Hosea
6
vs.
1-3 - These three verses have, by the division
into chapters, been
violently and improperly torn from the preceding chapter,
to which they
naturally belong. Their connection with the foregoing
sentiments is
indicated by the ancient versions — Chaldee and Septuagint,
the LXX., for
example, inserting le>gontev, as if the reading had been rsoale: This
the
prophet encourages them to expect.
their
affliction urging them to seek the Lord, and their encouragement
consisting
in the knowledge of His ability and willingness to heal the
wounds
which His own hand had inflicted.
v. 1 – “Come…..Return to the Lord” - In God’s dealings with mankind
we find:
We are warned to
flee from the wrath to come on the one hand, and
urged to
return unto the
Lord on the other. It is our
duty to exhort one another with
earnestness, and
even affectionate persistence, to return to Him from whom
we have
wandered, to seek Him whom we have slighted, and, like the prodigal
in the parable
of Luke 15, to arise and go to our Father with confession of our
many wanderings
of heart and life from the Living God.
“He hath torn and
He will heal” – the destruction predicted in v. 14
of the previous chapter has become
an accomplished fact.
“He hath smitten,
and He will bind us up” – Jehovah God is the Physician
here - Long before He had assured His people
Lord that
healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26); and again, “I kill, and I
make alive;
I wound, and I
heal” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
His method is
to convince us in order that He may comfort us, to show us our
sin that He may
lead us to the Savior, to show us our ruin and then apply the
remedy.
v. 2 – “After two days
will He revive us: in the third day He will
raise us up, and we shall live in His sight” - The expression of time here
employed denotes a comparatively short period, and implies that
revival would be speedily as well as certainly accomplished.
The important idea of this verse connects itself with the terms
corresponding to revival, resurrection, and restoration to the Divine favor
and
protection. The drooping, declining, dying state of
revived; their deathlike condition would undergo a resurrection process;
their disfavor would give way to Divine complacency; and all this, though
not immediately, yet in a comparatively short time. This appears to us the
import of the prophecy. Similar figurative language, and with like
significancy, is employed by Ezekiel (37.) in his vision of the valley and the
resurrection of its dry bones; as also by Isaiah , where the same or a
similar thought is presented in briefer, but still more beautiful, language:
“Thy (lead men shall live, together with my
dead body shall they arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust:
for thy dew is as the dew of
herbs, and the earth shall cast out the
dead.” – Isaiah 26:19
Calvin, after giving what appeared to him “the simple and genuine sense” of the
passage as applying primarily to the Jews, as we have already seen, adds,
“I do not deny but that God has exhibited a remarkable and memorable
instance of what is here said in His Only Begotten Son. As often, then,
as delay begets weariness in us, let us flee to Christ; for, as it has been said,
His resurrection is a mirror of our life; for we see in that how God is wont
to deal with His own people: the Father did not restore life to Christ as soon
as He was taken down from the cross; He was deposited in the sepulcher, and
He lay there till the third day. When God, then, intends that we should languish
for a time, let us know that we are thus represented in Christ our Head, and hence
let us gather materials of confidence. We have, then, in Christ an illustrious proof
of
this prophecy.”
The political resurrection of
way
of type, the
resurrection of Messiah and the general resurrection of
which He is the
Firstfruits.
v.
3 – “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the
Lord” - This
is more accurately rendered by, let us therefore know,
hunt after the
knowledge of Jehovah, urging
to active and zealous effort and steady
perseverance in obtaining the knowledge of God — a
knowledge theoretic,
but especially practical. Aben Ezra understands the
exhortation of intellectual
knowledge: “To know Jehovah
is the secret of all wisdom, and for this alone
was man created.
“His
going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as
the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” - Here we have two
beautiful
figures — the morning dawn and the fertilizing rain. The going forth of
Jehovah is
represented as the sun rising upon the earth, or rather as the
dawn which heralds the day. The advent of salvation to His people is
identified
with, or symbolized by, His appearance. But the dawn of day only
brings the
commencement of salvation; its complement is found in the
fruits and
blessings of salvation.
v. 4 – “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O
unto
thee?” God makes a lamentation over His
people, so
deplorable
had their condition become!
Thus our Lord wept over
doomed inhabitants! Luke 19:41-44, Matthew 23:37-39
“For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early
dew it goeth away” - A new
section here commences. God, having tried
various expedients and many ways to restore
those methods unavailing; and now He asks what further
means of
reclamation He can resort to; what further punishment He
is to inflict. Thus
in Isaiah 1:5, “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more
and more!” or what additional privileges can be vouchsafed? Thus in
Isaiah 5:4, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, than I
have not done
in it?” The reason is then assigned for
such questioning; it
was the brief duration
of
which floats across a summer’s sky and which the sun soon
scatters for
ever, or which pro-raises a refreshing shower, but which
is exhaled by the
sun’s heat; it was transient as the dew which lies in
pearly drops of beauty
upon the grass, but which the foot of the passing
traveler brushes away in a
moment. The prophet had,
in the opening verses, referred to real
repentance; but now, turning to
by way of contrast, showing them that it was neither of the
consistency
nor permanent character required. Proofs of their deficiency lay on the
pages of their national history. Hezekiah had done “that
which was right in
the sight of the
Lord;” but his son and successor, Manasseh, “wrought
much wickedness in
the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.”
Josiah, again, was eminent for piety, so that “like unto him was there no
king before him,
that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his
soul, and with
all his might;” but his successors degenerated, for it is
added, “neither after
him arose there any like him.”
Thus He
reproves them for the superficial and fleeting character of their
goodness!
vs.
5-6 - The
consequence of
here stated. Because of the fluctuating and formal nature
of their
religiousness, God cut them down (instead of rearing them up) through His
prophets by
fierce denunciations, and slew them (instead of reviving them)
by the Divine
word. The judgment of
Jehovah went forth as the lightning
flash or was as
clear and conspicuous for justice as the light of day. Neither
could outward
services expiate their sins, when the proper feelings and
meet fruits were
absent
“I
desired mercy (or, mercy I
delight in)…and the knowledge
of God more
than
burnt offerings” - The former is the right state of the life, the latter
the correct condition of the heart; the former manifests itself in practice,
the latter embraces the proper feelings and affections; the former is seen in
works of charity and benevolence, the latter consists in right motives and the
right relation of the soul to God.
Our Lord cites the first clause of v. 6 twice - once against Pharisaic ceremonialism
(Matthew 9:13), and again against rigorous sabbatarianism
(Matthew 12:7); while
there is an allusion to it in Mark 12:33, where love to God and to one’s neighbor is
declared to be better, or “more than, whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Sacrifices in themselves, and when offered at the proper
time and place, and as the
expressions of penitent hearts and pure hands, were
acceptable, and could not be
otherwise, for God Himself had appointed them. But soulless sacrifices
offered
by men steeped in sin
were an abomination to the Lord; it was of such He said,
“I cannot away
with” (Isaiah
1:13) - It is
to such that the prophet refers here, as
is plain from the following verse.
v. 7 – “But they like men (margin, like Adam) have transgressed the
covenant:
there have they dealt treacherously against me”
They like Adam have transgressed the covenant; this rendering,
supported by the Vulgate, Cyril, Luther, Rosenmüller, and Wunsche, is
decidedly
preferable, and yields a suitable sense. God in His
great goodness
had planted Adam in
prohibited his eating of the tree of knowledge, and
thereby transgressed the
covenant of his God. Loss of fellowship with God and
expulsion from
Adam, had been settled by God in
ungrateful for God’s great bounty and gracious gift, they
broke the
covenant of their God, the condition of which, as in the case
of the Adamic
covenant, was obedience. Thus the comparison projects the shadow of a
coming
event when
word “there” to be accounted for. It cannot well be rendered “therein,” nor
taken
as a particle of time equivalent to “the,” with Cyril and others. It is
local, and points
to the place where their breach of covenant and
faithlessness had occurred. Yet this local sense is not necessarily so limited
as to
be referred, with some, to
idolatry. “There, to
Gilgal, or Mizpah, or
hallowed by His mercies and they had defiled. It was every high hill, each
idol-chapel,
each field-altar, which they had multiplied to their idols. To the
sinners of
by their sin.” The word thus acquires a very suggestive significance,
reminding Israel of God’s goodness on the one hand, and of their own
sinfulness and ingratitude on the other.
vs. 8-9 – In these two
verses the prophet adduces proof of that
faithlessness
with which he had just charged
them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood” - The
latter clause is
more literally
rendered, foot-printed or foot-tracked from blood.
“And as troops of
robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests
murder in the way
by consent” In the second clause we
prefer decidedly
the translation which is intimated in the margin of the Authorized Version;
thus: Along the way they murder even go Shechem. The word derekh is an
adverbial
accusative of place; and Sichem, the present
on
city
of refuge; it thus lay on the west as Gilead on the east of
both cities, thus perhaps nearly parallel in place on opposite sides of the
river, were equal in crime and infamy. The prophet does not tell us who the
wayfarers were, or whither they were bound; he only intimates that they
fell victims to certain miscreant priests located in these quarters. As this
city
lay on the main route from the north to
annual
feasts passed along this way. The priests of the calf-worship, being
in general persons taken from the dregs of the people,
waylaid those
pilgrims, whether for plunder, or through hostility to the purer worship still
maintained in the holy city, or from sheer cruelty.
v. 10 – “I have seen an
horrible thing in the house of
is the
whoredom of
WHOREDOM, LITERAL
OR SPIRITUAL!
v. 11 – “Also, O
appointed for thee.” The harvest is either recompense or retribution,
and thus it is either good or evil, for as a man sows he reaps. The context
shows that the reaping here is
punishment.
(compare Jeremiah 3:6-11) and, in the
case of both, a seed-time of sin
produced a harvest of suffering and sorrow.
“when I returned (better,
return, or, restore) the captivity of my people” –
The restoration here is His people’s well-being. The shebhuth
is the misery of the
Hebrew people; the shubh shebhuth, recovery
and restoration of them to their true
destiny. But this necessitates a previous purification by
punishment: with this
as well as
superiority
over
chastisement,
is a formula denoting the restoration of the lost fortune
or well-being of a
people or person; thus Job 42:10, “And the Lord
turned the captivity of Job.”
ADDITIONAL
NOTES
vs. 1-2 - Let us
follow the example of the Psalmist - “O Lord,
I beseech thee,
deliver my soul;”and
as usual a reply and relief came. “I was
brought low,
and He helped
me;” “He delivered my soul from death,
mine eyes from tears,
and my feet from
falling.” – (Psalm 116:4,6,8) Thus God deals with His people
still. “Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm
30:5) - For two days — a relatively brief period
— the sleep or sorrow of death
may be upon us, but He will then restore us
to life, revive and quicken us; and
on the third day, when we have been thus restored
to animation and vigor, He
will raise us up. The words of ver. 2 are, no doubt, applicable
to the death and
resurrection of our Lord, and they have
been so understood by many
Christians both in earlier and later times.
“The resurrection of Christ, and our
resurrection in
Him and in His resurrection, could not be more plainly foretold....
They could not understand then how He
would do this. The ‘after two days’
and ‘on the third day’ remained a mystery
to be EXPLAINED BY THE EVENT!
v. 3 – “Then
shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord”
IV. THE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND GROWTH THEREIN. What is
the great end of man’s being? What is the thing that
chiefly concerns him?
To such questions various answers will be returned
according to the tastes,
or habits, or capacity of the individual. Some will answer
and say that life
itself, its preservation and well-being, is the great
concern of man; or that
health — health of mind with health of body, a sound mind in a sound body
— is chiefly to be attended to. Others, again, will reply that the
advancement of one’s family or the increase of one’s fortune is the main
thing to be sought and attained. Whatever truth may be in any of these, it is
not
the right answer. There is something higher and holier, nobler and
better, than any
of the things specified. The glory of the Creator and the
good of the creature must be placed above everything else. But to glorify
the Creator, and thereby and therewith to attain to the good of the
creature,
WE MUST KNOW
GOD!
A. Wherein does the knowledge of God consist? What do we mean by the
knowledge of God? It is to know God as He has made himself known, in
the two great volumes which He has spread out before us. The one is the
volume of His works, open to the eyes of all men; but that volume only
takes
us a short way; we get the knowledge of
His Godhead, or existence
as God, and of His power; we learn that
there is an eternal Power that
called created things into being, and that that Power is neither blind
physical force nor the pantheistic spirit of the universe, but a Divine
Person;
for “the invisible things of Him since
the creation are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) - The other volume
is His Word, in which He has fully revealed His will. From this volume we know
But,
over and above all this, the knowledge of God must be
personal,
experimental, and practical. We need to know God as our God
through JESUS
CHRIST OUR LORD; we need to know by happy
experience
His love to our souls; we need to know the duty which we
are bound to render
to Him in gratitude for His amazing loving-kindness, and
in love to Him who
first loved us.
B. How is this knowledge attained? There must be
diligent, prayerful study
of the Divine Word under the teaching of the Divine Spirit. The physician
never dreams of gaining a knowledge of his profession, and of qualifying
himself for the performance of its responsible duties, without years of
preparatory
study in order to grasp its principles and master its details; nor
can he afford to abandon that study even after he has entered
on the
practice of his professional labors — earnest thought and unwearying
diligence are still required. The merchant who would succeed in mercantile
life
must devote much attention to the principles of commerce and the
various departments of trade; days of rail and nights of close application to
business are indispensable. The agriculturist, if he would attain to eminence
or even respectability in his calling, cannot expect to do so without suitable
training and diligent attention in order to acquaint himself with the proper
methods
of tillage. Shall
men willingly devote their noblest energies and
highest powers
and best days to the occupations of time, and yet afford
only some brief
intervals of leisure, or some spare hours, and very slight
attention to
attain the knowledge of that God who is above them, and to
prepare for
that eternity that is before them?
C. By what means do we gain increase of this knowledge? What promotes
our growth at once in grace and the knowledge of God? The answer is
before
us. We are to follow on, hunt after, strive zealously
to know the
Lord. There must be continued diligence, constant
perseverance; there
must be devout and daily reading of God’s Word — some time
every day
less or more should be given to the study of Holy Scripture;
there must be
fervent prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit: for “the natural
man
receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness unto him,
because they
are spiritually discerned.” Have we already acquired some
knowledge of God, not merely out of the volume of creation,
or by the
light of our own intellect, or from the teachings of others,
but from this
Word of God, which is brimful of the knowledge of God; and
do we know
God to be a just God and yet a Savior — our God and Father
through
Jesus Christ our Lord? Then
we must beware of becoming cold, or languid,
or lifeless. We must avoid everything and anything that would
turn us
aside, or tempt us to prefer our secular business to
salvation, or to set the
trifles of time in the place of the realities of eternity. But should coldness
creep over us, or should a spirit of slumber overtake us as the virgins in the
parable, or should our little progress in the Divine life and Divine things
discourage
us, let us repair at once to the mercy-seat for
Divine help and
grace; and the Spirit of truth will guide us into all truth. Let us ever bear in
mind that we must persevere to the end in order to be saved, that we must
be faithful unto death if we would obtain the crown of life, and that if, after
having put our hand to the plough, we turn back, the Lord will have no
pleasure
in us. Follow on, then, as the runner in the race to
win the prize,
as the warrior in the conflict to gain the victory, as the
mariner steers his
homeward-veering bark to reach his native shore.
D. THE BLESSEDNESS PROMISED TO THOSE WHO
PERSEVERE
IN THE KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD. The promised blessing is here
presented under two beautiful figures:
There is freshness in the morning air, there is beauty in the morning
light, there is loveliness in natural scenery when the light of morning shines
on
it. We associate morning with the idea
of refreshment and relief.
It may seem slow in coming, and long before it comes; or the weary watcher
may be many a time on the point of giving up in despair. But the return of
morning,
after a night however long, or dark, or painful, or perilous, is certain
to take place; its return is prepared; it is a fixed
ordinance of nature. So, to every
persevering seeker
after the knowledge of God, the Lord’s going forth is
fixed and cannot
fail; it is sure as the morning sunrise.
(a great encourage-
ment to me in
my life has been Lamentations 3:22-23 – “It
is of the Lord’s
mercies that we
are not consumed, because HIS COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT.
They are NEW
EVERY MORNING: GREAT IS THY
FAITHFULNESS”
– CY – 2009)
The Psalmist said
“My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that
watch for the
morning” – Psalm 130:6
Thus in spiritual husbandry, the seed of Divine and saving knowledge has been
no sooner cast into the furrows than the rain-shower of Divine grace waters it,
so that it germinates and grows - blade and ear and ripened grain as in the natural
world;
nor are showers of grace withheld before and up till the reaping-time, so
that even in old age there is abundant fruitfulness. “They shall still
bring forth
fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing” [margin, ‘green’] (Psalm
92:14); and when the time of the end comes and the harvest day arrives, they
resemble a shock of corn in its season, rich with golden grain, ripe and ready to
be
gathered into the heavenly garner – “Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full
age, like as a
shock of corn cometh in, in his season” – Job 5:26) . Thus shall it
fare with the soul that follows on to know and love the Lord. Sure as the dawn
brings on the day; sure as the sun goeth forth out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as
a strong man to run his race; sure as the alternation of day and night; sure as the
succession of the seasons; sure as the rain comes down from heaven, and returns
not
thither again till it has moistened and fructified the earth; — God shall bless
that soul with light and life and love. Therefore let us know, let us follow on to
know
the Lord; for “it
is good that a man quietly wait and patiently wait
for the salvation
of God.” – (Lamentations 3:26).
vs. 6-10 –
CONSEQUENCES OF NOT FAITHFULLY FOLLOWING GOD
A. First of the consequences is denunciation of wrath, when God
denounced their destruction with severity by his messengers the prophets,
and the words of his mouth which constituted the message which they
delivered; while the justice of the judgments thus visited on them was
positively demonstrated and plainly proved, so that it was seen to be and
must have appeared even to the guilty sufferers clear as the light.
B. The second consequence is degeneracy in religion. It had degenerated
into mere formalism. In place of mercy came sacrifices, and for the
knowledge of God burnt offerings were substituted. Outward observances
took the place of inward devotion. Instead of piety towards God and
charity
to man, a tedious round of services was performed. Ritualism was
substituted for
religion; ceremonialism for clean hands and a pure
heart.
Obedience to the commandments of God, whether prescriptive or
prohibitory, was neglected; morality was dissociated from religion; mere
rites supplanted moral or religious duties.
C. But a third consequence was declension of spiritual life in general; this
was additional evidence of the religious degeneracy just referred to.
Covenant-breaking and treacherous dealing are specified. Like the most
reckless of men, they were truce-breakers, bound by no compact, and
regardless
of the truth of promises. Besides being thus practically
dishonest, they were altogether unreliable and faithless. Their sin in this
respect, though declared to be against God, involved a fortiori similar
conduct in relation to their fellow-men.
D.
Centers
of
inhabitants
singled out as specimens of the wickedness of the times -
on
the east and Shechem on the west of
Ramoth-gilead, perhaps — a city of refuge and a Levitical city, the sin of its
inhabitants
was something shocking. When men, who by profession should be
an example and
pattern to others,descend to practices directly opposed to that
profession, and
degrade themselves by criminal actions of the worst and
basest kind,
religion is evil spoken of, a stumbling-block is cast in the way of
the weak, the Master Himself is stabbed in the house of his professed friends.
The people of this highly favored place had set themselves to work iniquity, and
that of no ordinary kind; the blood of murdered innocence clave to their hands.
Shechem was even worse in this respect. In this other city of refuge the
privilege
of asylum was profaned. Either guilty persons were admitted and
protected for a
bribe, when they should have been delivered up to death;
or, in addition
to thus screening the guilty, those who had committed
homicide
unwittingly, but who were too poor to offer bribes, were
ruthlessly
given up to the blood-avenger; or, worst of all and vilest of all,
the priests who
had got settled in the place formed themselves into robber
gangs or common banditti to rob, and in case of resistance murder, the
travelers who were so luckless as to journey that way, or from a
bloodthirsty spirit of revenge they waylaid and assassinated the objects of
their
displeasure. In
one way or other blood was defiling the land and
crying to Heaven
for vengeance. Long before a bloody deed had
been done
in this very
place, when Simeon and Levi in cruel wrathfulness put the
defenseless Shechemites
to the sword; history in a still worse form now
repeated itself. (see Genesis
34)
E. Partners in Crime – (not faithfully following
God continued)
(In the
have been
unfaithful – (1) so-called Christians and Secularists (lawyers,
politicians,
ACLU members, college professors, and a general populace
“that loves to
have it so” – Jeremiah 5:31, etc.. - I
suggest taking
the following,
which was written centuries ago, in that light – CY – 2009)
The proverbial expression of “Like priest, like people,” was fully verified in the case
before us. When priests perpetrated such atrocities, what
could be expected from the
populace? When
religious teachers distinguished themselves as ringleaders in
wickedness, what could be hoped for among the less
privileged of the
population? There was, in fact, a community in crime. In the house of
wickedness so horrible as to make one shudder or the hair
stand on end.
However men
might attempt concealment, God’s eye detected and
discovered
their horrid iniquity, while His justice denounced vengeance
against it. Ephraim is again foremost and first in the present
iniquity, as
previously in the idolatrous calf-worship and original
revolt. Their
whoredom, whether literal or figurative, exercised a
contaminating effect
on the rest of the ten tribes. How baneful the effects of
evil influence! How
great the responsibility connected with the exercise of
influence!
also, from whom
better was to be expected, with the ancient sanctuary
among them and a
purer ritual, had been seduced to sin; the example and
influence of
their brethren in the north had, no doubt, helped their
depravation,
evil communications corrupting good manners.
Be this as it
may, they had sown the wind and must in consequence reap the
whirlwind.
As they had sown and what they had sown, they must by-and-by
reap. The
general judgment is likened to harvest; so also are special
judgments. The
Judahites who had been made captives by
the interposition of the prophet Oded (2 Chronicles
28:8-15). God had spared
them then, but set them a harvest at another time; as it
has been remarked,
“Preservations from
present judgments, if a good use be not made of them,
are but reservations
for greater judgments.”