Hosea 4
RileyHosea 4:1-19
HOSEA—OR GOD’S FOR AN PEOPLE Hosea 1:1 to Hosea 14:9. IT is our purpose in this series of articles on the Minor Prophets to throw such light upon these twelve Books as to make them meaningful and profitable to our readers. I suppose it may be safely said that the average Christian leaves these Books unstudied, and some of them unread—a circumstance due to certain natural difficulties in their interpretation; but in greater measure still, to the poor work of present-day preaching. The custom of taking a text has wrought havoc in Bible study. Our fathers in the ministry were Bible expositors; their successors are textual preachers. The result is described in one of the minor Prophets:—“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord: “And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it” (Amos 8:11-12). There are some simple and yet fundamental facts regarding the prophecy of Hosea that are essential to its proper understanding. It was doubtless written by the man whose name it wears. It refers, unquestionably, to the time of Jeroboam the Second, when Elisha, the Prophet of God, was living, and Isaiah, that great Evangel of the Old Testament, was a babe; and when those kings of Judah— Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah—were successively occupying the throne. The date is supposed to be 790 to 725 B. C.Hosea was the great Evangel of his time. While he was an Elijah the Tishbite, in his stern denunciation of sin, he was a John the Apostle in his sense of Divine love and his eloquent call to repentance.Some of the Books of the Bible break easily into divisions, and some of the students of Hosea have seen fit to divide it into two such.
But our research does not justify the method. To us it is one grand whole, with not a break in thought from first to last. It is a recital of Israel’s history in her unfaithfulness, and an illustration of God’s goodness to His own people.For our convenience, however, we divide it into four sections.THE OF GOMER’S SIN “And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. “So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim” (Hosea 8:2-3). These opening sentences of Hosea have given no small trouble to students. Some have received it historically; while others have insisted that God could not send the Prophet on any such mission, without Himself being a party to sin; and so have attempted to interpret it as a dream or vision. Following the custom which we have found alone to be safe, we believe with those who accept the Book at what it says. And yet we have not found the question involved so difficult of solution as some. When it is remembered that the whole people of Israel had already turned to idolatry, we can understand that any daughter selected from them could be spoken of in this language, since the charge of whoredom, with the false gods of the land, lay against every son and daughter of Israel. And even when the narrative seems to specifically charge this woman with this sin, it does not necessitate God’s participation in evil because He sends Hosea to wed her.
You will see, ere the history ends, she is won to a righteous life again. So the Prophet is to her what he has become to all Israel—God’s agent of salvation.
But her sin is symbolical.It was a sin against law and love. The seventh commandment antedated Hosea and stood as a protest against the violation of that relation which husband and wife sustain to one another, as the whole decalogue stands as God’s protest against the violation of the relation which He and His people sustain to each other. When, therefore, Gomer forgets the law and despises the love of Hosea, she fitly represents the conduct of the whole kingdom in forgetting God’s Law and despising the Divine love. The man who, today, living under the reign of grace, disregards the moral Law and tramples it beneath his feet with impunity, is guilty of a crime of the first magnitude. But the man who adds to that an equal disregard of the Divine love takes the last step needful in the contemplation of his folly and the sealing of his fate.Paul wrote to the Hebrews:“If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, “But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. “He that despised Moses’ Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the covenant, wherewith he wets sanctified, an holy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? “For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I wilt recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people” (Hebrews 10:26-30). This sin was again symbolical in that it was against good society.The moment the foundations of domestic life are undermined the whole fabric of society is endangered. When lust assaults the home it strikes the essential pillar of the State. And when it overrides the law and love of domestic relation, it leaves desolation in its track and brings in a dark day for the people. When such a sin as this can be found in the first houses the very nation has fallen. Dr. Talmage said truly enough that “where there is no pure home there are the Vandals and the Goths of Europe; the Numidians of Africa, and the Nomads of Asia.
No home, no school; no household, no republic; no family, no church.”But Gomer’s sin became more significant still,— God made it to be a sorrowful instruction! Strange as it seems, it is yet probably according to the natural law in the spiritual world that God’s spokesmen must be sufferers.
It was only after the iron had entered Moses’ soul as he watched the oppression of his own people from his position in the palace, and by his enforced exile spent forty years on “the back side of the desert” that he was eloquent as Israel’s leader. Joshua was fitted by forty years of wilderness wandering for his great work of commanding Israel and conquering Canaan.But no man could read this Book of Hosea without feeling that its author—our Prophet—had suffered probably as much as either of these great predecessors. Joseph Parker says, “Hosea’s sorrow was of the deepest kind. The daughter of Diblaim was the daughter of the devil. He had no peace, no rest, no singing joy within the four corners of his own house. He lived in clouds; his life was a continual passage through a sea deeper than the Red Sea.
If we may vary the figure, his wandering was in the wilderness, unblessed; cursed by the very spirit of desolation.”And yet we do believe that strong natures have the very power to transmute their sorrows into eloquent appeals for righteousness; that the very intensity of their suffering adds solidity to their thought and eloquence to its utterance. We seriously doubt if Hosea’s wife had not been a scarlet woman, as she was, whether he could ever have properly sympathized with God, the Father, in that Israel turned from Him to moral infidelity, by worshiping at false shrines and living wicked, sensual lives.John Bright, that marvelous leader of thought in England, started on his career of splendid service in consequence of an unspeakable sorrow.
His young wife, to whom he was devoted, lay dead when Richard Cobden called on him. Having expressed, as best he could, sympathy and condolence, Cobden looked up and said, “Bright, there are thousands and thousands of homes in England, at this moment, where wives and mothers and children are dying of hunger. Now when the first paroxysm of your grief has passed, I would advise you to come with me and we will never rest until the corn-laws are repealed.”Cobden showed himself a philosopher that day. He knew full well that one way to recover from a personal pain was to take into one’s heart as an antidote, the pain of the people.You will remember what had more to do, perhaps, with the declaration of war with Spain than any other single thing, the destruction of the Maine excepted. It was Senator Thurston’s speech. And how did it happen that this Nebraskan, who had never before been eloquent, spoke before the Senate of the United States with such an appeal as to move even opponents to agree with him?
That speech opened in these words,“Mr. President: I am here by command of silent lips to speak once and for all upon the Cuban situation, and trust that no one has expected anything sensational from me.
God forbid that the bitterness of a personal loss should induce me to color, in the slightest degree, the statements that I feel it my duty to make. I shall endeavor to be honest, conservative and just.” Then he proceeded with such an oration as American law-makers of any decade seldom, if ever, heard. Concluding with these words, “Mr. President, in the cable that moored me to life and hope the strongest strands are broken. I have but little left to offer at the altar of freedom’s shrine. But all I have I am glad to give.
I am ready to serve my country as best I can in the Senate or in the field. My dearest hope, my most earnest prayer to God is this, that when death comes to end all I may meet it calmly and fearlessly, as did my Beloved, in the cause of humanity, and under the American flag.”There is but one explanation of such an address as that.
The eloquence of it was born of the sorrow of burying a beloved wife in Cuban soil, and feeling in his heart that the pain of the oppressed people of that land had been already the occasion of her death; and to relieve it, was worthy the laying down of his life.The Psalmist said, “I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue”.It was sorrow. It was that suffering that only a righteous man can feel when sinned against by her whom he loves most, that made Hosea understand the Divine One’s suffering in Israel’s sin, and adequate to its expression.PHASES OF ISRAEL’S It found first expression in unwarranted forms. There seems to be a general agreement between students of Hosea that the groves and altars, when first chosen and erected, were “unto the Lord.” But it does not take long for them to go from unwarranted forms to open infidelity. God did not command any of these at their hands. “Her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts”, became occasions of Baal-worship. Instead of saying any longer, “Ishi—my husband,” they turned to say, “Baali—my lord.” It is the history of unwarranted forms in all ages.When Christ came into the world He found the Church of the Old Testament cold in death, slain by the hands of ceremonialists,—the Scribes and Pharisees of His time,—who, with their hollow ritualism and hypocrisies, had driven many men to the infidelity of Sadduceeism; so that they said, “There is neither angel nor spirit.” Truly, as Frederick Robertson said,“No self-righteous formalism will ever satisfy the Conscience of man; neither will infidelity give rise to a devoted spirit.” Formalism in religion and infidelity in conduct often go hand in hand.Charles Dudley Warner tells us that after having traveled around the world he came back to Brindisi, Italy, a so-called Christian country, and entered a so-called Christian Church to see a figure of Christ, the Crucified One, set off in a dark corner with dust gathered on it, while a representation of Mary, the mother, clad with the latest mode of French millinery, flamed before an altar, and their knees bowed there.It was little better than the Baal-worship of Hosea’s time. And if Jesus should come to that church He would have occasion to utter the words which He once addressed to Scribes and Pharisees.“Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. “But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”. This degenerate worship was popularized by priest and prince. By reading fourteen verses of the fifth chapter you will see they were its chief patrons. The Prophet of God addressed them— “Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye House of Israel”. Then, after describing their participation in these false and foul ceremonies, he voices God as saying: “I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away: I will take away; and none shall rescue him”.It is a sad day for the Church when the prince, or the man in the place of power, is putrid. It is a darker day when the priest, or the leader in the Church of God, is correspondingly corrupt. When the time came that Tetzel could sell indulgences, with the consent of the priesthood of Rome, the very moral rottenness existing in the Name of Jesus, compelled the Reformation, and gave rise to Luther’s opinions, and victory to his appeal.
And when, at the present time, a Pastor, either by evil practices, leads his people into iniquity, or by his silence concerning the commercial and other sins of those who contribute to his salary, connives at iniquity, the condition becomes akin to that which Hosea was raised up to rebuke nearly three thousand years ago. And the result for the present day will be the very same as that which came to the Israel of Hosea’s time.It produced the grossest idolatry and immorality.There is not time to read to you these chapters,—4 to 13,—but if there were, the reading would only profit you by giving you pain as you looked upon Israel’s open sore.It was this principle that Hosea saw and clearly stated so many, many centuries ago,—namely, when men become lawless, and are libertines, they cannot hope to keep women upon a plane of chastity and holiness. God distinctly declares that He would not punish their daughters for their sins, in view of the conditions of society, for which priest, prince and peasant were responsible.George Adam Smith reminds us that history in many periods has confirmed the justice of Hosea’s observations, and by one strong voice after another, enforced his terrible warnings. The experience of ancient Persia and Egypt, the languor of the Greek cities, the “deep weariness and sated lust” which in “‘Imperial Rome’ made human life a hell.” It is only another illustration of the Apostle James’ words,—“When lust hath conceived, it bring eth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Joe 1:15).THE FOLLY WHICH EFFECTS There can be traced in this volume a striking parallelism between the conduct of the individual and of the nation. Gomer’s treatment of Hosea was Israel’s treatment of God.There is a supreme insensibility to undeserved favor. The Prophet says, “She did not know that I gave her corn”, etc.Insensibility to Divine favor has often marked the conduct of man. We easily forget that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights”. We quickly attribute our blessings to our own ingenuity, to the bounty of nature, or to luck, and just as easily forget God—the Giver of all. Strange isn’t it that the one creature made in His image, endowed with the highest faculties, blessed of Him thousands of times beyond all other works of His hands, should be insensible to what he had received, and to what he is receiving, and know not God gave “corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied * * silver and gold”.If this spirit were all in “the world” it were not so bad; but Gomer is the Prophet’s wife, and Israel is espoused of God; and this insensibility to Divine favor has smitten the Church, and her children forget Me, saith the Lord.
Sam Jones had a man come to him who said, “Jones, the church is putting my assessment too high.” “How much do you pay?” asked Jones. “Five dollars a year,” was the reply. “Well,” said Jones, “how long have you been converted?” “About four years.” “What did you do before you were converted?” “I was a drunkard.” “How much were you worth?” “I rented land, and was plowing with a steer.” “What have you got now?” “I have a good plantation and a pair of horses.” “Well,” said Jones, “you paid the devil two hundred and fifty dollars a year for the privilege of plowing a steer on rented land, and now you don’t want to give the God who saved you five dollars a year for the privilege of plowing your own horses on your own plantation.” Insensibility to Divine favor! Moses had occasion for that passage in his song, “They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? hath He not made thee, and established thee”? (Deuteronomy 32:5-6).They were slow to realize the Divine intent of judgment. After announcing His purpose in judgment, “I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him” (Hosea 5:14). The Lord reveals His reasons by adding, “I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek Me early” (Hosea 5:15). Deliverance is always the Divine purpose in God’s judgments against His people. The Psalmist said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word”. And it was only after the Lord had visited them with judgment that Israel could say, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1).But, like sinners of all ages, Ephraim must be smitten, her root dried up, so that they shall bear no fruit, and they realize themselves utterly cast away because they did not hearken unto the Lord.
It is only after Israel hath destroyed herself that she realizes the source of life in God.How strikingly this experience parallels that of weak men in all ages! Only when the prodigal, clothed in rags, starved to the point of sustenance on the honeysuckle, and sitting with the swine, does he come to himself.
As a rule, the man that follows the lusts of the flesh, and goes the way of the libertine, or the drunkard, never sees the meaning of the Divine judgment until his sins have slain his manhood, wrecked his business, scattered his family, consumed his flesh, and left him as perfectly stranded as was ever a vessel when driven high upon the ragged rocks. It is amazing to study the folly of men who have departed from the Lord! Almost universally they are conceited up to the very day when they are undone. They think that they are going to recover themselves. Like Ephraim, strangers have devoured their strength, and they know it not: gray hairs are here and there upon them, and yet they know it not. They feed on the wind and follow after the east wind, and daily increase in desolation.
They make a covenant with the Assyrians and boast their righteousness as Ephraim did, saying, “In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin”.God can do nothing else with such men than to bring them low; nothing else than to whelm them with sorrow; nothing else than to strike them to the very earth with judgment; for they must be made to see that their condition is not due to circumstances, but to an evil spirit.Dr. Chapman tells the story of a woman who was seated in Central Park, New York, with her little child playing about her.
Suddenly the child was startled by the barking of a dog. In her frightened state she ran into her mother’s arms. When the dog ceased his barking she said, “Why are you frightened, dear; he is quiet?” “Oh, yes, I know, mamma; but the bark is still in him.”One thing always being said by unregenerate men is, “If I could only remove to a new location; settle myself with new associates, and in new business employment, I would be all right.” All right! And yet evil still in you! Better turn over to Galatians 5:19-21, and read, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” What one needs is not a change of location, but a change of nature, so that the incoming of the Holy Spirit shall give you the fruits of the Spirit which are “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”.Such folly is followed only by shame and degradation. The tenth chapter of Hosea illustrates the consequences of Israel’s conduct.“Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. “Their heart is divided: now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. “For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? “They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. “The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shalt mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. “It shall be also carried into Assyria for a present to King Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. “As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. “The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us. “O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. “It is in My desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. “And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods. “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you. “Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. “Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shahnan spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. “So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness; in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off”. In conclusion we pass to GOD’S FOR AN PEOPLE That affection was expressed in undeserved words and acts. God bares His heart here as He has often done before, crying,“O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away” (Hosea 6:4), “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt”, “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them” (Hosea 11:1; Hosea 11:3-4). “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together. “I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city” (Hosea 11:8-9). Beloved, one lesson that it seems difficult to learn is this—to remember the goodness of God. One should adopt the custom of thinking upon Divine favor. It is only as we forget the source of our blessings, of “every good and perfect gift” that we grow indifferent to the grace of our God.Dr. Torrey says, “I was talking one night to one who was apparently most indifferent and hardened. She told me the story of her sin, with seemingly very little sense of shame, and when I urged her to accept Christ, she simply refused. I put a Bible in her hands and asked her to read this verse.
She began to read, ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son’, and before she had finished reading the verse she had broken into tears, softened by the thought of God’s wondrous love to her.”It is a strange thing that more people don’t answer temptation as did Joseph,—“How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God”?When God executes judgment it is commonly for the purpose of correction. Take the reference in this volume,“Therefore will I return, and take away My com in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness, “And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand, “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them, “And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and for gat Me, saith the Lord” (Hosea 2:9-13). What is the purpose? He immediately proceeds to tell us, “Therefore”—(God never employs that word without occasion—it is the great conjunction with Him.)“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her, “And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt” (Hosea 2:14-15). Beloved, there is a beneficent purpose when the fiery trial is on. The very whips with which He makes Israel’s back to bleed are not the expressions of His wrath; but, rather, of His love.Henry Ward Beecher declares that his father used to make him believe that the end of the rod that he held in his hand was a great deal more painful than the end which he applied to Henry. And the great preacher says, “It was a strange mystery to me; but I did believe it, and it seemed a great deal worse to me to be whipped on that account.”It ought to be so with the children of God. I once had in my church a woman who punished her children by vicarious suffering. When they misbehaved at the table she denied herself a meal, and she told me that it broke their hearts.Would to God that we were as sensitive to the suffering which our sin imposes upon the Heavenly Father, and as sensible concerning the purpose which He has in visiting correction against our sins.But, after all, God gave best evidence of His affection by,—Keeping for His people an open heart. I like to dwell on the last chapter of this Book,—“O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; * * “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously” (Hosea 14:1-2). And I like to listen to God’s answer to this cry which He Himself seeks to put into their lips,—“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him. “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. “His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon”. “Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols”? (Hosea 14:4-6; Hosea 14:8). It is a beautiful picture! It ought to encourage the children whose hearts have departed from the plain paths of privilege in Christ; it ought to incite hope in the heart of the individual who has played the prodigal and paid the penalty.I like to reflect upon the words of that sweet-spirited man, F. B. Meyer, as he speaks of God’s attitude toward those who turn again to Him, saying,“Be sure that God will give you a hearty welcome. He has not given you up or ceased to love you. He longs for you.
Read the last chapter of the Book of Hosea, which may be well called the backsliders’ gospel. Read the third chapter of Jeremiah, and let the plaintive pleadings to return soak into your spirit. Read the story of Peter’s fall and restoration, and let your tears fall thick and fast on John 21 : as you learn how delicately the Lord forgave, and how generously He entrusted the backslider with His sheep and with His lambs. Be sure that though your repeated failures and sins have worn out every one else, they have not exhausted the infinite love of God. He tells us to forgive our offending brother unto four hundred and ninety times; how much oftener will He not forgive us? According to the height of heaven above the earth, so great is His mercy.”“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon”.