jacob’s
success was the blessing of God whom
he sought and served. God
prospered him and multiplied his
seed until they became a great
people. Here was cause for gratitude, not for vain-glorying. Another
lessen which
any time or in any land
experience the loving-kindness of the
Lord. If we are put in
possession of great privileges, if we
attain to a position of
usefulness and influence, and if we are honored in God’s service, let us not
forget the lowliness of our origin on the one hand, nor fail to magnify the
grace of God
in our exaltation
on the other; in that grace alone may we
glory..
Ø
He reminds them of
that great event of their history, that ever-
memorable deliverance
out of
o
From this He will have
His people learn that when they are
brought low by afflictive providences,
and suffer severely
under the rod of
correction, God may be thus preparing
them for rich blessings to
themselves, and training them for
future usefulness in His service.
This should promote
patient submission, and
prevent all unseemly murmuring and
sinful complaining.
o
The way and means
of their deliverance were fraught with
other profitable
instructions. The blessing of deliverance was
great, not only for present
relief, but subsequent preservation.
The Author of it
was Jehovah, to whom all the praise
and
glory were due and ever to
be ascribed; the agent, a prophet
whom God honored in
accomplishing His high purpose for
the benefit of His people.
Ø
Notwithstanding all
the warnings and instructions and remembrancers,
Ephraim persisted in sin,
and that of the most provoking kind. Instead
of good grapes being
produced in the highly favored vineyard of the
Lord, Ephraim’s grapes were
grapes of gall and clusters of bitterness.
God here speaks after the
manner of men who are provoked by the
gross misconduct and affronts
from their fellow-men, especially from those whom they have served and benefited.
In like manner, despite
is said to be done
to the Spirit of grace, and the Son of God put to an open shame (Hebrews 10:29; 6:6). How dreadful this
misconduct of man, a worm of the
dust in relation to GOD, THAT INFINITE
SPIRIT!
Ø
Ruin irremediable
cannot fail to be the result. The ruin, too, is self-procured. So with sinners still: they have themselves, not God, to
blame; God will not
hold them guiltless, yet the fault lies at their
own door; their blood is on their own head; THEIR LIFE IS
FORFEITED but it is their own doing; they are MORAL
SUICIDES.
Ø
Ephraim by iniquity
and idolatry had brought dishonor on the Name
and people of God. Sinners
cause God’s Name to be blasphemed;
they bring reproach on our
holy religion. This reproach must be
rolled away; but it shall
at the same time be rolled over or back on
those who have occasioned
it. Those that bring contempt on religion
shall have the finger of
scorn and contempt pointed at themselves
in the end; those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed; and
those who bring reproach
upon His cause shall have that reproach
returned unto themselves
even in this world, while IN THE
ETERNAL WORLD they shall awake
up to SHAME and
EVERLASTING
CONTEMPT!
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