Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 13:9
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me [is] thine help.
9. Hosea, ‘in the spirit’, sees the future as if it were past. Hence the use of the perfect.
O Israel, &c.] This rendering agrees with that of the Jewish commentator, Rashi (similarly the Targum). It belongs to a numerous series of attempts (see Poole’s Synopsis ad loc.) to explain one of Hosea’s most abrupt sentences. The text, as it stands, means literally, ‘He (or, It) hath destroyed thee, O Israel, because (or, that) on (or, against) me, on (or, against) thy help’, that is, as most moderns interpret, This is thy destruction, O Israel, that to me, to thy helper, (thou hast been unfaithful): the abruptness is attributed to the ‘labouring voice, interrupted by sobs’ (Ewald) of one whose pity is only less strong than his regard for justice. Turning to the versions, we find the Septuagint rendering, ; the Peshito, ‘I have destroyed thee, O Israel; who shall help thee’; the Vulgate, ‘Perditio tua, Israel; tantummodo in me auxilium tuum.’ As Louis Cappel long ago saw, the slight variation of a single letter implied in the Septuagint and Peshito renderings greatly improves the latter part of the verse. Accepting this, we may render the whole, ‘ He hath destroyed thee, O Israel; yea, who Is thy help? ’ By ‘Israel’ of course Ephraim, i.e. N. Israel, is meant. For the idiom ‘in thy help’= invested with the character of a helper, comp. Delitzsch’s note on Psa 35:2. The alternative is to suppose that a word has dropped out of the text. Ewald’s explanation (above) is forced.
I will be thy king, &c.] Rather, Where, now, is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? The prophet looks a little way before him to the fulfilment of the predictions in Hos 10:14 (‘all thy fortresses’) and Hos 11:6 (‘his cities’).
thy judges ] The ‘judges’ appear to be synonymous (comp. Hos 7:7) with ‘king and princes’, who, of course, in Israel as well as in Judah (Jer 21:11-12) shared the judicial functions. See on Hos 3:4, Hos 8:12.
Give me a king ] Some compare 1Sa 8:5 (of Saul), but Hosea is not opposed to royalty in itself. See next note.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 15. An alternation of cries expressive of the contending thoughts and emotions of the tender-hearted but truthful prophet. The punishment is inevitable; yea, it is begun. Yet if Israel would only repent! Indeed, his Father must interpose. And yet, on the other hand, rebellion must be punished.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy help – This is one of the concise sayings of Hosea, which is capable of many shades of meaning. The five words, one by one, are literally, Israel, thy destruction, for or that, in or against Me, in or against thy help. Something must be supplied any way; the simplest seems; O Israel, thy destruction is, that thou hast been, hast rebelled against Me, against thy help . Yet, in whatever way the words are filled up, the general sense is the same, that God alone is our help, we are the sources of our own destruction; and that, in separating ourselves from God, or rebelling against Him who is our help until we depart from Him, who alone could be, and who if we return, will be, our help. The sum of the meaning is, all our destruction is from ourselves; all our salvation is from God. : Perdition, reprobation, obduration, damnation, are not, properly and in themselves, from God, dooming to perdition, reprobating, obdurating, damning, but from man sinning, and obduring or hardening himself in sin to the end of life. Contrariwise, predestination, calling, grace, are not from the foreseen merits of the predestinate, but from God, predestinating, calling, and, by His grace, forecoming the predestinate. Wherefore although the cause or ground, why they are predestinated, does not lie in the predestinate, yet in the not-predestinated does lie the ground or cause why they are not predestinated.
This saying then, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy help, may be thus unfolded;
Thy captivity, Israel, is from thee; thy redemption from Me.
Thy perishing is from thee; thy salvation from Me.
Thy death from thee; thy life from Me.
Thy evil from thee; thy good from Me.
Thy reprobation from thee; thy predestination from Me, who ever stand at the door of thy heart and in mercy knock.
Thy dereliction from thee; thy calling from Me.
Thy misery from thee; thy bliss from Me.
Thy damnation from thee, thy salvation and beatifying from Me.
For many good things doeth God in man, which man doeth not, but none doeth man, which God endueth not man to do. : The first cause of the defect of grace is from us; but the first cause of the gift of grace is from God. : Rightly is God called, not the Father of judgments or of vengence, but the Father of mercies, because from Himself is the cause and origin of His mercy, from us the cause of His judging or avenging.
Blessed the soul which comprehendeth this, not with the understanding only, but with the heart. Nothing can destroy us before God, but sin, the only real evil; and sin is wholly from us, God can have no part in it. But every aid to withdraw us from sin, or to hinder us from falling into it, comes from God alone, the sole Source of our salvation. The soul then must ever bless God, in its ills and its good; in its ills, by confessing that itself is the only cause of its suffering; in its good, owning that, when altogether unworthy of it, God prevented it by His grace, and preserves it each instant by His Almighty goodness.
: No power, then, of the enemy could harm thee, unless, by thy sins, thou calledst forth the anger of God against thee to thy destruction. Ascribe it to thyself, not to the enemy. So let each sinful city or sinful soul say, which by its guilt draws on it the vengeance of God.
This truth, that in Him alone is help, He confirms by what follows:
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 13:9
O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help.
Man the self-destroyer, and God the Saviour
I. The lost state of man, both by nature and by practice. Observe to whom the words were spoken. Of His ancient people, the Lord, by His prophet, declares that they had destroyed themselves. He had warned them, but they had despised His warnings; He had threatened them, but they had made light of His threatenings; He had reproved them, but they would have none of His reproof. Is it not so now with Gods Israel, His Christian Church? Who is there whose account of sin is summed up in birth-sin only? Who is there that is guilty of imputed guilt only? Who is there that has only sinned in having the inclination to sin–the disposition to break Gods commandments–the capability of doing wrong? We are sinners not only by nature, but by practice. We have sinned in our thoughts. The very principle of mind being corrupt, whatever arises therefrom must be corrupt also. And what have our words been? Often insincere, flattering, proud, corrupt, empty. Words lead on to actions. He cannot act aright who does not first think aright.
II. The means of his recovery and restoration. Can we save ourselves? Let any man try of himself, and by his own unassisted strength, to think but one good and holy thought, and he will find the question answered. Is there no hope? In Me is thy help–in Me, the Almighty Father, the eternal Son, the Holy Spirit, the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier, the Just, the Merciful, the Holy God. (W. W. Champneys, M. A.)
The sinner his own destroyer
Our text gives the decision of God, who cannot be deceived, and who cannot deceive. Men do not believe His declarations. They cast the blame of their destruction from themselves upon God. Sometimes it is His decree which constrains them: sometimes it is the withholding of His grace which excuses them; sometimes it is the force of temptation and their own inability which exempts them from blame. The destruction of impenitent sinners is procured by themselves.
I. Establish this truth by arguments.
1. Drawn from the attributes of God. Where would His justice, His mercy, His veracity be, if He were the procuring cause of mans destruction?
2. Drawn from the Word of God. What terms does it use when it speaks of the nature of God? If God be to blame for the sinners perdition, all these tender expostulations must be only a pompous display of unreal feelings. God gives many unequivocal assurances that He would have all men to be saved. If God is to blame, these assurances must be untrue.
3. Drawn from the conduct of God. Observe the way in which He has acted towards our race in general, or toward each one of us in particular, and we must be convinced that if we are lost, the blame of our perdition must rest entirely on ourselves.
4. The sentiments of all believers establish this same truth.
5. The testimony of believers is corroborated by the confessions of sinners them selves. Nevertheless, sinners object to this truth.
II. Answer the objections.
1. From the decrees of God. This objection is drawn from a subject of which we have very inadequate conceptions, and in which we soon get beyond our depth.
2. The principle on which this objection is founded is not a just one. It is that when two doctrines are affirmed in the Scripture, which to our limited capacity appear irreconcileable, we are authorised to embrace the one and reject the other. Show why this principle is unjust.
3. From the inability of man. It is said that God requires of men certain duties which they cannot perform. But inability is of two kinds, natural and moral. Natural inability consists in a defect of rational faculties, bodily powers, or external advantages. Moral inability consists only in the want of a proper disposition of heart to use our natural ability aright. And this is the essence of sin. If the sinner lies under the first inability, he is excusable; but if under the second, he is inexcusable. Moral inability is viciousness of heart, and depravity of disposition. By reason of wilfully cherishing this moral inability, you are inexcusable, you destroy yourselves. (H. Kollock, D. D.)
The sinners self-destruction and only remedy
I. His self-destruction. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.
1. That the ground of condemnation is personal character. The Bible puts it nowhere else. If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin. Ye will not come to Me that ye may have eternal life.
2. God governs every man as a free agent. He is left to choose between good and evil. But God will not force his choice, not even to save him.
3. The provision of grace is ample for all who will accept it. None are excluded from its scope. Christ tasted death for every man.
4. Life is tendered to you and urged upon you; the means of enlightenment, of conversion and training for heaven are all in your hands.
II. The only remedy–the only way to escape the eternal doom of the self-destroyer. In Me is thine help. The sinner can destroy himself, but he cannot save himself. Salvation from sin and death is all of grace. It is a supernatural provision outside of and independent of human device and human merit. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
The cause of the destruction of impenitent sinners
Others cannot destroy us unless we contribute by our own negligence to our own destruction. The Israelites ought to blame none but themselves if judgments from heaven should overwhelm them, giving them up to the Assyrians in this life, and to punishment after death. Here God condescends to exonerate His conduct in regard to sinners by declaring that they ought to take the whole blame of their oval destruction upon themselves. The difficulties of this subject proceed either from our notion of the nature of God; or of the nature of religion; or of the nature of man.
I. The nature of God. As Creator and Author of every being that exists, and of everything that results from their existence, God seems the only cause of the miseries of His creatures. There are two ways in which we may satisfy ourselves on this subject. One is, to obtain a complete idea of the decrees of God, and to compare them so exactly with the dispositions of sinners, as to make it evident by this comparison that sinners are not under a necessity of committing such crimes, as cause their eternal destruction. The other is, to refer the subject to the determination of a being of the most unsuspected knowledge and veracity, whose testimony we may persuade ourselves is unexceptionable, and whose declaration is an infallible oracle. The first of these ways is impracticable, and always must remain so. Who can boast of knowing the whole arrangement, all the extent and all the combinations, of the decrees of God? Try the second. The question is whether, allowing the decrees of God, God doth any violence to sinners, compelling them to commit sin? God Himself declares that none of His decrees offer violence to His creatures; and their destruction can proceed from none but themselves. He has given this answer in those pathetic expostulations, in those powerful applications, and in those exhortations which He employs to redeem the greatest sinners. He has given the answer by tender complaints concerning the depravity of mankind; by express assurances that He would have all men to be saved; and by such passages as the text, that there are no difficulties insurmountable in our salvation, except such as we choose to seek there.
II. The nature of religion.
1. As to evangelical morality–how clearly it is revealed. Heresy may attack our religious mysteries, but propositions that concern moral virtues are placed in a light so clear that nothing can diminish its brightness. Religion clearly requires a magistrate to be equitable, and a subject obedient; a father tender, and a son dutiful; a husband affectionate, and a wife faithful; a master gentle, and a servant diligent; a pastor vigilant, and a flock teachable. Religion clearly requires us to exercise moderation in prosperity and patience in adversity. Our moral relations are regulated in a manner so clear, distinct, and intelligible that we not only cannot invent any difficulties, but nobody hath ever pre tended to invent any.
2. The next character of Christian morality is dignity of principle. Why did God give us laws? Because He loves us, and would have us love Him. How pleasant it is to submit to bonds which the love of God imposes on us.
3. Another character is the justice of its dominions. All its claims are founded on justice and equity.
4. Another feature is a character of proportion.
5. Power of motive is another.
III. The nature of man. There are implied four vague and erroneous notions of human depravity.
1. When we speak of our natural impotence to practise virtue we confound it with an insurmountable necessity to commit the greatest crimes.
2. We confound the sure virtue that religion inspires with other virtues, which constitution, education, and motives of worldly honour are sufficient to enable us to practise.
3. We confound the natural depravity of a man born a pagan, and with only the light of reason, with that of a Christian born and educated among Christians, and amidst all the advantages of revelation.
4. We confound the condition of a man, to whom God hath given only exterior revelation, with the conditions of him to whom God offers supernatural aid to assist him against his natural frailty. (James Saurin.)
Pandoras box; or, the cause of all evils and miseries
I should tremble to rehearse the text in your ears, if there were not comfort in it as well as terror. You may discern in it a double glass; in the one we may see our hurt, in the other our help. Israel is destroyed. Who hath destroyed Israel? Why is Israel destroyed?
I. The accident to the subject. Destruction. Destruction is opposed to construction, as corruption to generation. In the text destruction is the pulling down of the state, and downfall of the kingdom of Israel. All politic bodies are in some sort subject to the condition of natural bodies. As these, so they, have their beginning or birth, growth, perfection, state, decay, and dissolution. If the state of kingdoms and monarchies is so fickle, what folly, or rather madness, is it for any private man to dream of perpetuities and certainties! To compose the seeming difference between Gods promises to Israel and His threats against Israel, we must distinguish divers kinds of promises made to Israel, and divers Israels to whom the promises may appertain.
II. The subject of this accident. Israel may signify, properly, either the whole posterity of Jacob, or the Ten Tribes which were sent from Rehoboam; figuratively the spiritual kingdom of Christ over the elect. There is a threefold Israel.
1. According to the flesh only.
2. According to the spirit only.
3. According to the flesh and spirit.
Some of the promises are absolute, some conditional, some temporal, some spiritual.
III. The cause of this accident in this subject. Praise God, O Israel, for thy former prosperity, but now thank thyself for thy imminent desolation. Are not all mixed bodies corrupted on the disagreement of elements, and the elements themselves by the strife of contrary qualities within them Are not all metals defaced with their own rust? God is the cause of our woe, and we are the cause of our woe. God punisheth us, and we punish ourselves.
1. Let us then confess our sins to be the fuel of Gods wrath, and the fountain of all our miseries.
2. Let us compose ourselves to endure that with patience which we have brought upon ourselves.
3. Let us forsake our beloved sins; let repentance be our practice, and a speedy reformation our instruction, so God s judgments shall not be our destruction. (D. Featley, D. D.)
Israel self-destroyed
The Gospel of our salvation serveth at once to humble and to exalt us. Like certain medicines for the body, it first opens: and searches the wounds which it is intended to heal. The former of these operations is as necessary as the latter, though far from being so pleasing. It is much wiser for us to submit to all the pain which a reflection upon our past conduct may now occasion to us, than to shut our eyes against real danger.
I. Israel is in a state of destruction and misery. Consider this charge with regard to all mankind. If the misery is real, it must be felt. It may be felt, however, and yet not be acknowledged. Men are often ashamed to confess their real feelings on this subject. Can it be denied that man is in a state of wretchedness and destruction?
II. He is himself the author of his own destruction. He hath himself entirely to blame for all the misery which hath come upon him. Sin has brought the curse upon this lower world. The soul that sinneth it shall die is an irreversible decree of the Divine government. As long as a man continues a sinner, he must be miserable in the very nature of things. To bring the matter a little nearer us, let each of us put the question to his own breast, Canst thou plead exemption from that general corruption which hath universally affected the human race? (James French.)
Sin a universal disease
With us all the occasional derangements to which persons of the strongest health are liable teach every one the importance of knowing particularly of his own bodily constitution. But why is all this wisdom bestowed on the body, and disregarded in the corresponding case of our spiritual sickness? Every man bears the seed of spiritual disease in his inward frame. How important that he should understand his own symptoms. To brave refection, to despise precautions, to neglect predispositions, to shut his eyes to growing disease, to refuse proper remedies, where the life of the soul is concerned, is no less a blind folly and a fatal rashness in the case of the soul than in that of the body. Are not sins diseases–fatal diseases, if they lead to death? The text is addressed, in the first instance, to a whole people, personified or spoken to as an individual person. In Israel is typified all mankind, for all are concluded under sin, all are guilty before God. Sin is surely the symptom of fatal disorder in the soul, for it is Gods revelation that no sin on God s earth is forgiven without blood shed for it; and that there shall in no wise enter heaven anything that defileth–no sin, small or great, unconfessed, unforsaken, unforgiven. Where there is sin on the conscience, whether known or unknown, that soul has destroyed itself. Where is the soul that has not some time sinned? And where is the conscience that has washed out that stain for itself? And what is the washing that can take the stain of a sin out of an immaterial soul? We do not speak now of open vice and wickedness. We do not address the conscience that is seared with red-hot iron. There are sins which are not so gross, which lie so deep that they may long remain unseen; not so hateful to men, and yet as dangerous to the soul; for the root of dislike to God and enmity to godly things very often lies hidden among such secret forms of sins. How much real godliness of heart do the generality of professing Christians exhibit? Can there be a more fatal disorder of the soul than formality, indifference, hypocrisy, profession without practice, lip-service without heart-service? If you have enmities and cherish hatred, if you love idle gossip and carelessly utter slander, etc. etc., you must admit that these are fatal symptoms of something miserably wrong in the soul. It is a sure sign that persons have destroyed themselves when they have no hearts to praise God. Sin is not only the commission of particular stated offences; it is the state of the heart, it is being without a sufficient love, a sufficient liking, for Gods goodness, and having more liking for things. Sin is the transgression of the law. And this is the law–to love my neighbour as myself. But ii we have destroyed ourselves, is there no hope, is there no help? Few words will suffice to disclose that mighty remedy which is in our God alone. In Me is thy help. (Brereton E. Dwarris, M. A.)
The sinner his own destroyer
Self-destruction is a crime of awful and unparalleled turpitude. A few facts will make this clear beyond a peradventure.
I. No man is destroyed in hell for ever simply because he is a sinner. All have sinned, and all would inevitably perish had not Omnipotent Love intervened to prevent it. The sinner that dies at last, dies not because he is a sinner, but because being a sinner he refused the pardon and grace offered.
II. A free and full salvation has been wrought out and is proffered to every sinner. The physician is at hand. There is balm in Gilead to heal sins dreadful malady.
III. God wants long and graciously to welcome the sinner back to life. He restrains His anger. He affords every opportunity. He sends forth His messenger.
IV. God puts no hindrances in the sinners way, imposes no restraint on the free exercise of his will.
V. Every impossible inducement is held out, an amazing system of means and agencies is put in force, to morally constrain him to obey and live; so that, if he destroys his soul at last, it can only be by personally resisting and overcoming the combined efforts of God and man to prevent it! (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
Self-destruction,–God salvation
There is no more mournful spectacle in history than that of a nation concerning which thins has to be said, Thou hast destroyed thyself. It is bad enough when a nation is destroyed by other powers. But there is something sadder, if our eyes were only opened to see it. The sadder spectacle is that of the human soul of whom it can be truthfully said, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. It is bad enough to be destroyed by Satan; but it is worst of all to feel that we ourselves are the instruments of our own ruin. There is a whole multitude of different kinds of powers which are brought to bear upon the ungodly man for his ruin. But no existing force can ruin the human soul unless it is false to its own interests. As long as man is true to himself, and therefore true to his God, so long is he invincible. But let that man once turn his back upon that Being from whom he has derived his origin, and on whom he is wholly dependent, then the man is paralysed and stripped of all moral power. Why do I desire to bring the accusation of the text home? Because there is a tendency in the human heart to lay the blame of its own sins on somebody else, and pre-eminently on God Himself. Do not let us try and throw off the blame from our own shoulders on to God. The blame must ever be ours, and because the blame is ours, therefore the pain is ours. Some shift the blame on to God by misrepresenting application of His foreknowledge. Because God foresees a thing, He does not make us perform it. The fact that God foreknows arises from the fact that God inhabits eternity, and that we live in time. The vaster region in which God lives and moves encloses that smaller and more restricted region in which we live. As soon as you think God interferes with your own moral freedom, you may turn round and lay the blame of your sin upon God; but so long as God constitutes you a free, responsible agent, do not add to your other sins the sin of blasphemy, by making the everlasting God the source of the sin which has disgraced your life. How does Christ help us? He stoops to the very sepulchre where we are lying, and lifts the poor corpse right up from the very jaws of destruction by the power of His own resurrection. He infuses into our lifeless nature a new vitality, which comes from Himself; and triumphing over our foe, He exclaims: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
The sinner self-destroyed
As regards the race of Israel, the prophets statement is self-evident. The national ruin of the chosen race was clearly due to national disobedience. But is not man in all eases the author of his own perdition? That it was so with our first parent admits of no doubt. His ruin was chargeable solely on him self. Is man a self-destroyer? Consider this question–
I. In its relation to the nature of God. We cannot comprehend God. Between the Creator and the creature there is an immeasurable distance. If God foreknows that this or-that man will finally perish, how can it be affirmed that he destroys himself? In reply we ask, Does the foreknowledge of God as to any particular action imply that He is the Agent? All that can be said is that God permits these actions to be wrought. We must not confound what God foreknows with what God appoints. The future punishment of the wicked is represented in Gods Word as the product of sin,–sin the grain sown, punishment the harvest to be reaped. If, then, the sin is the sinners own, and the punishment is the legitimate product of the sin, is not the conclusion just, that it is the man him self who commits the sin who destroys himself! Suppose that the decrees of God are apparently inconsistent with the doctrine that man destroys himself. There are two methods by which the question might be set at rest. One is through our being made fully acquainted with all those decrees, in all their relations to time and to eternity. But this method is inapplicable in our case, for we have not the capacity to comprehend the decrees of God. The other is our accepting the assurance that the purposes of God are not at variance with our personal responsibility. Life and death are before us, and we can choose. Therefore mans undoing must be of himself. Gods decrees we cannot comprehend, His invitations we can
II. The question in its relation to the proposals of the Gospel. Some have attempted to show that the requirements of the Gospel are in effect the main hindrances to its acceptance. They are so rigid and unyielding, that practically they operate as a barrier to our embracing the proposals of mercy which the Gospel brings. With the requirements of the Gospel it is certainly no easy matter to comply. No man can comply with them in his own strength. But we must remember that the Gospel is of God. It is the plan which infinite wisdom contrived, and shall feeble man presume to say that the wisdom of Jehovah has erred? Bear in mind that the precepts of the Gospel are framed for the happiness and well-being of mankind; and note how carefully the Gospel adapts itself to our moral constitution in the appeal which it makes to those motives which have the most power to influence human con duct. It may, however, be further objected, that there is such an inherent weakness and depravity in human nature that practically it is impossible to attain to the standard of obedience which the Gospel demands. Least of all will this plea serve. We fully admit the depravity of human nature. But bear in mind the nature has been redeemed. The Son of God has taken our nature into union with the Divine, that He might redeem and sanctify and save it. Say not, then, that it is the nature of man which makes it impossible for him to be saved. The nature has been redeemed, and the redemption would be incomplete if it left any man in this life beyond the reach of being saved. If there had been no interposition in behalf of the fallen; if mankind had been allowed to multiply, and no movement on the part of God had been set on foot for their deliverance, there might then have been ground for the excuse. There is, how ever, nothing in the nature of God, nothing in the proposals of the Gospel, nothing in the moral nature of men, to render salvation impossible. (R. Bickersteth, D. D.)
Israels relief from God
In Me is thy help. That is–
(1) It might have been. I would have helped and healed thee, but thou wouldst not be helped and healed. This will aggravate the condemnation of sinners, that they opposed the offers God made them.
(2) It may be. Thy case is bad, but it is not desperate. Come to Me and I will help thee. This is a plank thrown out after shipwreck, and greatly magnifies the power of God, but also the niches of His grace, Dr. Pocock renders, Presuming upon God and His favour has emboldened thee in those wicked ways which have been thy ruin. (Matthew Henry.)
Help in God for sinners
When sinners are seeking salvation it is very important that they should know where to find it. There is no subject on which men are so likely to err as the subject of salvation. Nowhere else does the heart exert such an influence over the mind. Men have carnal minds which are at enmity with God. Men do not seek first the kingdom of God, putting eternity before time. Since unregenerate men are so apt to be dissatisfied with the rules of God everywhere else, we might expect them to be dissatisfied with the plan of salvation, and make many mistakes when they are seeking to be saved. Sinners are apt to lose sight of the essential truth of the text. God says, In Me is thy help. The meaning of this is unlimited. The sinners only help is in God. He cannot help himself. He will never have a heart that is right with God, he will never be reconciled to Him, he will never be a new creature in Christ Jesus without Gods help. The first proof of this is found in the language of the Bible. The second is found in the nature of the unrenewed heart. The third proof of the necessity of Divine influence is found in the inefficiency of all other influences. The fourth in the inefficacy of all motives. You may not always be sensible of your resistance; but the reason is, that you consider these things so little, and examine your own hearts and lives so little, that you remain in almost entire ignorance of yourselves. Many of you are waiting for stronger motives. Sinners do persuade themselves, and they are able to persuade themselves, that some stronger, more powerful motives would influence them to turn to God. Motives do not convert men. Your help is in God, not in motives. Practical improvement and profitable direction from this doctrine.
1. The folly of those who seek salvation in themselves. It is all very true that the sinner who seeks salvation must strive against sin, shun temptation, deny himself, guard well his heart, or he will not be saved. But when he relies upon himself and not on God, when he seeks to help himself instead of seeking help from God, he is leaning on a broken reed. Man must depend, and work while he depends.
2. The reason why so many of those who are awakened to a sense of Divine things, and begin to seek salvation, never attain it. They wish to take themselves out of the hands of God.
3. We learn why sinners who are making some attempts to be saved sometimes continue so long in affliction and trouble before they find peace with God.
4. We learn what is the great struggle of the sinner in coming to salvation. It is to give his wicked heart to God.
5. Sinners when awakened are often doing, or attempting to do, something directly contrary to what they suppose.
6. They are often guilty of resisting the Holy Spirit.
7. Sinners are their own destroyers. (J. S. Spencer, D. D.)
Mans destruction, of himself; his salvation, of God
To understand things in their causes, and to trace them back from their first causes into their principles, has always been deemed the highest kind of knowledge. However agreeable and entertaining this kind of knowledge may be, it is not always the most needful and useful. We are now in a world of action, rather than of science. And usually we have more to do with the reality than with the philosophy. But in regard to our destruction and salvation, it is absolutely necessary that we should know the causes, in order that we may be enabled properly to levy the praise and the blame. God must not incur the infamy of our destruction, and we must not usurp the glory of our salvation. Two propositions are derivable from the text.
I. Mans destruction of himself. What is this destruction? It is not a temporal loss; not the loss of the body, but the loss of the soul. Not the loss of its physical being and faculties, but the loss of its well-being and its happiness and its hope. At whose door is the blame to be laid? We make five appeals.
1. We appeal to the cause of your continuance in the state in which you are. Ii it were so, that you were not accessory to your own depraved and mortal state, surely you are accountable for your continuance in it. God has provided a fountain for sin and uncleanness open and free always; but if you love your pollution better than cleansing, your destruction will be of yourselves.
2. To the nature of Christianity. If in the Gospel call any had been overlooked, you might fear that you were in the number. If hard conditions and meritorious qualifications were required to be performed and possessed, you might despair. If the truths of Christianity were hard to be understood, you might complain of ignorance. If these benefits were sold at a high price, you might complain of poverty. If these duties were to require for their performance a power that was nowhere to be found, or was unattainable by you, you might complain of weakness. If upon making trial you could not succeed, if upon praying you were refused, you might then complain of the providence and the grace of God: but what can you complain of now?
3. We appeal to experience. Your experience: the experience of a sinner, the experience of the true penitent. The true penitent is not only awakened, he is enlightened; and in Gods light he sees light.
4. To the Divine testimony. Let us defer at once to a Being whose judgment is always according to truth. Ask God whether we are compelled to sin, and whether, if we perish, the blame will be our own?
5. To the proceedings of the last day. Then every one must give account of himself to God. What will you do when He rises up, and when He judges? The hour cometh when every mouth will be stopped, and all the world shall be found guilty before God, whatever they now allege in their own defence or extenuation.
II. Our salvation is of God, Sinners of themselves cannot repair the con sequences of their transgressions. The reason why so many think of being their own saviours is, because they have such defective views of their fallen state itself, and because they have never seriously and earnestly made the trial of their supposed ability to deliver themselves. Gods help is–
1. The most gracious in its source. Whence did this scheme arise? Compulsion is out of the question. But may not merit have some influence? Alas I all our desert is on the other side. Has desire had no influence? Why, the scheme was not only formed, it was accomplished too, long before we had any being. According to His mercy, He saved us.
2. The most wonderful in its procurement. Not only is the agency entirely the Lords, but He accomplishes the thing in a way the most peculiar. God does not save us by the mere volition of His will, or a mere exertion of His power. We see the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, and suffering for sin, the just for the unjust.
3. The most suitable in its supply. Is light adapted to the eye? Is melody adapted to the ear? Is food adapted to the taste? So correspond the blessings of the Gospel with all our wants and woes and weak nesses. Here is wisdom for the ignorant, pardon for the offending, renovation for the depraved, strength for the weak, riches for the poor; a sun if you are in darkness, a shield if you are in danger.
4. The most perfect in its efficiency. He who speaks in righteousness is mighty to save.
5. The most extensive and accessible. None of you are excluded unless you exclude yourselves. This subject should preach–
(1) Candour. Persons differ in their opinions, and all are not equally clear in their religious views; but if they keep between the two grand lines of the text they cannot materially or essentially err.
(2) Terror. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. You can destroy yourselves.
(3) Encouragement. Not to those who wish to continue in sin, but to those who are desirous of deliverance from it, and of obtaining salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. What compassion there is in God, who hath remembered you in your lost estate!
(4) Admonition. Though there is help in Him, there is help in Him only. In Him only is the hope of Israel. And there is only help now. Now is the accepted time. (William Jay.)
Moral self-destruction
If a man is lost he has only himself to blame. It is told of some poor heathens that, to please their god, they put themselves to death in the following way. They took a little boat, went out into the deep water, then took a little vessel in their hand, put it over the boat, filled it with water, and then poured the water into the boat. So they went on and on; the boat kept filling and filling, presently it began to tremble, and then sank, and thus they died. This is just what the sinner does. He goes on in sin for a month. What is he doing? He is putting water into the boat. He goes on for a year. He is putting water into the boat. He goes on yet longer. Take care! Take care! The boat is filling. The sinner is filling it. Stop! or it may sink for ever. (Thomas Jones.)
What man has to give thanks for
One thing of which the Lord casts the entire blame upon His creatures, and another thing of which He takes the entire glory to Himself.
I. Man hath to thank himself for his own destruction. That man is, by nature, in a destroyed and ruined state is too clear to be denied. Men do indeed try hard to soften down the fact. They strive to put the fairest face they can upon their situation and their prospects. Whatever other charges man is open to, self-hatred surely is not one of them. Yet man is said to be a self-destroyer. Both these things are true–man is a self-lover, and man is a self-destroyer. In proof see this. We have turned our backs on our best friend. We have rushed into the arms of our worst enemy. We have done, with our eyes open, things of which we have been perfectly well aware, that they work the death of the poor soul. And he is of all self-murderers the most determined who, having inflicted the wound, will not let it be bound up.
II. Sinners have to thank God for the work of the salvation. In this work man has no part or lot. What a humbling truth! Why cannot we help and save ourselves? Because we have reduced ourselves so low. The words of the text mean: I am qualified to help you. There is in Me all the sufficiency your case requires. Nor is it a help up only which the Saviour offers, but a help forward. (A. Roberts, M. A.)
Man his own destroyer; God alone his Saviour
Whatever changes may be made by time, we are sure of one thing, that our God changeth not, and that the principles involved in His counsels and threatenings, in His warnings and promises and invitations, are immutable and everlasting as Himself.
I. Self-destruction is possible to us men; even the destruction of the highest, noblest, and Divinest part of our nature. Man, too, is the only being upon the earth to whom self-destruction is really possible; the being whose capacities are the noblest has the power of self-injury. A man cannot put out his life, but he can blight and blast all that is bright and blessed, happy and holy in his nature and life.
II. The only power by which we can destroy ourselves is the power of sinning. Sin does its work most rapidly and completely. Sinning darkens the understanding, impairs the judgment, makes a man a fool, disorders the imagination, deadens the best susceptibilities of the heart, and sears the conscience. It enslaves the will, and prevents peace of mind. It depraves the whole spiritual nature. And sinning is the breach of Gods law of love. God takes notice of every breach of His law.
III. Every finally destroyed man is self-destroyed. God will not destroy a man except as punishment for sin. The devil cannot permanently hurt you, excerpt as you combine with him to hurt yourselves. Two things are certain. The sin which finally destroys men is sin for which they are responsible. And the sin which inflicts most injury is the sin which men love, and which, because they love, they think lightly of.
IV. The self-destroyed may be saved from destruction. In Me is thy help–thy deliverance, thy salvation.
1. A man cannot save himself. All that he can do for himself is to submit to be saved. At first all men try to save themselves.
2. No fellow-man can save the sinner. God never sends a man to His priest; He invites the man to Himself.
3. Think of the encouragement to return to God. While God is speaking to you of salvation, you may have it. Self-destruction by sinning is the natural order. Salvation does not come in any natural order, but as the result of an extraordinary provision on the part of God. If after God has spoken to you, you be finally destroyed, your destruction will be self-destruction–wilful, inexcusable, and unbearable. (Samuel Martin.)
Sinners are self-destroyers, but salvation is of God
I. Sin is a most destructive evil. Sin is the grand disturber of the world. It disturbs the conscience, families, churches, cities, and nations.
II. Sinners are self-destroyers. It will be found that the blame is all our own, that there is an obstinate persistence is sin against the remonstrances of conscience and the admonitions of God.
III. There is salvation in Jesus Christ, even for self-destroying sinners. There is sufficient help for every purpose of our salvation. There is grace abounding for the greatest sinners. (G. Burder.)
The moral ruin and recovery of man
I. Mans ruin is of himself. Many believe that God is in some way the author of evil. This is impiously false. God is not the author of mans ruin. Being the first cause of all good, and independent, He is good, and only good. Satan is not the author of mans ruin. He cannot force the will nor constrain the mind to sin without concurrence and consent on our part, and in the concurrence and consent consists the sin that causes our ruin.
(1) Our personal conduct shows this truth, and evinces that our sins result from the free choice of our wills, because there can be no responsibility where there is no freedom of choice.
(2) The state of our mind shows the same truth. This evidence indeed is cognisable only to our own conscience; but this is as it ought to be. What is the nature of the ruin? Loss of rectitude, or the Divine image; exposure to Divine wrath now, and in the world to come. These are the outlines of the misery we have brought on ourselves through sin.
II. Mans recovery is of God. In Me is thine help. The doctrine here is, that the salvation of man is of the grace of God. By grace ye are saved. He delivers us from the evils which involve our ruin. The guilt of conscience, the defilement of the heart, the disorder of the faculties, the dominion of the passions, the bondage of sin. He restores to us the blessings that involve our happiness. (D.V. Phillips)
How sin destroys
One of the most famous pictures in the world is the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Jesus sits at the table with His twelve disciples. It is said that the artist sought long for a model for the Saviour. He wanted a young man of pure holy look. At length his attention was fixed on a chorister in the cathedral named Pietro Bandinelli. This young man had a very noble face and a devout demeanour. Leonardo used him as a model in painting the face of the Master. Soon after this Pietro went to Rome to study music. There he fell among evil companions and was led to drink, and then into all manner of debasing sins. Year after year the painter went on with his picture. All the apostles were now painted save one–Judas, the traitor. Da Vinci went from place to place, looking for some debased man who would be suitable as a model. He was walking one day on the streets of Milan, watching the faces of evil men he chanced to meet, when his eyes fell on one who seemed to have in his features the character he sought. He was a miserable unclean beggar, wearing rags, with villainous look. The man sat as the artists model for Judas. After the face was painted Da Vinci learned that the man who sat for him was his old friend Pierre Bandinelli, the same who had sat a few years before as the model for the Master. Wickedness had debased the beautiful life into hideous deformity. Sin distorts, deforms, and destroys the human soul. It drags it down from its greatness until it grovels in the dust. In Me is thy help.
Help for all:–The first thing that a man does after waking up to his sinful condition, is to try to help himself. How are we to come to moral and spiritual health? As long as the heart is wrong the life will be wrong.
I. God is willing to help us by giving us the holy spirit to show us just the position we occupy. What is the use of conviction? Without it, a man does not want Christ and His salvation. The Holy Spirit coming into the heart, a man wakes up to see his true state.
II. God is ready to help us, by giving us repentance. There is a great difference between seeing my sin and turning from it. Conviction and conversion are not the same thing.
III. God is willing to help us, by enabling us to exercise faith in christ. The most exhausting work to which I ever put the energies of my soul was to believe in Christ. Indeed, it is so great an undertaking that no man can accomplish it of himself.
IV. God is willing to help us, by giving us the pardon and peace of the gospel. He can save you. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Mans destruction and Gods restoration
I. Consider the destruction of sin.
1. Adam ruined himself and all his children by sin (Rom 5:19; Rom 5:21).
2. We have destroyed ourselves by actual transgression (Rom 3:23).
3. The intellect or understanding is ruined (Jer 8:7).
4. The will is become a rebellious faculty (Rom 8:7).
5. The conscience is rendered past feeling (1Ti 4:2; 1Ti 4:6).
6. The passions and affections of the soul are equally defiled (1Jn 2:16).
7. He is destroyed both in body and soul, but for Christ (Psa 9:17).
II. Christ is our salvation and help.
1. Christ is the true light (Mal 4:2).
2. He shines in our hearts and understandings (Psa 36:9).
3. He restores to us an enlightened conscience (Heb 10:22).
4. The soul is now sensible of the least transgression (2Co 1:12).
5. He strengthens our memories to retain Divine things (Joh 14:26).
6. He rectifies and restores all our affections (Psa 73:25).
7. Provision is made for the everlasting life of the Church (Joh 6:37).
8. He is our help in delivering us from the wrath to come (Joh 14:3).
III. The improvement.
1. This help is omnipotent in its energy (1Co 1:24).
2. It is prompt in its manifestation (Isa 59:19).
3. It is always successful in its undertakings (Col 2:15).
4. It will not admit of any co-operation in the work (Eph 2:8-9).
5. It is unceasing in its application (Isa 41:17). (T. B. Baker.)
Man self-destroyed, but not self-saved
That man is a fallen and ruined creature is generally acknowledged. The moral condition of the world is a certain demonstration of this distressing truth. It is confirmed by the unrighteous propensities, by the vices of character, and by the aberrations from virtuous conduct which are exhibited more or less frequently even in the best of men. Man does not impute his ruin to himself; and yet, for the most part, he expects his recovery from himself. The first of these errors blinds him to the necessity of repentance; the second prevents the exercise of faith.
I. Mans ruin is from himself alone. Our first father sinned voluntarily. But is it our fault that our natures are depraved If the fault be not yours, it must be imputed to God, or to the tempter, or to Adam. The first would be no less impious than absurd. The second cannot be entertained. Satan cannot constrain. The fault must lie between Adam and yourselves. And you cannot separate yourselves from him.
I. Adam was the head and representative of the entire human race. The consequences of Adams sin are witnessed in all his posterity. They all sin, invariably; they all die, invariably. Do you complain that, instead of giving man a general law, God entered into special covenant with him? Then you complain of that which is, in fact, the strongest argument of Divine goodness and condescension; for a law contains no promise. But a covenant holds out the certain prospect of a recompense in case of fidelity. Would it have been better that the fate of the human race should not have been entrusted to the hands of one? It is not only a fact that we are implicated in the first sin, but that fact is demonstrably consistent with the righteousness and goodness of God. Instead of evading the charge, we are called upon to confess its truth.
2. Men have universally followed in the footsteps of the first transgression, and have thus made it their own. The original act is not repudiated and disavowed, but is repeated and imitated. There has never been one individual exception. All have sinned, are sinning every day and every hour. Every individual gives ample ground for his own condemnation.
3. Down to the present day the sins of men are committed of their own free will, and without any external restraint. Consult your own reason. Do you not feel that you are free? You are not conscious of any foreign force, or of the pressure of inevitable necessity. It is true that you are tempted; but the tempter can employ no compulsion. Since men sin willingly and by choice, they cannot be exculpated.
4. Men have added to the guilt of a single act of disobedience an immense multitude and variety of new transgressions, clustering about it from age to age; so that it stands not alone, but is only the first, and yet not the worst, of all sins. It is difficult to conceive how they could have done more to appropriate Adams guilt The torrents of iniquity have been deepening and widening from generation to generation.
5. Men choose to abide in their present depraved condition, though a method of recovery is proposed to them in the Gospel. This is the crowning evidence which ought to produce conviction. No sooner was the guilt incurred than redeeming mercy was proclaimed; and how has that proclamation been treated by the world? On the ground of all these considerations, we insist that all transgressed in Adam, and have, in point of fact, made themselves partakers of his sin. Man is the author of his own ruin. The recognition of this truth is necessary to excite repentance, without which there can be no escape from perdition. Whom else can the sinner accuse? Will he lay the blame upon God, because He endued man with a free will? That liberty of choice is the glory of human nature. Or because He subjected man to a test, in token of the homage due to His supremacy? Or because He did not render man immutable in holiness from the very first? Will you quarrel with the permission of evil? Would you lay the fault upon the tempter? Or upon Adam? Vain evasions all!
II. Mans recovery is from God. This truth meets the second delusion of man. He looks generally to himself for salvation. Four considerations will set this truth in a clear and convincing light.
1. Man wants a proper sense of his own condition and danger, and therefore he never will (even if he could) take the very first step towards his own recovery. There is no adequate motive. If it had been left to man, the least effort never would have been put forth to recover the friendship of God, and to restore His lost image in the soul.
2. Man has lost all his love of righteousness, and, therefore, never would have sought recovery of his own accord. There is a great deal of virtue in the world, but whence is it derived? Take away all that has been wrought for the morals of mankind by the indirect influence of religion,, and how much will be left? There is not to be found, anywhere in the world, any hatred of sin as sin, nor love of righteousness as righteousness, except in the man renewed and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and by the blood of Christ. If a righteous and holy God had not seen and pitied the want of righteousness in man, that want had never been perceived, never lamented; and, for this cause, there could have been no salvation.
3. Man has no means of satisfying the justice of God for his sins; and, therefore, even if willing, he could not be the author of his own recovery.
1. Some satisfaction is necessary.
2. Man has none to offer which can be acceptable.
3. He has not that moral strength which is necessary to the renewal of his heart and the amendment of his life; and, therefore, he cannot be the author of his own recovery.
God alone can awaken the soul to a conviction of danger, implant in it a love of holiness, provide the means of reconciliation, and by the influence of His Holy Spirit renew the heart, the character, and the life. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.(Daniel Katterns.)
Religious unreality
I have long been convinced that many of our opinions and practices of these days differ enormously from the simple Gospel which Christ preached. I see but little hope for the re-animation of the true Christian ideal until God in His mercy raises up amongst us some prophet like Savonarola or Luther, or John Wesley, or some saint like St. Paul, or St. Francis, who is a saint indeed. Nothing is easier than to forget that religion means a good mind and a good life. Give me righteousness and not talk, conduct and not opinions, character and not ceremonies, love and not shams.
I. Doctrine and practice. In every religion there must be doctrine and practice. Christ came to show us that Gods will is our sanctification. The age, the nation, and the Church, supremely need this lesson. Get sincerity. Simplify your lives, simplify your religion; return to the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus. Whatever our belief may be, whatever our worship may be, unless we keep innocency, and do the thing that is right, we have missed the one thing, and only thing, which will bring any human being peace at the last.
II. The bridge of life. There is on every side of us a false life, and on every side of us a sham religion. There is open to us all a blessed life and a real religion. Christianity in nearly all of us produces fruits so crude, so scant, so hunger-bitten, as to be little better than a store of Levitism or a godless heathenism. Christianity smitten through and through with the curse and the blight of our unreality,–that is the reason why it makes such little way, and is losing its hold of the masses of the population. Yet let us not despair. God judges not as man judges.
III. Help in God. Life is short. There is nothing which the world, tile flesh, or the devil can offer us which is not profoundly unsatisfying. Yet God who giveth more grace, can deliver us from that fraud or subtlety of the devil or man, which is the only final irremediable curse of our mortal lives. He can give us holiness; He can give us peace; He can give us happiness in Him. There m nothing to complain of in life, but only in ourselves, who pervert, and dwarf, and degrade, and poison it; and so God ever calls to us, and pleads with us through His Son, our Lord. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thy help. (Dean Farrar.)
Christ, the sinners refuge
These words bring before us two subjects–mans state by nature: and his restoration by God.
I. We have destroyed ourselves. Most men, though self-destroyers in a spiritual sense, yet appear to be quite unconscious of it. By many sin is thought to be a thing quite harmless, altogether innocuous; but a more dangerous or poisonous reptile does not exist. You must be judged by the rigorous demands of the law of God, and that law requires obedience, in thought, word, and deed, and that without the smallest deviation. You cannot discharge the debt you owe to this law. You are in this respect helpless, hopeless, remediless.
II. We cannot help ourselves. Our own obedience to the law cannot possibly justify, and consequently cannot save us. This fact the Scriptures declare. Some say, but God is merciful. Will He show mercy at the expense of justice? He delights in mercy when His justice is satisfied.
III. When and how does God become the sinners help? When the sinner believes on Christ to salvation. He could not obey the law perfectly, so as to be justified thereby, but when he believes in the Saviour, Jesus becomes to him justification. He could offer no sacrifice to God for his sins. Jesus is to the believer an all-sufficient sacrifice. The sinner could not redeem his soul from death. Jesus becomes to the believer wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. (G. MClelland, A. B.)
Mans ruin and Gods remedy
These words are prophetic of the great disasters and that awful ruin which came upon Gods chosen people, when the Assyrian led them into captivity, and desolated their land with fire and sword. They were spoken in a time of comparative security, when the cities of Israel were teeming with inhabitants, and the broad harvest fields were offering their rich reward to the labour of the husbandman. Amid the glitter and promise of material civilisation, God had discerned and denounced the real tendencies of this rebellious people. He declares that the ruin should be the natural consummation of the nations progress, that they should be self-destroyed by the simple operation of the principles which they had adopted, and the institutions which they had founded. This brief address proclaims the solemn truth, that as he stands amid the bounties of Gods providence and the natural arrangements of the world, man is continually perverting them from their Divine intent, and thereby bringing ruin upon his highest interests; and the only remedy for his abuse of mercies and disarrangement of established order is found in the constant interposition of Jehovahs arm in the processes of nature, providence, and grace. Our subject then is, the destructive tendency of human progress, and the remedy supplied by God to counteract the ruin. A weakness of the present age is the temper in which men are wont to glorify its institutions, its achievements, and its progress. As if by general consent the nineteenth century has been established upon a throne of honour, and around it have gathered the high priests of science and the leaders of opinion, to proclaim its successes and its destiny. But the object of all this idolatry is no less a shadow and a deceit than is that crowned and jewelled mortal whose life is flowing on to death, while his flatterers are extolling his immortality.
I. The natural progress of man in the world is a steady lapse towards corruption and destruction. In spite of the arts, institutions, and triumphs of civilisation, the natural development of the race is a descent towards misrule, oppression, anarchy, and ruin. Reason, revelation, and history make this evident.
1. Consider the nature of the ideas of civilisation and progress as they are held by men, and as they operate in the world. That there is a law of progress in relation to mans material interests cannot be overlooked, and ought not to be denied. On behalf of his various needs, man is a ceaseless worker. Thus there is progress in the art of living, in mechanical inventions, in the range of the fine arts, and the scope of great enterprises, and in the fellowship of nations. One age profits by the mistakes and successes of those which have preceded it. Great results are produced, dazzling to the eye, and flattering to the pride of man. But when this process is closely surveyed, and its real tendencies are accurately noted, what is it more or better than a reconstruction of the tower of Babel, in which railroad iron, and telegraphic wires, and social comforts, are substituted for asphaltic brick, and the fine arts for the builders lofty plan, but the intent of which is equally with that of the ancient enterprise, to exalt man upon the earth, and screen him from the scrutiny of God! Expand it, modify it, or disguise it as you will, the fact remains that a process of development which rests upon these ideas and aims at these results is rotten to the core, and from it there can only spring corruption. In material prosperity we have the real end of progress, so far as it is sought by any human institutions, and in this there cannot be a single element of conservative effect, or a single principle of enduring force.
2. This view is confirmed by the lessons of history. History is philosophy teaching by examples. In the light of the solid facts of history we learn the real tendencies of that refinement and civilisation of which those who see things in the present only, are so prone to boast. Every nation that has culminated in such a civilisation as has been described, has found thereto the elements of its decay and ruin. Illustrate from Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Rome, India, Ottoman Empire, States of Italy, South American Republics, etc.
3. Refer to our own land, and the influence of our own institutions. We have received a goodly heritage. Our institutions were founded in the hatred of oppression and the love of right. The broad Atlantic rolls between us and the corruptions which have vitiated the older nations of the world. But what has been the direction of our progress Has there been ascent or descent in the march of empire? It is true that, in our national career, we have gained in territory, and increased in revenue, and advanced in culture and refinement, but amid all this the primal vigour and intensity of the nations life has wasted. Republicanism does not check depravity. Consider the fierce partisanship of politics, the strife of interests between different sections of the Union, the corruption of our legislators, the apologies for oppression, the insecurity of our cities, our eagerness in the pursuit of wealth for its own sake, the recklessness of our expenditure, and the fearful increase of crimes of darkest hue, and you cannot but acknowledge the general tendency towards license and corruption.
II. Amid these destructive tendencies there is hope for man in the helping hand of God. God is continually averting perils, reconstructing ruined institutions, and infusing new life into the organisms which man has corrupted. Among the vivid creations of the Scandinavian mythology there is one which represents Life under the similitude of a Tree. Igdrasil, the ash-tree of existence, has its roots deep down in the very kingdom of death. At its base sit the three Fates, who water these roots from the sacred well, while its trunk mounts high towards heaven, and its branches spread into every land. Its boughs are the histories of nations. Its rustle is the sound of human life, swelling onward from of old. It grows there in spite of death below, and storms above, the true emblem of mans life and progress, by means of the forces through which God sustains him in the midst of moral evil. Out of the very elements of death He is evolving a progressive revelation which will change the tendencies of the race: The process by which this is being accomplished is not natural, as men understand the laws of nature. It is a process of miraculous effect, and supremely glorious to the grace of God. The formal statement of this Divine method we find only in the Word of God. It is by implanting living ideas of truth and righteousness, and by renewing sinful human hearts in the Divine likeness, that mans ruin is turned aside. In the spiritual influences of the Gospel lies the help which His Word has promised, and which His hand affords. Christianity is the one power of real progress in the world. Christianity saves the world from corruption and destruction. By it society would be truly civilised, the State be reared on the great principles of righteousness, and the highest welfare of the world be secured by a prosperity which should be at once material and spiritual, temporal and eternal. (R. R. Booth.)
Mens misery from themselves–the remedy in God
In the history of the Jewish race are set forth the waywardness and the misery of men under alienation from God. In the mingled tenderness and severity of its treatment, we have a representative instance of the general dealings of providence regarding the disobedient and rebellious. The kingdom of the Ten Tribes had fallen upon evil times. Their sufferings were no doubt judicial–the awarded judgments of the Supreme Ruler; but they were likewise the natural and inevitable consequences of their conduct. These are equally true propositions, that no evil is from God, and that all good is from Him. Help and deliverance upon repentance and amendment are precisely as much in the course of things as is suffering after sin.
I. The first proposition. We have destroyed ourselves.
1. By the immediate effect of sin. When once holiness departs from the soul, life itself departs, in its highest sense. The destruction attributable to sin is brought upon us by ourselves. No constraint was laid on mans will. St. James gives the whole history and progress of iniquity in the heart, in his first chapter. God is so far from being the cause or author of sin, that He has, by an infinity of methods, endeavoured to draw us away from it; and is, on the contrary, the giver of every gift tending to life and holiness. As little can we excuse ourselves by alleging any fatal necessity; there can be no such constraining power, independent of the Divine purposes.
2. By incurring the punishment and misery due to sin. It is an eternal law that misery follows transgression; and that law is Gods law; but His it would not be, were it not founded in justice and benevolence, the essential basis of His holy character; and not in any despotic exercise of bare authority. In this consideration we discover the inconvenience of looking on the means and instruments of the punishment of reprobate sinners, as belonging wholly to a place, and got likewise to a state. There is positive punishment; but the loss of our original privileges, which may be called the negative part of punishment, is not of much less fearful character. It is the state of degradation and ruin, into which, while here on earth, the sinner plunges himself. By the practice of habitual sin, the activity of the conscience is at length suspended, the eye of the understanding is closed, the ear is shut, the heart is hardened, the Holy Spirit retires. But if God withdraws His grace, He must not be thought the cause of the destruction. We quench the Spirit–we expel, we drive Him away, when we pollute His temple with sin. The Word of God confirms the fact that the destruction of those who perish is from themselves; and is a thing wholly alien from the intention and desire of the Almighty. This is implied in the precepts and commandments, wherewith Scripture abounds. The same is expressly urged in persuasions, exhortations, entreaties, remonstrances, and reproaches.
II. The second proposition. In Me is thy help. Emphasis is put on the word Me. It is pointedly exclusive. Can a conscience pierced by guilt be healed by indulgences that will heap upon it more guilt Is it in the power of pleasure effectually to banish remorse? If we have destroyed ourselves,–if we have burdened our consciences, corrupted our hearts, ruined our peace, there is but one source whence the remedy is to be obtained; but it is a source deeper than our unworthiness, more abundant than the sins of the whole world; a source ever present and ready to send forth its healing waters. It is the bosom of God. Whatever our distress, God has the power to help. He is almighty, and can do all things; unless the will of the creature be obstinately opposed to His will and influences. And in Him is willingness to help. And He has provided the requisite means and methods of help. They are ever within the reach of those who need and will apply them. His help is never too late, never ineffectual. No case is without hope, if there be repentance. If the destructive workings are but little advanced, Gods help may arrest its progress. Should it, unhappily, have proceeded so far as to have corrupted our hearts and seared our consciences, He can convert, restore, and renew us. (R. Gattermole, B. D.)
Destroyed sinners finding help in God
Gods eye sees at once all events, past, present, and future. Hence He saw Israel labouring under the woes which He had threatened. He saw them scattered and peeled and eating abundantly of the fruit of their own devices, and He tells them that the blame was all their own. Israel, in coming under the stroke of Divine vengeance, fell a victim to her own rebellion and obstinacy. Yet God did not cease to pity them. God had first threatened Israel. Then He views her as overwhelmed by His judgments. He blames her for having brought them upon herself. He laments over her. He opens anew the door of hope, by declaring in Me is thine help.
I. The means by which sinners destroy themselves.
1. They do so by departing from God, whose favour is their only safety. Apart from God there is no security for man. The world may pretend to throw over him the shield of its protection, but it will prove as the spiders web before the wrath of offended heaven. The favour of God is a strong tower, to which the righteous run and are safe. But unregenerate men have turned their backs upon this hiding-place and rock of defence. They are utterly destitute of an asylum as long as they disregard the favour of God. And this destitution is chargeable wholly on themselves; because God has graciously used all kinds of agencies in order to influence them.
2. By indulging in sin, which is ruinous in its very nature. We argue the nature of a thing from its uniform effects. If we find sin always pouring forth streams of misery, we say it is ruinous in its very nature. Wherever sin has trod with unholy foot, there misery in some form and degree has been spreading its withering and deadly influences. Test sin by what it did to the Lord Jesus. See what it has done to man as a race. It has scattered desolation, mourning, and woe, over the face of the whole earth.
3. By exposing themselves to the destructive judgments of God. God has armed Himself against sin with righteous but fearful judgments. Many of these overtake the sinner during his earthly career. All the miseries which come upon men in time are only the first-fruits of the abundant harvest of wrath, which those shall reap who continue to sow to the flesh.
4. By refusing to obey the Gospel, which brings the only remedy for their miseries. Notwithstanding all His wrath against sin, God has set before sinners an open door of escape from its guilt and consequences. The sinner can close this door against himself by rejecting the Gospel of Gods Son. And there is no other way of escape than that God has provided. Sometimes the sinner sets himself to work out a righteousness of his own. Sometimes he comes after the Lord has arisen and shut to the door.
II. Where help is found for us in God. There are many quarters in the Divine character to which we need not look for help. None is to be found in His absolute holiness; or His absolute justice; or His absolute power; or His absolute and general mercy.
1. There is help for us in the gracious mercy, of God. By this we mean His free and undeserved compassion, exercising itself through Christ for the deliverance of lost sinners. Christ has removed all obstacles arising from the absolute holiness and justice, and the general mercy of God. Hence comes to us–along the channel Christ provided–the forgiving and sanctifying mercy of God.
2. There is help for us in the gracious power of God. Gods power, in Christ, is the strong arm sent down from above to draw the sinner from the depths of sin and misery. It is the mighty energy by which his heart is changed, his nature reversed, and by which he is drawn to the Saviour. It is the mighty rod by which God breaks the power of sin in the believer. It is the storehouse out of which God gives the believer strength to perform the duties assigned to him. It is the house of defence in which the believer may obtain protection from every calamity.
3. There is help in the gracious faithfulness of God, whose promises are so numerous and so varied as to suit all our wants and circumstances. The ground on which a man may lay hold on these promises is the faithfulness of God in Christ.
4. In short, there is help for us in the all-sufficiency of God. Learn how lamentable it is that we should have destroyed ourselves. And what reason we have for praising God with all our hearts. If God had not said, In Me is thy help, where would we have been? (A. Ross, M. A.)
In God is our help
This gracious declaration of the blessed God involves two truths.
I. That in God is our only help, and that we have no other means of deliverance but in Him. That aversion from God which constitutes our guilt and misery, prompts us to seek relief anywhere else, rather than from Him. That might be prudent, if any dependence could be placed in those refuges which we rely on. That God is our only help is obvious from the circumstance of His having interposed on our behalf. Infinite wisdom can do nothing unnecessary. We could not by any means accomplish our own deliverance. Reason and conscience tell us that no future repentance, though we were disposed to repent, can atone for the guilt of a single transgression. And we do not want to repent; we are unwilling to return to our allegiance, or to be reconciled to our offended Judge. Some say that, under the Gospel, the demands of the moral law are abridged, and that it is now satisfied with a sincere, though imperfect obedience. Can this be true? The fact is that we can do nothing towards relieving ourselves from that destruction and misery in which we are involved by sin. It is not in our power, though we were willing; and we are not willing, although it were in our power. It is impossible that our circumstances should be retrieved by any other means than those which God Himself hath appointed.
II. God is an all-sufficient help, both able and willing to bring us relief. It may be said, Is not God almighty, so that He can do whatsoever He pleaseth? Yes, He is able to effect any natural act whatever. But our circumstances are such that something else than mere power is necessary to bring us relief. The power of God cannot act in opposition to His other perfections. God is not only powerful, but just and holy. A plan must be devised by which all His perfections may be illustrated at once. God must be just, though man should perish. What circumstances render the scheme of redemption, which God hath wrought for us by Jesus Christ, fully sufficient for all the purposes of our salvation? Consider the dignity of the person of the Redeemer and His resurrection. His death was not more necessary to atone for our sins than His resurrection to apply the redemption He had purchased to the souls of His people. He hath not only begun, but completed the work of redemption. (James French.)
Gods help for the sinner
Well, there are those in this audience who not only feel they have a sinful nature, but that they are helpless. I congratulate you, I am glad of it that you feel you are helpless. You say, That isnt brotherly; that isnt humane. Well, I say that in the same spirit in which Lady Huntingdon said it to a man who exclaimed, I am a lost man. She said, I am glad of it. He said, Thats a most unkind remark. Ah! she said, I am glad of it. Because you must first feel you are lost before you win salvation. And so if there are those here who not only know that they have a sinful nature, but that they are helpless, I congratulate you. For now comes the clarion voice of my text–it comes like ten thousand thunders bursting from the throne, In Me is thy help.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself] These evils come not by my immediate infliction; they are the consequences of thy own crimes. In the above terrifying figures of the ferocious beasts, the prophet only shows what they would meet with from the hand of the Assyrians in the war, the famine, and the captivity; God being represented as doing what he only permits to be done.
But in me is thine help.] “Though thou hast destroyed thyself, yet in me alone can thy help be found” – Newcome. And others read, And who will help thee? reading mi, who, for bi, in me. Though this is countenanced by the Syriac, yet there is no evidence of it in any of the MSS. yet collated, nor do I think it to be the true reading.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou hast destroyed thyself; after these menaces it might seem I had destroyed thee, but thou thyself hast done it by thy sins. It is the rebel that destroys himself, though he fall by the sword of his provoked sovereign: thou art the cause and author of thine own ruin.
But in me is thy help; or,
for I was always ready and able to help thee, and would certainly have saved thee; but thy sins, thy wickedness carried thee toward other helps, which were lies, and have disappointed thee; and now thou dost perish under thine own choice, whereas hadst thou chosen me I would have helped and saved thee. Or else thus the whole verse: This hath destroyed thee, O Israel, for thou hast rebelled against me, against thy help: and so Sol. Jarchy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. thou . . . in meincontrast.
hast destroyed thyselfthatis, thy destruction is of thyself (Pro 6:32;Pro 8:36).
in me is thinehelpliterally, “in thine help” (compare De33:26). Hadst thou rested thy hope in Me, I would havebeen always ready at hand for thy help [GROTIUS].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself,…. Though the Lord was a lion, a leopard, and a bear to them, yet their destruction was not owing to him, but to themselves; he was not chargeable with it, but they only; the fault and blame was theirs; their own sins brought it on them, and provoked him to such righteous wrath and vengeance before expressed: this is said to clear the Lord from any imputation of this kind, and to lay it where it should be It may be rendered, “it hath destroyed thee” k; either the calf, as Kimchi, and the worshipping of that, their idolatry; or their king, as others, taking it from the following verse by way of anticipation; or rather it may refer to all their sins before observed, their idolatry, luxury, and ingratitude. Gussetius l thinks the word has the signification of “burning”, as in Isa 3:24; and renders it, “burning in me hath destroyed thee, [even] in him who is thy help”; that is, by their sins they had made God their enemy, who is a consuming fire, and whose burning wrath destroyed them, in whom otherwise they would have had help. Now though this may primarily regard the destruction of the civil state and kingdom of Israel for their sins, yet it may be applied to the spiritual and eternal state of men. Man is a lost, ruined, and undone creature; he is depraved and corrupted in his whole nature, soul and body; the image of God in him is marred and spoiled; there is no holiness in him, nor any righteousness upon him; no will nor power to that which is good; though he has not lost the natural liberty of his will, he has lost the moral liberty of it, and is a slave to his lusts, and a vassal to Satan; he has no true knowledge of that which is good, no inclination to it, nor strength to perform it he is dead in sin, and dead in law; he is under the curse of it, and in the open way to everlasting ruin and destruction; and is in himself both helpless and lifeless; and he is a self-destroyed creature; his destruction is not owing to Satan only, though he was an instrument of the ruin of mankind; nor to the first parents of human nature only, in whom all men naturally and federally were, in whom they sinned, and with whom they fell; but to their own actual sins and transgressions. However, their destruction is not to be charged upon God, or ascribed to any decree of his, which is no cause of man’s damnation, but sin only; nor to any sentence of condemnation passed by him, or the execution of it, which both belong to him as a righteous Judge; but to themselves and their sins, as is owned both by good men, who under true and saving convictions acknowledge their damnation would be just, if God should execute it on them; and by bad men, even the damned in hell; this will be the never dying worm, the remorse of a guilty conscience, that they have brought all this ruin on themselves;
but in me [is] thine help; not in themselves, not in any creature, but in the Lord alone; the Word of the Lord, as the Targum; the essential Word, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, on whom his divine Father has laid the help of his people; and who has helped them, and saved them from their sins, the cause of their destruction, and from wrath, which they deserved by reason of them; and has brought them out of a wretched state, a pit wherein is no water, into a comfortable, glorious, and happy one, and delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies; and helps them to what they want, to holiness, righteousness, and strength; to all supplies of grace here, and glory hereafter. Some render the particle as causal, “for in me”, c. m and so make it to be a reason either proving that God could not be the cause of their destruction, because in him was their help, and in him only or that their destruction was owing to themselves; “for in” or “against me, against thine help”; thou hast transgressed and rebelled; so Jarchi.
k “perdidit te”, Vatablus, Calvin, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Zanchius, De Dieu, Rivet “corrupit te”, Cocceius. l Comment, Ebr. p. 367. m “quia in me”, Montanus, Calvin, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Hos 13:9 commences a new strophe, in which the prophet once more discloses to the people the reason for their corruption (Hos 13:9-13); and after pointing to the saving omnipotence of the Lord (Hos 13:14), holds up before them utter destruction as the just punishment for their guilt (Hos 13:15 and Hos 14:1). Hos 13:9. “O Israel, it hurls thee into destruction, that thou (art) against me, thy help. Hos 13:10. Where is thy king? that he may help thee in all thy cities: and (where) they judges? of whom thou saidst, Give me king and princes! Hos 13:11. I give thee kings in my anger, and take them away in my wrath.” does not combine together the verbs in Hos 13:8, as Hitzig supposes; nor does Hos 13:9 give the reason for what precedes, but shichethkha is explained by Hos 13:10, from which we may see that a new train of thought commences with Hos 13:9. Shicheth does not mean to act corruptly here, as in Deu 32:5; Deu 9:12, and Exo 32:7, but to bring into corruption, to ruin, as in Gen 6:17; Gen 9:15; Num 32:15, etc. The sentence cannot be explained in any other way than by supplying the pronoun , as a subject taken from the suffix to (Marck, and nearly all the modern commentators). “This throws thee into distress, that thou hast resisted me, who am thy help.” : as in Deu 33:26, except that is used in the sense of against, as in Gen 16:12; 2Sa 24:17, etc. This opposition did not take place, however, when all Israel demanded a king of Samuel (1Sa 8:5). For although this desire is represented there (Hos 13:7) as the rejection of Jehovah, Hosea is speaking here simply of the Israel of the ten tribes. The latter rebelled against Jehovah, when they fell away from the house of David, and made Jeroboam their king, and with contempt of Jehovah put their trust in the might of their kings of their own choosing (1Ki 12:16.). But these kings could not afford them any true help. The question, “Where” ( ‘eh only occurs here and twice in Hos 13:14, for or , possibly simply from a dialectical variation – vid. Ewald, 104, c – and is strengthened by , as in Job 17:15), “Where is thy king, that he may help thee?” does not presuppose that Israel had no king at all at that time, and that the kingdom was in a state of anarchy, but simply that it had no king who could save it, when the foe, the Assyrian, attacked it in all its cities. Before shoph e teykha (thy judges) we must repeat ‘eh (where). The shoph e tm , as the use of the word sarm (princes) in its stead in the following clause clearly shows, are not simple judges, but royal counsellors and ministers, who managed the affairs of the kingdom along with the king, and superintended the administration of justice. The saying, “Give me a king and princes,” reminds us very forcibly of the demand of the people in the time of Samuel; but they really refer simply to the desire of the ten tribes for a king of their own, which manifested itself in their dissatisfaction with the rule of the house of David, and their consequent secession, and to their persistence in this secession amidst all the subsequent changes of the government. We cannot therefore take the imperfects and in Hos 13:11 as pure preterites, i.e., we cannot understand them as referring simply to the choice of Jeroboam as king, and to his death. The imperfects denote an action that is repeated again and again, for which we should use the present, and refer to all the kings that the kingdom of the ten tribes had received and was receiving still, and to their removal. God in His wrath gives the sinful nation kings and takes them away, in order to punish the nation through its kings. This applies not merely to the kings who followed one another so rapidly through conspiracy and murder, although through these the kingdom was gradually broken up and its dissolution accelerated, but to the rulers of the ten tribes as a whole. God gave the tribes who were discontented with the theocratical government of David and Solomon a king of their own, that He might punish them for their resistance to His government, which came to light in the rebellion against Rehoboam. He suspended the division of the kingdom not only over Solomon, as a punishment for his idolatry, but also over the rebellious ten tribes, who, when they separated themselves from the royal house to which the promise had been given of everlasting duration, were also separated from the divinely appointed worship and altar, and given up into the power of their kings, who hurled one another from the throne; and God took away this government from them to chastise them for their sins, by giving them into the power of the heathen, and by driving them away from His face. It is to this last thought, that what follows is attached. The removal of the king in wrath would occur, because the sin of Ephraim was reserved for punishment.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Folly of Israel; Promises of Mercy. | B. C. 722. |
9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. 10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? 11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid. 13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. 14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. 15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
The first of these verses is the summary, or contents, of all the rest (v. 9), where we have, 1. All the blame of Israel’s ruin laid upon themselves: O Israel! thy perdition is thence; it is of and from thyself; or, “It has destroyed thee, O Israel! that is, all that sin and folly of thine which thou art before charged with. As thy own wickedness has many a time corrected thee, so that has now at length destroyed thee.” Note, Wilful sinners are self-destroyers. Obstinate impenitence is the grossest self-murder. Those that are destroyed of the destroyer have their blood upon their own head; they have destroyed themselves. 2. All the glory of Israel’s relief ascribed to God: But in me is thy help. That is, (1.) It might have been: “I would have helped thee and healed thee, but thou wouldst not be healed and helped, but wast resolutely set upon thy own destruction.” This will aggravate the condemnation of sinners, not only that they did that which tended to their own ruin, but that they opposed the offers God made them and the methods he took with them to prevent it: I would have gathered them, and they would not. They might have been easily and effectually helped, but they put the help away from them. Nay, (2.) It may be: “Thy case is bad, but it is not desperate. Thou hast destroyed thyself; but come to me, and I will help thee.” This is a plank thrown out after shipwreck, and greatly magnifies not only the power of God, that he can help when things are at the worst, can help those that cannot help themselves, but the riches of his grace, that he will help those that have destroyed themselves and therefore might justly be left to perish, that he will help those that have long refused his help. Dr. Pocock gives a different reading and sense of this verse: “O Israel! this has destroyed thee, that in me is thy help. Presuming upon God and his favour has emboldened thee in those wicked ways which have been thy ruin.”
Now, in the rest of these verses, we may see,
I. How Israel destroyed themselves. It is said (v. 16), They rebelled against God, revolted from their allegiance to him, entered into a confederacy with his enemies, and took up arms against him; and this was the thing that ruined them, for never any hardened themselves against God and prospered. Note, Those that rebel against their God destroy themselves, for they make him their enemy for whom they are an unequal match.
1. They treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and so they destroy themselves. They are doing that, every day, which will be remembered against them another day (v. 12): The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, and his sin is hid; God took notice of it, kept it upon record, and will produce it against him and reckon with him for it afterwards. Their former sins contributed to their present destruction; for they were laid up in store with God,Deu 32:34; Deu 32:35; Job 14:17. It is laid up in safety, and will not be forgotten, nor the evidence against him lost; but it is laid up in secret; it is hid; the sinner himself is not aware of it. It is bound up in God’s omniscience, in the sinner’s own conscience. Note, The sin of sinners is not forgotten till it is pardoned, but an exact account is kept of it, which will be opened in proper time.
2. They make no haste to repent and help themselves when they are under divine rebukes; they are their own ruin because they will not do what they should do towards their own salvation, v. 13. (1.) They are brought into trouble and distress by sin: The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. They shall smart for sin, and so be made sensible of it; they shall be thrown into pangs and agonies by it, very sharp and severe, and yet, like the pains of a woman in labour, hopeful and promising, and in order to deliverance; and by these, though God corrects them, yet he designs their good. They are chastened, that they may not be destroyed. But, (2.) They are not by these forwarded as they ought to be towards repentance and reformation, which would cause their sorrows to issue in true joy: He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long, as he does, in the place of the breaking forth of children, but, being brought to the birth, should struggle to get forth, lest he be stifled and still-born at last. Were the child which the mother is in travail of capable of understanding its own case, we should reckon it an unwise child that would choose to stay long in the birth; for the captive exile hasteth to be loosed, lest he die in the pit, Isa. li. 14. Note, Those may justly be reckoned their own destroyers who defer and put off their repentance, by which alone they might help themselves. Those are in danger of miscarrying in conversion who delay it, and will not put forth themselves to speed the work and bring it to an issue.
3. Therefore they are destroyed because they have done that which will be their certain ruin and neglected that which would have been their only relief. Here is a sad description of the desolation they are doomed to, Hos 14:15; Hos 14:16. It is here taken for granted that Ephraim is fruitful among his children; his name signifies fruitfulness. He is fruitful in respect of the plentiful products of his country and the great numbers of its inhabitants; it was both a rich and a populous tribe, as was foretold concerning it; but sin turns this fruitful tribe into barrenness. Joseph was a fruitful bough, but for sin it was blasted. The instrument is an east wind, representing a foreign enemy that should invade it. It is called the wind of the Lord, not only because it shall be a very great and strong wind, but because it shall be sent by divine direction; it shall come from the Lord, and do whatever he appoints; and see what effect it shall have upon that flourishing tribe, what desolations war shall make. (1.) Was it a rich tribe? The foreign enemy shall make it poor enough. This wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, a freezing blasting wind, and shall dry up the springs and fountains with which this tree is watered, shall exhaust the sources of its wealth. The invader shall waste the country and so impoverish the husbandman, shall intercept trade and commerce and so impoverish the merchant; and let not the great men, whose wealth lies in their rich furniture, think that they shall be exempted from the judgment, for he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. See the folly of those that lay up their treasure on earth, that lay it up in pleasant vessels (vessels of desire, so the word is), on which they set their affections, and in which they place their comfort and satisfaction. This is treasure that may be spoiled and that they may be spoiled of; it is what either moth or rust may corrupt, or what thieves and soldiers may steal and carry away. But wise and happy are those who have laid up their treasures in heaven, and in the pleasant things of that world, which cannot be spoiled, which they cannot be stripped of; ever happy are they, and therefore truly wise. (2.) Was it a populous tribe, and numerous? The enemy shall depopulate it and make its men few: Samaria shall become desolate, without inhabitants. [1.] Those shall be cut off who are the guard and joy of the present generation; the men who bear arms shall bear them to no purpose, for they shall fall by the sword, so that there shall be none to make head against the fury of the conqueror nor to take care of the concerns either of the public or of private families. [2.] Those shall be cut off who are the seed and hope of the next generation, who should rise up in the places of those who fell by the sword; the whole nation must be rooted out, and therefore the infants shall be dashed to pieces, in the most cruel and barbarous manner, and, which is if possible yet more inhuman, the women with child shall be ripped up. Thus shall the glory of Samaria flee away from the birth, and from the womb,Hos 9:11; Hos 10:14. See instances of this cruelty, 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16; Amo 1:13.
II. Let us now see how God was the help of this self-destroying people, how he was their only help (v. 10): I will be thy King, to rule and save thee. Though they had refused to be his subjects and had rebelled against him, yet he would still be their King and would not abandon them. The business and care of a good king is to keep his people, not only from ruined by foreign enemies, but from ruining themselves and one another. Thus will God yet be Israel’s King, as he was their King of old. Note, Our case would be sad indeed if God were not better to us than we are to ourselves.
1. God will be their King when they have no other king; he will protect and save them when those are cut off and gone who should have been their protectors and saviours: I will be he (so v. 10 may be read), he that shall help thee. “Where is the king that may save thee in all thy cities, that may go in and out before thee, and fight thy battles, when thy cities are invaded by a foreign power, and suppress the more dangerous quarrels of thy citizens among themselves? Where are thy judges, who by administering public justice should preserve the public peace? For it is righteousness and peace that kiss each other. Where are thy judges that thou hadst such a desire of and such a dependence upon, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? This refers, (1.) To the foolish wicked desire which the whole nation had of a kingly government, being weary of the theocracy, or divine government, which they had been under during the time of the Judges, because it looked too mean for them. They rejected Samuel, and in him the Lord, when they said, Give us a king like the nations, whereas the Lord was their King. (2.) To the desire which the ten tribes had of a kingly government different from that of the house of David, because they thought that was too absolute and bore too hard upon them, and they hoped to better themselves by setting up Jeroboam. Both these are instances, [1.] Of men’s improvidence for themselves. When they are uneasy with their present lot they are fond of novelty, and think to better themselves by a change; but they are commonly disappointed, and do not find that advantage in the alteration which they promised themselves. [2.] Of men’s impiety towards God, in thinking to refine upon his appointments and amend them. God gave Israel judges and prophets for their guidance; but they were weary of them, and cried, Give us a king and princes. God gave them the house of David, established it by a covenant of royalty; but they were soon weary of that too, and cried, We have no part in David. Those destroy themselves who are not pleased with what God does for them, but think they can do better for themselves. Well, in both these requests, Providence humoured them, gave them Saul first, and afterwards Jeroboam. And what the better were they for them? Saul was given in anger (given in thunder,1Sa 12:18; 1Sa 12:19) and soon after was taken away in wrath, upon Mount Gilboa. The kingly government of the ten tribes was given in anger, not only against Solomon for his defection, but against the ten tribes that desired it, for their discontent and disaffection to the house of David; and God was now about to take that away in wrath by the power of the king of Assyria. And then, where is thy King? He is gone, and thou shalt abide many days without a king, and without a prince (ch. iii. 4), shalt have none to save thee, none to rule thee. Note, First, God often gives in anger what we sinfully and inordinately desire, gives it with a curse, and with it gives us up to our own hearts’ lusts. Thus he gave Israel quails. Secondly, What we inordinately desire we are commonly disappointed in, and it cannot save us, as we expected it should. Thirdly, What God gives in anger he takes away in wrath; what he gives because we did not desire it well he takes away because we did not use it well. It is the happiness of the saints that, whether God gives or takes, it is all in love, and furnishes them with matter for praise. To the pure all things are pure. It is the misery of the wicked that, whether God gives or takes, it is all in wrath; to them nothing is pure, nothing is comfortable.
2. God will do that for them which no other king could do if they had one (v. 14): I will ransom them from the power of the grave. Though Israel, according to the flesh, be abandoned to destruction, God has mercy in store for his spiritual Israel, in whom all the promises were to have their accomplishment, and this among the rest, for to them the apostle applies it (1 Cor. xv. 55), and particularly to the blessed resurrection of believers at the great day, yet not excluding their spiritual resurrection from the death of sin to a holy, heavenly, spiritual, and divine life. It is promised, (1.) That the captives shall be delivered, shall be ransomed, from the power of the grave. Their deliverance shall be by ransom; and we know who it was that paid their ransom, and what the ransom was, for it was the Son of man that gave his life a ransom for many, Matt. xx. 28. It is he that thus redeemed them. Those who, upon their repenting and believing, are, for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, acquitted from the guilt of sin and saved from death and hell, which are the wages of sin, are those ransomed of the Lord that shall, in the great day, be brought out of the grave in triumph, and it shall be as impossible for the banks of death to hold them as it was to hold their Master. (2.) That the conqueror shall be destroyed: O death! I will be thy plagues. Jesus Christ was the plague and destruction of death and the grave when by death he destroyed him that had the power of death, and when in his own resurrection he triumphed over the grave. But the complete destruction of them will be in the resurrection of believers at the great day, when death shall for ever be swallowed up in victory, and it is the last enemy that shall be destroyed. But the word which we translate I will may as well be rendered Ubi nunc–Where now are thy plagues? And so the apostle took it: ‘O death! where is thy plague, or sting, with which thou hast so long pestered the world? O grave! where is thy victory, or thy destruction, wherewith thou has destroyed mankind?” Christ has abolished death, has broken the power of it and altered the property of it, and so enabled us to triumph over it. This promise he has made, and it shall be made good to all that are his; for repentance shall be hidden from his eyes; he will never recall this sentence passed on death and the grave, for he is not a man that he should repent. Thanks be to God therefore who gives us the victory.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Ultimate, Final Blessings Yet to Come to Israel
Verses 9-16:
Verse 9 contains a direct address of appeal to Israel. God advised Israel that in opposing Him and His word she had destroyed herself, Pro 6:32; Pro 8:36. One who opposes God opposes himself, is his own worst enemy; yet, in God, hope and help are available, to the worst of sinners and backsliders, Deu 33:26; 1Jn 1:8-9; 1Ti 1:15.
Verse 10 contains an offer of God to be their king, even yet. For there was no other judge, prince, or king who was able or willing to liberate them, to set them free from Assyria’s idolatry or bondage. God gave them a king, and He punished them through a king of Syria, 1Sa 8:5; 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 8:19-20; 1Sa 10:19; Amo 2:3.
Verse 11 reminds Israel that He gave her a king in His anger, and took their king away in His wrath. It was not His primary purpose that Israel should have a civil king, like their heathen nations had, yet He gave them one to satisfy their cries and as an eventual chastening occasion, and took kings from them because of their sinful ruler, 1Sa 15:22-23; 1Sa 16:1; 1Ki 15:25-27.
Verse 12 describes Ephraim’s sins as bound up in a bag with her, hidden away in secret, for a little while, till the fixed time of her swift judgment comes, Deu 32:34; Job 14:17; Job 21:19; 1Sa 25:29.
Verse 13 describes sufferings sure to befall them, like pains of childbirth that seize a woman, because Ephraim has been and is an unwise and lawless son. For he would not linger much longer in the birth canal of Israel until the violent agony and sorrows should suddenly come upon him, Jer 30:6; Pro 22:3. He is unwise in not foreseeing and seeking an escape from danger and judgment, by repenting, 2Ki 19:3; Isa 37:3.
Verse 14 contains a pledge from their God who is directly addressing Israel, v. 1. In this message He pledges to:
1) Ransom them from the powers of the grave, Job 19:25; Mat 9:23-25; 1Co 15:52.
2) Redeem them from death, Isa 59:20; Rom 8:11; Rom 8:23; 1Co 15:55; 1Pe 1:18-19.
3) Be a plague to destroy death for them, Heb 2:14-15.
4) To destroy their grave, Hab 2:5; Rom 4:17; Rom 4:19.
5) That repentance should be hidden from His eyes in doing this, because of His covenant with His God and their fathers, Abraham, and Isaac. Neither Israel nor believers in Jesus should ever despair, 1Co 15:56-57; Gen 48:4; Gen 48:20; Gen 49:22.
Verse 15 describes the dry east winds that are yet to come upon Ephraim, blasting from him all productivity and fruitfulness, Gen 41:52; Gen 48:19. In field and families they were to suffer as judgment for idolatrous disobedience: All before this tempest of judgment shall be destroyed, Jer 4:11; Jer 18:17; Eze 19:12. The conqueror will plunder and destroy all the costly vessels in the houses of Ephraim and about their idol altars.
Verses 16 adds that Samaria too shall become desolate because they of her habitation have rebelled against the true God, and they shall fall by the sword. The small children shall be hewn and dashed to pieces upon stones, and the unborn are to be killed by the ripping up of their mother’s womb, as victims of cruelty of heathen warriors, of conquering bands, 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16; Amo 1:13. No memorial shall be left of the temporary pomp and prosperity of Ephraim’s whoredoms. When the world forsakes God, the world shall suffer with much sorrows and regrets.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
In the first place, God upbraids the Israelites for having in their perverseness rejected whatever was offered for their safety: but he proceeds farther and says, that they were past hope, and that there was a hidden cause which prevented God from helping them, and bringing them aid when they laboured under extreme necessity. He has destroyed thee, Israel, he says. Some consider the word, calf, to be understood, “The calf has destroyed thee:” but this is strained. Others think that there is a change of person: and I am inclined to adopt this opinion, as this mode of speaking we know, is very common: Destroyed thee has Israel; thou art the cause of thine own destruction, or, “Israel has destroyed himself.” Though then there is here a verb of the third person, and there is afterwards added an affixed pronoun at the second person, we may yet thus render the passage, “Israel has destroyed himself.” At the same time, when I weigh more fully every particular, this passage, I think, would be better and more fitly explained by being taken indefinitely: “Something has destroyed thee, Israel:” as though he said, “Inquire now who has destroyed thee.” God then does not here name Israel as the author, nor does he point out any as the author of their ruin; but yet he shows that Israel was lost, and that the cause of their destruction was to be sought in some one else, and not in him. This is the meaning. Then it is, Something has destroyed thee, Israel; for in me was thy help God shows and proves that Israel, who had been hitherto preserved, is now destroyed through their own fault; for God had once adopted the people, and for this end, that he might continue to show his favour towards them. If then the wickedness and ingratitude of the people had not hindered, God would have been doubtless always like himself, and his goodness towards that people would have flowed in a continuous and uniform stream.
This is what he means in the second clause, when he says, In me was thine help; by which he seems to say, “How comes it, and what is the reason, that I do not now help thee according to my usual manner? Thou hast indeed found me hitherto to be thy deliverer: though thou hast often struggled with great and grievous dangers, I was yet never wanting to thee; thou hast ever found from me a prompt assistance. How comes it now that I have cast thee away, that thou criest in vain, and that no one brings thee any help? How comes it, that thou art thus forsaken, and receives no relief whatever from my hand, as thou hast been wont to do? And doubtless I should never be wanting to thee, if thou wouldest allow me; but thou closest the door against me, and by thy wickedness spurnest my favour, so that it cannot come to thee. It then follows, that thou art now destroyed through thy own fault: Something then has destroyed thee He speaks here indefinitely; but this suspended way of expression is more emphatical when he shows that Israel was without reason astonished, and had also without reason expostulated with God. “There is then no ground for contending with God, as if he had frustrated thy expectation, and despised thy desires and crying; God indeed is consistent with himself, for he is not changeable;” as though he said, “Their perdition is from another cause, and they ought to know that there is some hindrance, why God should not extend his hand to help them, as he has hitherto usually done.”
We now perceive the mind of the Prophet: he in the first place records what God had been hitherto to the people; and then he takes for granted that he does not change, but that he possesses a uniform and unwearied goodness. But since he had hitherto helped his people, he concludes, that Israel was destroyed through some other cause, inasmuch as God brought him no aid; for unless Israel had intercepted God’s goodness, it would have certainly flowed as usual. It then appears that its course was impeded by the wickedness of the people; for they put as it were an obstacle in its way.
And this passage teaches us, that men in vain clamour against God in their miseries: for he would be always ready to help them, were they not to spurn the favour offered to them. Whenever then God does not help us in our necessity, and suffers us to languish, and as it were to pine away in our afflictions, it is doubtless so, because we are not disposed to receive his favour, but, on the contrary, we obstruct its way; as it is said by Isaiah,
“
Shortened is not the Lord’s hand, that it cannot save, nor is my ear heavy, that it does not hear. Your sins, he says, have set up a mound between you and me,” (Isa 59:1.)
To the same purpose are the words of the Prophet here when he says, that we ought to inquire what the cause of our destruction is, when the Lord does not immediately deliver us: for as he has once given us a taste of his goodness so he will continue to do the same to the end; for he is not wearied in his kindness, nor can his bounty be exhausted. The fault then belongs to us. We hence see how remarkable is this passage, and what useful instruction it contains.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hos. 13:9.] This destruction is entirely their own. Against God, men are against their own help and welfare.
HOMILETICS
MORAL SUICIDE AND DIVINE HELP.Hos. 13:9
The prophet once more refers to the cause of their sorrow, and declares God to be their only help when they were ruined and undone.
I. Moral suicide. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. Many moral as well as physical evils may be traced to want of well-trained spiritual power, well exercised self-control, and to absence of life in the soul. Solomon contrasts the influence of sin with the health of a true heart. A sound heart is the life of the flesh; but envy is the rottenness of the bones (Pro. 14:30; Pro. 17:22). Sin is madness, and not medicine; death, and not life.
1. All sin is destructive. It is essentially death. It ruins the soul. The soul that sinneth it shall die. It often destroys reputation and character. It always destroys liberty, peace, and happiness. It is contrary to the constitution and health of the soul; hence the misery which is ever felt. It wounds the conscience, impairs the judgment, and brings disease and manifold deaths. He who forsakes God and worships idols destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get (Pro. 6:32-33; Pro. 5:22-23).
2. Voluntary sin is voluntary destruction. Thou hast destroyed thyself. The sinner commits moral suicide, and has no one to blame but himself. Circumstances do not force him to sin. Fate, admitting such a thing, does not compel him. God destroys him not; for he is not willing that any should perish, but that all men should be saved (Jer. 27:13; Eze. 18:31). Men are the authors of their own destruction. They may blame whom they like, but the guilt rests upon their own head. Every bait to sin is the temptation to suicideto self-murder. Sinners die because they will die and not live. They are inexcusable, and make their doom more intolerable, because they choose death rather than life. He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death.
II. Divine help. In me is thine help. A wise man will call the best medical help he can find in times of sickness and danger. This disease defies the skill of man. There is a consumption of the body which no man can cure; and there is a consumption of the soul more deadly in its nature. Man may destroy himself, but God only can restore him.
1. Help the most free. We might have been left to perish in our sin, but God loved us and saved us in our blood (Eze. 16:6). God was not desired, not constrained to do anything. Desert there was none. According to his mercy he saved us. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.
2. Help the most suitable. As the beauties of nature are adapted to the senses, and food to the taste, so the gospel is suited to our wants and woes, our weakness and danger.
3. Help the most efficient. Nothing less than an Almighty Saviour would do for mankind. The wounds are sore and the breach is great, who can heal thee? (Lam. 2:13). I am the Lord that healeth thee. The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. The grace of God subdues the proudest rebel and upholds the weakest believer. God is mighty to save. I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me.
4. Help the most extensive. God can not only help beyond desert, but save to the uttermost all that come unto him. None are excluded, except those who exclude themselves from his help. Everywhere the invitations of Scripture are full, free, and universal. Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. Let him take hold of my strength.
I know the grace is only thine,
The gift of faith is all Divine;
But if on thee we call.
Thou wilt the benefit bestow,
And give us hearts to feel and know,
That thou hast died for all.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
The malady is of no ordinary character. It is not a mere slight indispositiona trifling attacka little derangement of the system, but a sickness unto deathan incurable disease.
The physician is able, kind, and free. Without money and without price cures are given. Others heal the hurt slightly (Jer. 6:14), or physicians of no value; but God heals, and we are healed (Jer. 17:14). We hear much of the cure of souls, let us not forget to care for them. God has healed and will heal by his word, Spirit, and grace. Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.
First, Sin, self-destruction. It destroys the health and moral beauty of the soul; disables from duty, and ends in death.
Secondly, God, the sole restorer, working in us perfect soundness, saving us and granting us help in time of need.
Nothing can destroy us before God but sin, the only real evil; and sin is wholly from us, God can have no part in it. But every aid to withdraw us from sin, or to hinder us from falling into it, comes from God alone, the sole source of our salvation. The soul, then, must ever bless God, in its ills and its good; in its ills, by confessing that itself is the only cause of its suffering; in its good, owning that, when altogether unworthy of it, God prevented it by his grace, and preserves it each instant by his Almighty goodness [St Bernard].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
REQUITINGISRAEL WILL PERISH
TEXT: Hos. 13:9-16
9
It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me, against thy help.
10
Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?
11
I have given thee a king in mine anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.
12
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store.
13
The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14
I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death: O death, where are thy plagues? O Sheol, where is thy destruction? repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
15
Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the breath of Jehovah coming up from the wilderness; and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall make spoil of the treasure of all goodly vessels.
16
Samaria shall bear her guilt; for she hath rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
QUERIES
a.
Why does God bring up the subject of Israels king?
b.
Why the reference to death and Sheol?
c.
Were pregnant women really to be ripped up?
PARAPHRASE
It is to your own self-destruction, O Israel, that you have resisted Me, your only source of help. What good is your king now? Is it not evident that he is unable to save you? Where are all the royal counselors and ministers of state whom you chose when you broke away from the rule of the house of David and formed your own kingdom? You asked for them, now let them save you. In My anger over your separation from the throne of David I have repeatedly given you your desired kings and in wrath I have overthrown them because they are all wicked. Ephraims sins are all carefully bound together and preserved for the day when they will be punished. Pain and agony like that of a woman at childbirth will come upon Ephraim. Yes, God is going to chasten Israel in order to bring about a new birtha conversion; but Israel behaves foolishly. Like a child, who at the time of the labor-pains will not enter the opening of the womb, Israel will not let himself be new-born. Yet out of the hand of hell will I redeem them; from death will I set them free! Where are your plagues, O death, now that I have annihilated you? Where is your destruction, O Sheol, now that I have conquered you? My purpose of salvation will be irrevocably accomplished and I will not change! For the remnant of Ephraim which remains faithful will bear fruit among brethren. On the other hand, upon the Ephraim that has turned into Canaan, an east wind will come, a judgment of Jehovah, which will destroy this Ephraim. This judgment of Jehovah, the Assyrian empire, will plunder the treasures and valuables of Ephraim. Samaria will pay for its sins because it has rebelled against its God. Her people will be killed by the invading armies, her babies dashed to death against the ground, her pregnant women ripped open with a sword.
SUMMARY
The prophet once more discloses to the people the reason for their corruption. Then, after pointing to the saving power of the Lord, he holds up before them utter destruction as the just punishment for their guilt.
COMMENT
Hos. 13:9 IT IS THY DESTRUCTION, O ISRAEL, THAT THOU ART AGAINST ME . . . What a statement this ispregnant with meaning! Mans sin, judgment, sentence and destruction are not, in themselves, from God, but from mans moral choice to rebel against God. Whoever casts himself against the Rock of Ages will destroy himself (cf. Mat. 21:42-44), for Gods justice, mercy, righteousness is immutable. An ancient church father wrote, Rightly is God called, not the Father of judgments or of vengeance, but the Father of mercies, because from Himself is the cause and origin of His mercy, from us the cause of His judging or avenging. Hosea is here speaking of the ten tribes in their rebellion against Jehovah when they withdrew from the rule of the house of David under Rehoboam and made Jeroboam their king. The ten tribes showed their contempt for Jehovah when they renounced allegiance to and portion in the throne of David (cf. 1Ki. 12:16). Of course, this spirit of desiring to be rid of the rule of Jehovah began in the days of Samuel (cf. 1Sa. 8:5) when all the people desired to imitate the nations about them and be ruled over by a visible, physical king,
Hos. 13:10-11 WHERE NOW IS THY KING, THAT HE MAY SAVE THEE . . . I HAVE GIVEN THEE A KING IN MINE ANGER . . . The challenge of Hos. 13:10 does not presuppose that Israel had no king at all at that time, but simply challenges the people to put forth any of their kings that could save them. None could. We are reminded of Isaiahs challenge to idols and false prophets (Isa. 42:21-24; Isa. 44:6-20), to prove their omnisciencethey could not. Israel had put all her trust in her kings to save her from economic and political ruin, but all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldnt put Israel together again.
Hos. 13:11 does not refer simply to the dethronement of one king by another, but to the kingdom generally, which God would overthrow in His anger. The anger of God stands at the beginning and at the end; giving kings and taking them away, are both an evidence of His displeasure, Lange says:
The whole (temporal) kingdom was a divine system of punishment and chastening. At the request of the people, He granted them a king, but with the expression of His displeasure at their desire because it proceeded from unbelief and vanity, and with the declaration that they would lose their freedom by its realization. But, at the same time, this kingdom of Israel might become a blessing if it with its king would obey God. Nay, God, by establishing the throne of David in Zion, even connected the most precious promises with this kingdom, if the king were entirely one with God and should gather about him a nation obedient to God. But the people with their king followed more and more decidedly a course opposed to God by separating (in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes) from the house with which God had connected his promises, and so forsaking the king which God had given them, they must therefore be punished by having this self-erected kingdom taken away, and the punishment is all the greater that they shall never return to a state of freedom, but must lie under the much viler bondage of foreign rulers until they return to the king whom God had promised to raise up from the House of David.
God gave the tribes who were discontented with the rule of the House of David, a king of their own that He might punish them for their resistance to His divinely appointed government. God held the rebellious ten tribes responsible for separation from the royal house to which the promise of covenant fulfillment had been given. So when Israel separated itself from the theocracy, it separated itself from the divinely appointed worship and altar, and formed an apostate worship, priesthood and an idol-god. God, after a long period of grace in which He sent many prophets to turn the people back to His will, finally took away Israels government and gave the nation into the hands of the Assyrians to serve as slaves.
Hos. 13:12 THE INIQUITY OF EPHRAIM IS BOUND UP . . . The word tsarur means, boundup in a bundle to store away or preserve with certainty, so as not to be lost. So, the idea here is the certainty of the punishment of Israel. Israel thought, as do all sinners, that because God does not punish sin at once, He never will. They think that God will bear with them always, because He bore with them so long; or that He does not see, does not regard it, is not so precise about His laws being broken (cf. Ecc. 8:11). But unrepented sin is increasingly stored up, piled one upon another, stored up until the patience of God reaches the divine day of appointment.
Hos. 13:13 THE SORROWS OF A TRAVAILING WOMAN SHALL COME UPON HIM . . . FOR IT IS TIME HE SHOULD NOT TARRY IN THE PLACE OF THE BREAKING FORTH OF CHILDREN. Here is an example of the prophet slipping from one figure to another with application to the same object. It is a very graphic use of figures of speech to portray the obstinacy of Israel. First Hosea describes the punishment Israel will endure by the figure of alluding to the pains of childbirth. Yet, though there is pain in child-birth, it brings forth new life. So, Israel, if she allows her sorrow and travail to turn her to God will be bring forth new life (cf. Mic. 4:9-10; Isa. 26:17-18). But death comes if the foetal child does not enter the vagina during labor. So, now, Hosea turns to this tragic picture to represent the stubborn resistance of Israel to the divine purpose in its travial. Israel is an unwise son because, while under the chastening judgment, he resists conversion and new birth. The place of the breaking forth of children, is in Hebrew, Mishbar banim, which means literally, the breach; the place of bringing forth.
Hos. 13:14 . . . O DEATH WHERE ARE THY PLAGUES? O SHEOL, WHERE IS THY DESTRUCTION? . . . This verse contains a promise, not a threat, as some commentators have mistakenly understood. The primary intent of the statement is for a faithful remnant of Israel (the Ten Tribes). Gods promise here is that He has the power even to redeem Israel (from the premature death mentioned in Hos. 13:13, by raising them from the dead (so to speak) even as Ezekiel predicted in his figure of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37! Some of the Ten Tribes did eventually return with Judah and form the Messianic people. But the ultimate fulfillment of this promise was fulfilled when Christ, the true Israel, conquered death and hell, when He died and rose from the grave (cf. 1Co. 15:55). The Israel restored from the captivity became a type of the Messiah and the Messianic people (cf. Isa. 25:8 ff).
The phrase repentance shall be hid from mine eyes, simply signifies that what God has promised to do will be certainly and absolutely accomplished, conditioned upon the response of Israel to His promise. God does not repent! He does not change! His will is immutable! (cf. Psa. 89:34-36; Psa. 110:4). Israel, if she will, can put her trust completely in Gods promise to redeem her from the death of captivity and restore her to her intended destiny as a part of the Messianic peopleif she will! It is not Gods will that has changedHe does not repentit is Israels choice that has changed.
Hos. 13:15 THOUGH HE BE FRUITFUL AMONG HIS BRETHREN . . . We prefer K & D translation of the conjunction in Hos. 13:15 which makes it read For he will bear fruit among brethren, rather than the Though he be fruitful . . . of the text. The opening phrase of Hos. 13:15 then becomes a play upon the name Ephraim which means double-fruit-fulness. The prophet is saying, in essence, Yes, even your name signifies the promise of God that some of Ephraim will be redeemed and bear fruit. Of course, all the promises of God are fulfilled to those who adhere to the conditions under which they are given. Of the whole nation of Israel in Hoseas day, only that small remnant who walked in faith in the promises of God and were obedient to His commandments, would be fruitful among their brethren. On the other hand, upon the majority of the people of Israel that has turned itself into Canaan (cf. Hos. 12:8), an east wind will come. A storm from the east will come upon them. This storm from the east (Assyrian soldiers) will consume the fruitful land of the northern kingdom, and all the impenitent sons of Ephraim with it. Their treasures shall be plundered. They become paupers.
Hos. 13:16 SAMARIA SHALL BEAR HER GUILT . . . Samaria (Israel represented by her capital city) must atone for her sins. She must pay! She has sown the windnow she shall reap the whirlwind! One word summarizes the past and present history of the Northern Kingdom: REBELLION (cf. 1Ki. 12:19; 2Ki. 17:14-17). There is a gruesome description of the cold-blooded cruelty of the Assyrian conquest here. Children will be dashed to death upon the pavements of village streets; women, pregnant with child, will be ripped open with the swords of the soldiers. For a record of the actual fulfillment of this see 2Ki. 8:12; 2Ki. 15:16.
QUIZ
1.
Why is rebellion against God a prelude to self-destruction?
2.
How did God give them a king in anger and take away a king in wrath?
3.
Why does the prophet liken Israels situation to child-birth?
4.
What is the promise concerning victory over hell and death to Israel?
5.
Where is this promise quoted in the New Testament and what is its meaning?
6.
What is the east wind that will come and destroy impenitent Israel?
7.
Where is the record of the fulfillment of Hos. 13:16?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) In me . . . Help.The close of this verse is rhetorically abrupt, which is altogether missed in the English version. Render, but against Me thy help. We must supply Thou hast rebelled, the construction being the same as in Hos. 13:16. Thy captivity, O Israel, is from thee; thy redemption is from Me; thy perishing is from thee: thy salvation is from Me (Pusey).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Utter destruction the just punishment for Israel’s guilt, Hos 13:9-16.
This discourse closes with another description of the hopelessness of Israel’s condition. It has rebelled against Jehovah, who alone can save; therefore destruction has become inevitable; it has already begun and will not stop until the whole nation has been consumed.
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help This is one of the most abrupt sentences in the book of Hosea. On the assumption that the text is correct the abruptness has been explained as due to the profound emotion of the prophet, which caused him to break off before completing his thought. A more satisfactory rendering of the Hebrew though several words must be supplied in the English and in more complete accord with the context, is that of R.V.: “It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me, against thy help”; that is, by rebelling against Jehovah Israel signed its own death warrant. LXX. and Peshitto present a reading which removes in some measure the unusually elliptical character of the sentence, and adds strength to the utterance. Both read the latter part as a question: “who will be thy help?” In addition Peshitto reads the first part, “I have (a prophetic perfect) destroyed thee.” Following these translations, the whole verse may be read, “I am,” or, “he is,” “thy destruction; yea, who shall be thy helper?” This question connects naturally with Hos 13:10. Neither king nor princes can save. Here again R.V. is to be preferred: “Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities?” According to Hos 10:14; Hos 11:6, the destruction will fall upon the fortresses and cities; in their distress they will need and cry for help, but in vain. The king will be powerless against the wrath of Jehovah. Hos 13:11 goes even further and states that the king will be entirely removed.
Thy judges Equivalent to “rulers,” as in Hos 7:7, including “king and princes” mentioned in the last line. The second question is practically equivalent to the first.
Princes See on Hos 3:4.
Give me Some commentators see here a reference to the demands for a king in the days of Samuel (1Sa 8:5 ff.). It is more probable, however, that the prophet has in mind more recent events, when the people by actions rather than by word of mouth expressed their demands for new kings and placed them upon the throne (Hos 7:3 ff; Hos 8:4). When the calamity falls it will be seen how helpless is the king in whom they place their confidence.
The tenses in Hos 13:11 are frequentatives. Jehovah did it on more than one occasion, and he is still doing it. In Hos 7:7, and Hos 8:4, the prophet speaks of the frequent changes in dynasties as having been brought about by violence and assassination. This was done without consulting Jehovah and without his approval. In this verse the prophet considers the same events from a different viewpoint. He makes the additional statement that, though Jehovah was not consulted, the changes could not be made without his consent and co-operation. In one sense, therefore, the people made the kings, in another, Jehovah gave them. “God humored them; but these kings who were wrung from him (Hos 8:4) he gave them in anger; they were not kings by God’s grace, but by his displeasure.” As he gave them, so he took them away; and the anarchy and disorder following were equally due to his wrath (Isa 9:18 ff.).
Hos 13:12-16 do not contain a promise, as is sometimes asserted, but an additional threat. Bad as is the present confusion, severer judgments are yet to come.
Ephraim The northern kingdom. Iniquity sin Synonyms.
Bound up hid R.V., “laid up in store” Also synonymous expressions. The case is closed, all the evidence is in, and carefully preserved. Nothing will be overlooked on the day of reckoning. With this record of iniquity before him, what can Jehovah do but allow justice to have its way?
Sorrows (better, pangs) of a travailing woman A common figure of extreme anguish and distress (Mic 4:9; Isa 13:8; Isa 21:3, etc.). Ephraim is likened to the mother who is in the pangs of childbirth, but unable to bring forth and thus to put an end to the suffering. In the very next line the prophet changes the figure and likens Ephraim to the child about to be born. His folly is delaying the birth and is responsible for the continued suffering. Again and again the prophet shows that, whatever calamity may come, Israel alone is to blame for it.
Unwise Though aware of his duty in the matter, he failed to do his part. The exact translation of 13b is uncertain:
For he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children R.V., “for it is time he should not tarry in the place “; margin, “when it is time, he standeth not in “ It may be difficult to decide between these and similar translations suggested, but the point of the argument is easily seen. Ephraim prevented the birth at the proper moment, either by not presenting himself for birth at the proper time or by retarding the process. By his attitude he increased the pain and endangered the life of both mother and child, in this figure one and the same person. Applied to the history of Israel, the figure illustrates the folly of the people, manifesting itself in their failure to heed the warnings and exhortations of the prophets. The latter pictured the possibilities of a new life, and set forth the manner of entering into it; but Israel stubbornly refused to enter in, and thus came to the very verge of destruction.
Death seems inevitable unless a skillful physician can be secured. In Israel’s crisis Jehovah alone can bring relief. Will he interfere? Hos 13:14 supplies the answer. This verse has received all kinds of interpretations. Broadly speaking, the different views may be grouped under two heads: (1) those interpreting Hos 13:14 as a promise; (2) those interpreting it as a threat, continuing the threats of Hos 13:9-13. The former interpretation finds its chief support in the use made of the passage in 1Co 15:55. But, New Testament usage does not decide finally the primary meaning of an Old Testament passage (compare Hos 11:1, with Mat 2:15); and there can be no doubt that the demands of the language and of the context are best satisfied by the second interpretation. If this interpretation is accepted, 14a as well as 14b must be read as a question. With either interpretation the translation of 14b in R.V. is to be accepted instead of A.V. If the interpretation of Hos 13:14 as a threat is correct the verse must be translated, “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O death, where are thy plagues? O Sheol, where is thy destruction? repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” The first two are rhetorical questions. Ephraim had endangered his life in spite of the physician’s advice. Shall Jehovah now rescue him from impending death? The answer in an emphatic No! He rather encourages death and Sheol to do their worst.
I will be thy plagues; I will be thy destruction Better, R.V., “Where are thy plagues? where is thy destruction?” Bring them hither! You shall have unhindered sway. Repentance shall be hid I will show no compassion (Amo 7:8). Hos 13:15-16 expand the threat of destruction.
The interpretation just suggested is certainly more in accord with the general argument of the prophet than that which sees in Hos 13:14 a promise. The latter view, which is based upon the translation of R.V. that of A.V. is universally admitted to be incorrect assumes between Hos 13:13-14 an abrupt change of sentiment; Hos 13:13 pictures Ephraim at the point of death, but the divine father heart cannot endure the prospect of dissolution. His compassion in aroused, and in 14a he promises deliverance from death and Sheol. Having reached this decision, he turns to these powers and asks triumphantly, “Where are now your plagues and destruction?” They can do no more harm, since Jehovah has taken the part of Israel. The last clause is a promise that Jehovah will not change his mind concerning the promise just made.
Ransom redeem Not simply deliver. Death is so certain of its victim that it will not let go without a ransom.
Grave Better, with R.V., “Sheol,” the place of departed personalities (Hab 2:5; Isa 5:14). Both Paul (1Co 15:55) and Hosea call upon death and Sheol to do their worst, but there in a difference between the two. Hosea is in earnest because he can see only darkness and gloom beyond. Not so Paul; he defies their powers because he was acquainted with Him who brought immortality to light.
15, 16. Whatever the prosperity in the past, whatever the condition in the present, the future has only destruction in store.
He Must be the entire nation.
Fruitful A play upon Ephraim, for its Hebrew equivalent and the original of fruitful are similar in sound (Gen 49:22; Hos 8:9).
Among his brethren This translation requires that he be interpreted of the tribe Ephraim, his brethren being the other tribes; but the context makes this impossible. For this reason many modern commentators favor the reading, “among the reed grass” (Gen 41:2; Gen 41:18), which is found in a few Hebrew manuscripts and was accepted as original by a few early Jewish scholars. The word translated reed grass is an Egyptian loan word; this fact, and its similarity in Hebrew to the original for brethren may account for the confusion. Whether this reading is accepted or not, Israel is pictured as a flourishing plant with every prospect of bearing plentiful fruit.
East wind It will swiftly destroy the prospects (Hos 12:1).
Wind of Jehovah So called because Jehovah uses the wind as an instrument of judgment.
Spring fountain From it the plant draws moisture and nourishment. In the case of Israel, the resources needed for success. If the reading “reed grass” is correct, it may be an allusion to Israel’s dependence upon Egypt; at any rate, the “east wind” seems to be a figure of the Assyrian conqueror, who comes from the east (Isa 21:1). That a foreign invasion is in the prophet’s mind in made clear in the last clause of Hos 13:15, which describes the calamity without the use of a figure.
He Emphatic in Hebrew. The enemy described as east wind. All pleasant [“goodly”] vessels All articles of value (Nah 2:9; Jer 25:34). Hos 13:16 (Hos 14:1, in the Hebrew) is the final summing up.
Samaria The capital represents the whole nation.
Shall become desolate R.V., more correctly, “shall bear her guilt” (Hos 10:2), which consists in rebellion against Jehovah (Hos 7:14; Isa 1:2).
Shall fall by the sword Compare Hos 11:6. The most horrible cruelties of ancient warfare shall be visited upon them (Hos 10:14; Amo 1:13; compare Psa 137:9; 2Ki 15:16). Indeed, a horrible fate is awaiting the apostate children of Jehovah.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘It is your destruction,
O Israel,
That you are against me,
Against your help.’
But they have turned away from the One Who is their help. And this is what will result in their destruction, the fact that they are against YHWH (something which they would no doubt have hotly denied, but which was nevertheless true), the One Who is their true Help.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Retribution Coming
v. 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help, v. 10. I will be thy King, v. 11. I gave thee a king in Mine anger, v. 12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, v. 13. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him, v. 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave, v. 15. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, v. 16. Samaria shall become desolate,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Hos 13:9-10. O Israel, &c. O Israel, I will destroy thee, and who shall bring thee help?
Hos 13:10. Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges, &c. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1174
HELP IN CHRIST FOR SELF-DESTROYED SINNERS
Hos 13:9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
THE great mass of nominal Christians need to be informed respecting their state by nature, and the means by which they are to be delivered from it; and they who have a theoretical acquaintance with these things, yet need to be put frequently in remembrance of them, in order that they may be more abidingly influenced by the consideration of them. In the words of our text, all mistakes on these points are clearly rectified; and we are told on the authority of God himself, that,
I.
Mans destruction is of himself
Whatever we may imagine to the contrary, there are multitudes of the human race eternally destroyed [Note: Mat 7:13-14.]. Their destruction too is altogether of themselves: for,
1.
They will walk in the way that leads to it
[God has told them plainly that eternal misery must be the fruit of sin and impenitence [Note: 1Co 6:9-10. Luk 13:3.]. Yet men will continue to disregard the warnings of God, and to practise the things which are displeasing to him! What then must become of them, if there be any truth in the word of God? Or whom must they blame, when they feel the judgments which they would not fear? The man, who by a poisonous draught, or by any other means, puts a period to his life, is not more the author of his own death, than these are of their own destruction.]
2.
They will not use the means which God has prescribed for their escape
[God has graciously opened a way for the salvation of a ruined world: he has sent his only dear Son to die for sinners, and his good Spirit to instruct and sanctify them. But men will not seek to be washed in the Redeemers blood: they will not pray for the influences of the Holy Spirit: they will not cordially accept the salvation offered them. They are so intent on their worldly business or pleasure, that they will not afford time for spiritual employments. Is it not then utterly their own fault if they perish? A man, who having taken a poisonous draught, whether intentionally or not, would be justly considered as the author of his own death, if he obstinately refused an antidote that was tendered to him: and so must they be considered as destroying themselves who neglect the means which God has provided for their escape.]
3.
They make use of every thing ultimately to ensure their own destruction
[Whether they look upwards to God, or around them to the world, or within them to their own experience, they turn every thing into an occasion of fostering their own delusions, and of lulling themselves asleep in a fatal security [Note: This truth will be seen in the most striking point of view, by the following concise statement. Men take this occasion,
1.
From God himself
From his perfections
From his sovereignty; If he will not give me his grace, how can I help myself?
From his mercy: God is too merciful to condemn any man.
From his providence
If it be indulgent; These blessings are proofs of his love.
If it he afflictive; I have my sufferings in this life.
From his grace
He gave his Son to die for me; therefore I have nothing to fear.
2.
From the world around them
From the godly
If they are consistent; They are unreasonably precise.
If they are inconsistent; They are hypocrites; they are all alike; I am as good as they; only I make less talk about religion.
From the ungodly
I can never think that so many are wrong, and so few right.
3.
From their own experience
If they have been corrupt; Why did God give me these passions?
If they have been moral; I thank thee that I am not as other men are.
If they are learned; Cannot I understand my Bible without Divine illumination?
If they are unlearned; My ignorance is excusable; I am no scholar.
If they have been neglectful of religious duties; I have done no one any harm.
If they have been observant of religious duties; they put their formal services in the place of Christ, and consider them as decisive evidences of their conversion.
Thus instead of arguing from these topics so as to stimulate their exertions, they derive encouragement from them all to continue in their sins.] ]
But though mans destruction is of himself, we must not suppose that his salvation also is of himself: no;
II.
His salvation is of God alone
If we inquire who it is, that thus arrogates to himself the exclusive power of saving sinners, we shall find that it is the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is King in Sion [Note: ver. 10. with Mat 21:5 and Act 5:31.], besides whom there is no Saviour [Note: ver. 4.], and who invariably claims this as his unalienable prerogative [Note: Isa 45:22. with Mat 11:28 and Joh 7:37.].
1.
There is help for us in no other
[Who besides him could possibly make atonement for our sins? Man himself could never satisfy Divine Justice Nor could all the angels in heaven offer unto God a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of men? None but He who was Jehovahs Fellow was equal to the task of expiating transgression, and effecting a reconciliation between God and man [Note: Psa 89:19. with Heb 10:4-10.]
Who besides him could rescue us out of the hands of our spiritual enemies? He is that stronger man, who alone can vanquish our mighty adversary, and deliver us from our sore bondage [Note: Luk 11:21; Luk 11:23.]
Who besides him can teach us the way of salvation [Note: Mat 11:27.]? or incline us to seek after it [Note: Php 2:13.]? or render our endeavours effectual [Note: Joh 15:5.]?
We may truly say then, that as there is no other foundation on which to build our hopes [Note: 1Co 3:11.], so neither is there any other name or power whereby we can be saved [Note: Act 4:12.]? Christ is all, and in all [Note: Col 3:11.].]
2.
In him there is help sufficient
[There is nothing wanting in sinful man, which is not abundantly supplied in Jesus Christ. In him there is wisdom to direct the most ignorant [Note: Mat 11:29.],merit to justify the most guilty [Note: Act 13:39.],grace to sanctify the most polluted [Note: 1Co 6:11.],and strength to render even the weakest of the human race a conqueror, yea, more than conqueror, over all his enemies [Note: 2Co 12:9. Php 4:13.]. He is furnished of God for this very end [Note: Isa 61:1.], and appointed of him to this very office [Note: 1Co 1:30.], and is in every respect able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him [Note: Heb 7:25.].]
Address
1.
Those who are ignorant of their real state
[Too many, alas! are altogether ignorant of their undone state, and still more so of the guilt attaching to them as the authors of their own misery. But whether we know these things or not, it is an indisputable fact that we have destroyed ourselves, and that there is no possibility of recovery for us but in and through Christ. Let us then seek instruction on these infinitely important subjects, lest we perish for ever for lack of knowledge [Note: Hos 4:6.]. And let us not for one moment look for acceptance in any other way than through the Lord Jesus Christ, as though we were not self-destroved, or there remained in us any sufficiency to help ourselves. For so destitute are we of all help in ourselves, that, if a good thought would cancel all our past iniquities, and open the kingdom of heaven to us, we could not supply it [Note: 2Co 3:5.]. If ever we would partake of the felicity of heaven, we must renounce all self-dependence, and look for our help in Christ alone [Note: Rom 9:30-33.].]
2.
Those who are desponding on account of it
[When men begin to see their perishing condition, and to fuel a consciousness that they have been the authors of their own ruin, they often distress themselves with apprehensions that their state is irremediable. Now the text affords a complete antidote to all desponding fears: in it God addresses himself immediately to the self-ruined sinner, and says to him, I am thy help. Whatever guilt therefore any one may have contracted, and whatever cause he may have to reproach himself, let him only consider who it is that says to him, In me is thy help, and he may instantly dismiss his fears. Let him be strong in faith, giving glory to God; and he shall find that, before Zerubbabel the mountains will become a plain [Note: Isa 40:27-31. Zec 4:7.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Oh, what a verse is here! Could it be possible to give a fuller account of the blessed gospel of the ever blessed God in a more comprehensive manner! Israel hath destroyed himself. Yea, so hath every son and daughter of Adam. All men have done so. Every sinner hath done so, and is a soul murderer. Then comes in the remedy, the only remedy; In me is thy help. And who is it that thus speaks but the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Reader! how the whole of salvation is brought into a little compass. Here is the great ruin; and here the great relief. Destruction is of ourselves: Salvation is alone in Christ. Oh! for grace to know it, and to find the saving truth to the soul’s joy!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 13:9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me [is] thine help.
Ver. 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ] Heb. He, or, It hath marred thee, O Israel; that is, either thy sin of self-exaltation and forgetfulness of me, as Hos 13:6 ; or thy king, in whom thou trustest, as Hos 13:10 ; or thy calf, whom thou worshippedst, hath been the cause of thy confusion. Or thy feigned comforts, as Aben Ezra will have it; thy soothing up thyself in sinful practices. Or, one hath destroyed thee; or; somewhat hath undone thee, but not without thee. Whatever it is that hath done it, it is not I, what hard thoughts soever thou mayest have of me, because I appear thus dreadful to thee, as in the former verse. Fury is not in me, but thou mayest thank thyself, and fault thy sin as the mother of thy misery, as the cause of thy calamity, S (Hom. Odyss.), thou hast destroyed thyself, and thine own heart may say to thee, as the heart of Apollodorus seemed in a dream to say to him, when he was tortured by the Scythians; It is I that have drawn thee to all this, . It is the observation of a great politician: England is a mighty animal, which can never die except it kill itself. Answerable whereunto was the speech of the Lord Rich to the justices in the reign of Edward VI. Never foreign power could yet hurt, or in any part prevail, in this realm but by disobedience and disorder among ourselves; that is the way wherewith God will plague us if he mind to punish us. We use to say, No man is hurt but by himself. “Ye have not injured me at all,” saith St Paul to the Galatians, Gal 4:12 ; you cannot do it unless I will. The devil can do nothing at us if we give not way to him. And though there were no devil, yet our corrupt nature would act Satan’s part against itself; it would have a supply of wickedness (as a serpent hath of poison) from itself; it hath a spring of its own to feed it. Nemo igitur sibi palpet de suo: quisque sibi Satan est, saith an ancient. And it was no ill wish of him that begged of God to deliver him from that naughty man, himself ( Domine, libera me a malo heroine, meipso ), for he knew, that as in that first chaos, Gen 1:2 , were the seeds of all creatures ( ), so in man’s heart, of all sins and miseries that follow thereupon. “God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions,” Ecc 7:29 , many shifts and sharking tricks. Sin and shifting came into the world together; Gen 3:12 , “The woman whom thou gavest me,” &c. God must bear the blame of Adam’s sin; so must his decree of reprobation still be alleged as the cause of man’s perdition. But this covering is too short; for no man is destroyed because he is reprobated, but because he is a sinner; neither are any damned because they cannot do better, but because they will do no better. If there were no will there would be no hell ( Cesset voluntas propria, et non erit infernus ), and this indeed will be the very hell of hell, that they have been self-destroyers. The worm of conscience (say divines), that never dying worm, is nothing else but a continual remorse and furious reflection of the soul upon its own wilful folly, and now woeful misery.
But in me is thy help
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hosea
DESTRUCTION AND HELP
Hos 13:9
These words are obscure by reason of their brevity. Literally they might be rendered, ‘Thy destruction for, in, or against Me; in, or against thy Help.’ Obviously, some words must be supplied to bring out any sense. Our Authorised Version has chosen the supplement ‘is,’ which fails to observe the second occurrence with ‘thy Help’ of the preposition, and is somewhat lax in rendering the ‘for’ of the second clause by the neutral ‘but.’ It is probably better to read, as the Revised Version, with most modern interpreters, ‘Thou art against Me, against thy Help,’ and to find in the second clause the explanation, or analysis, of the destruction announced in the first. So we have here the wail of the parental love of God over the ruin which Israel has brought on itself, and that parental love is setting forth Israel’s true condition, in the hope that they may discern it. Thus, even the rebuke holds enclosed a promise and a hope. Since God is their help, to depart from Him has been ruin, and the return to Him will be life. Hosea, or rather the Spirit that spake through Hosea, blended wonderful tenderness with unflinching decision in rebuke, and unwavering certainty in foretelling evil with unfaltering hope in the promise of possible blessing. His words are set in the same key as the still more wonderfully tender ones that Jesus uttered as He looked across the valley from Olivet to the gleaming city on the other side, and wailed, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Therefore your house is left unto you desolate.’
We may note here
I. The loving discovery of ruin.
It is strange that it needs God’s voice, and that in its most piercing tones, to convince men of ruin brought by sin. A mortifying limb is painless. There is no consciousness in the drugged sleep which becomes heavier and heavier till it ends in death. There is no surer sign of the reality and extent of the corruption brought about by sin, than man’s ignorance of it. There is no more tragical proof that a man is ‘wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked’ than his vehement affirmation, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing,’ and his self-complacent rejection of the counsel to ‘buy refined gold, and white garments, and eye-salve to anoint his eyes.’ So obstinately unconscious are we of our ruin that even God’s voice, whether uttered in definite words, or speaking in sharp sorrows and punitive acts, but too often fails to pierce the thick layer of self complacency in which we wrap ourselves, and to pierce the heart with the arrow of conviction. Indeed we may say that the whole process of divine education of a soul, conducted through many channels of providences, has for its end mainly this-to convince His wandering children that to be against Him, against their Help, is their destruction.
But, perhaps, the strangest of all is the attitude which we often take up of resenting the love that would reveal our ruin. It is stupid of the ox to kick against its driver’s goad; but that is wise in comparison with the action of the man who is angry with God because He warns that departure from Him is ruin. Many of us treat Christianity as if it had made the mischief which it reveals, and would fain mend; and we all need to be reminded that it is cruel kindness to conceal unpleasant truths, and that the Gospel is no more to be blamed for the destruction which it declares than is the signalman with his red flag responsible for the broken-down viaduct to which the train is rushing that he tries to save.
II. The loving appeal to conscience as to the cause.
Just as the sole reason for our sorrows lies in our wrongdoing, the sole cause of our wrongdoing is in ourselves. It is because ‘Israel is against Me’ that Israel’s destruction rushes down upon it. It could have defended its hankering after Assyria and idols, by wise talk about political exigencies and the wisdom of trying to turn possibly powerful enemies into powerful allies, and the folly of a little nation, on a narrow strip of territory between the desert and the sea, fancying itself able to sustain itself uncrushed between the upper millstone of Assyria on the north, and the under one, Egypt, on the south. But circumstances are never the cause, though they may afford the excuse of rebellion against our Helper, God; and all the modern talk about environments and the like, is merely a cloak cast round, but too scanty to conceal the ugly fact of the alienated will. All the excuses for sin, which either modern scientific jargon about ‘laws,’ or hyper-Calvinistic talk about ‘divine decrees,’ alleges, are alike shattered against the plain fact of conscience, which proclaims to every evil-doer, ‘Thou art the man!’ We shall get no further and no deeper than the truth of our text: ‘It is thy destruction that thou art against Me.’
The pleading God has from the beginning spoken words as tender as they are stern, and as stern as they are tender. His voice to the sons of men has from of old asked the unanswerable question, ‘Why should ye be stricken any more?’ and has answered it, so far as answer is possible, by the fact, which is as mysterious as it is undeniable, ‘Ye will revolt more and more.’ God calls upon man to judge between Him and His vineyard, and asks, ‘What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done unto it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?’ The fault lay not in the vine-dresser, but in some evil influence that had found its way into the life and sap of the vine, and bore fruits in an unnatural product, which could not have been traced to the vine-dresser’s action. So God stands, as with clean hands, declaring that ‘He is pure from the blood of all men; that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked’; and His word to the men on whom falls the whole weight of His destroying power is, ‘Thou hast procured this unto thyself.’
III. The loving forbearance which still offers restoration.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 13:9-11
9It is your destruction, O Israel,
That you are against Me, against your help.
10Where now is your king
That he may save you in all your cities,
And your judges of whom you requested, Give me a king and princes?
11I gave you a king in My anger
And took him away in My wrath.
Hos 13:9 That you are against Me, against your help What an irony! Israel had forsaken her only help (e.g., Jer 2:17; Jer 2:19). The Greek and Syriac translations have, For who will help you?
Hos 13:10-11 This seems to be another reference that relates to Hosea’s negative attitude toward the monarchy (cf. Hos 7:3-7; Hos 8:4; Hos 8:10; Hos 8:13; Hos 10:3), but it may also reflect Deuteronomy 28 (esp. Deu 28:36; Deu 28:52). The line Hos 13:11 a, I gave you a king in My anger, reflects 2Sa 8:4-9. The next line, Hos 13:11 b, represents the exile by Assyria (cf. 2Ki 17:1-6).
Hos 13:10 Where now is your king The MT has I want to be your king, but the ancient translations (Greek, Syriac, and Vulgate) emend the text to read like the NASB.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
thou hast destroyed thyself = the destruction [which thou art suffering] is all thine own. Ref to Pentateuch (Deu 32:5. Hebrew. shahath, same word as “corrupted”). App-92.
but in Me, &c. = for I am thy [true] help.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Hos 13:9-16
REQUITING-ISRAEL WILL PERISH
TEXT: Hos 13:9-16
The prophet once more discloses to the people the reason for their corruption. Then, after pointing to the saving power of the Lord, he holds up before them utter destruction as the just punishment for their guilt.
Hos 13:9 O Israel,H3478 thou hast destroyedH7843 thyself; butH3588 in me is thine help.H5828
Hos 13:9 IT IS THY DESTRUCTION, O ISRAEL, THAT THOU ART AGAINST ME . . . What a statement this is-pregnant with meaning! Mans sin, judgment, sentence and destruction are not, in themselves, from God, but from mans moral choice to rebel against God. Whoever casts himself against the Rock of Ages will destroy himself (cf. Mat 21:42-44), for Gods justice, mercy, righteousness is immutable. An ancient church father wrote, Rightly is God called, not the Father of judgments or of vengeance, but the Father of mercies, because from Himself is the cause and origin of His mercy, from us the cause of His judging or avenging. Hosea is here speaking of the ten tribes in their rebellion against Jehovah when they withdrew from the rule of the house of David under Rehoboam and made Jeroboam their king. The ten tribes showed their contempt for Jehovah when they renounced allegiance to and portion in the throne of David (cf. 1Ki 12:16). Of course, this spirit of desiring to be rid of the rule of Jehovah began in the days of Samuel (cf. 1Sa 8:5) when all the people desired to imitate the nations about them and be ruled over by a visible, physical king.
Zerr: Hos 13:9. Self-destruction in the physical sense is called suicide, and is classed with the most wicked of deeds. It should be regarded with equal or greater horror when it pertains to moral or spiritual matters; the Lord accused his people of this very evil thing. By plunging into a life of idolatry Israel incurred the wrath of the true God which waa to be satisfied only by the national death (Isa 22:14). Since this calamity was to be the result of their own rash deeds, it should be regarded as nothing short of national suicide.
Hos 13:10 I will beH165 thy king:H4428 whereH645 is any other that may saveH3467 thee in allH3605 thy cities?H5892 and thy judgesH8199 of whomH834 thou saidst,H559 GiveH5414 me a kingH4428 and princes?H8269
Hos 13:11 I gaveH5414 thee a kingH4428 in mine anger,H639 and took him awayH3947 in my wrath.H5678
Hos 13:10-11 WHERE NOW IS THY KING, THAT HE MAY SAVE THEE . . . I HAVE GIVEN THEE A KING IN MINE ANGER . . . The challenge of Hos 13:10 does not presuppose that Israel had no king at all at that time, but simply challenges the people to put forth any of their kings that could save them. None could. We are reminded of Isaiahs challenge to idols and false prophets (Isa 42:21-24; Isa 44:6-20), to prove their omniscience-they could not. Israel had put all her trust in her kings to save her from economic and political ruin, but all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldnt put Israel together again.
Zerr: Hos 13:10. The first sentence of this verse is rendered, Where is thy king’ in the margin of the Bible. Moffatt’s translation renders it likewise and 2Ki 17:4 gives the reason for the humiliating question. That passage states that the king of Israel had been shut up and bound in prison by the king of Assyria. The Lord further asks them the accusing question about their having anyone else to take the place of this king who was then in prison.
Hos 13:11 does not refer simply to the dethronement of one king by another, but to the kingdom generally, which God would overthrow in His anger. The anger of God stands at the beginning and at the end; giving kings and taking them away, are both an evidence of His displeasure, Lange says:
The whole (temporal) kingdom was a divine system of punishment and chastening. At the request of the people, He granted them a king, but with the expression of His displeasure at their desire because it proceeded from unbelief and vanity, and with the declaration that they would lose their freedom by its realization. But, at the same time, this kingdom of Israel might become a blessing if it with its king would obey God. Nay, God, by establishing the throne of David in Zion, even connected the most precious promises with this kingdom, if the king were entirely one with God and should gather about him a nation obedient to God. But the people with their king followed more and more decidedly a course opposed to God by separating (in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes) from the house with which God had connected his promises, and so forsaking the king which God had given them, they must therefore be punished by having this self-erected kingdom taken away, and the punishment is all the greater that they shall never return to a state of freedom, but must lie under the much viler bondage of foreign rulers until they return to the king whom God had promised to raise up from the House of David.
Zerr: Hos 13:11. The subject of the state of the nation was brought up to the point where it was appropriate to make the statement of this verse. The overthrow of the last king this part of Israel ever had was not to he regarded as an unexpected or unavoidable event, for the very first king they ever had was the victim of God’s wrath. The first clause of the verse refers to the tact that God waa displeased when the people called for a king, although he suffered them to have one (1Sa 8:7). The second clause was fulfilled when the Lord declared that Saul was to be removed from the throne because of his rebellion (1Sa 15:23),
God gave the tribes who were discontented with the rule of the House of David, a king of their own that He might punish them for their resistance to His divinely appointed government. God held the rebellious ten tribes responsible for separation from the royal house to which the promise of covenant fulfillment had been given. So when Israel separated itself from the theocracy, it separated itself from the divinely appointed worship and altar, and formed an apostate worship, priesthood and an idol-god. God, after a long period of grace in which He sent many prophets to turn the people back to His will, finally took away Israels government and gave the nation into the hands of the Assyrians to serve as slaves.
Hos 13:12 The iniquityH5771 of EphraimH669 is bound up;H6887 his sinH2403 is hid.H6845
Hos 13:12 THE INIQUITY OF EPHRAIM IS BOUND UP . . . The word tsarur means, boundup in a bundle to store away or preserve with certainty, so as not to be lost. So, the idea here is the certainty of the punishment of Israel. Israel thought, as do all sinners, that because God does not punish sin at once, He never will. They think that God will bear with them always, because He bore with them so long; or that He does not see, does not regard it, is not so precise about His laws being broken (cf. Ecc 8:11). But unrepented sin is increasingly stored up, piled one upon another, stored up until the patience of God reaches the divine day of appointment.
Zerr: Hos 13:12. Bound up and hid are said in the sense of being held under consideration by the Lord, to be dealt with as the sin deserves when the proper time comes.
Hos 13:13 The sorrowsH2256 of a travailing womanH3205 shall comeH935 upon him: heH1931 is an unwiseH3808 H2450 son;H1121 forH3588 he should notH3808 stayH5975 longH6256 in the place of the breaking forthH4866 of children.H1121
Hos 13:13 THE SORROWS OF A TRAVAILING WOMAN SHALL COME UPON HIM . . . FOR IT IS TIME HE SHOULD NOT TARRY IN THE PLACE OF THE BREAKING FORTH OF CHILDREN. Here is an example of the prophet slipping from one figure to another with application to the same object. It is a very graphic use of figures of speech to portray the obstinacy of Israel. First Hosea describes the punishment Israel will endure by the figure of alluding to the pains of childbirth. Yet, though there is pain in child-birth, it brings forth new life. So, Israel, if she allows her sorrow and travail to turn her to God will be bring forth new life (cf. Mic 4:9-10; Isa 26:17-18). But death comes if the foetal child does not enter the vagina during labor. So, now, Hosea turns to this tragic picture to represent the stubborn resistance of Israel to the divine purpose in its travial. Israel is an unwise son because, while under the chastening judgment, he resists conversion and new birth. The place of the breaking forth of children, is in Hebrew, Mishbar banim, which means literally, the breach; the place of bringing forth.
Zerr: Hos 13:13. The thought of the preceding verse is continued in this, but it is represented in a figure. The pains of approaching childbirth are used to compare those soon to come upon Israel when the time arrives for him to go through the ordeal of invasion and overthrow. The figure is continued and is worded to fit the facts as they were to occur. The pains of the birth were not to be continuous or lasting as is sometimes the case, which is indicated by the words not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. The fulfillment of this was to be when the captivity (the event illustrated by the pains of childbirth) would be ended. This passage lays the foundation for a wonderful twofold prediction of the rescue of Israel from the national grave, and that of mankind from the literal grave at the resurrection.
Hos 13:14 I will ransomH6299 them from the powerH4480 H3027 of the grave;H7585 I will redeemH1350 them from death:H4480 H4194 O death,H4194 I will beH165 thy plagues;H1698 O grave,H7585 I will beH165 thy destruction:H6987 repentanceH5164 shall be hidH5641 from mine eyes.H4480 H5869
Hos 13:14 . . . O DEATH WHERE ARE THY PLAGUES? O SHEOL, WHERE IS THY DESTRUCTION? . . . This verse contains a promise, not a threat, as some commentators have mistakenly understood. The primary intent of the statement is for a faithful remnant of Israel (the Ten Tribes). Gods promise here is that He has the power even to redeem Israel (from the premature death mentioned in Hos 13:13, by raising them from the dead (so to speak) even as Ezekiel predicted in his figure of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37! Some of the Ten Tribes did eventually return with Judah and form the Messianic people. But the ultimate fulfillment of this promise was fulfilled when Christ, the true Israel, conquered death and hell, when He died and rose from the grave (cf. 1Co 15:55). The Israel restored from the captivity became a type of the Messiah and the Messianic people (cf. Isa 25:8 ff).
Zerr: Hos 13:14. This verse gives the two-fold prediction mentioned In the preceding paragraph. Its first fulfillment was to be when Israel was released from the captivity in Babylon, predicted in so many places. And we are certain the second fulfillment is to be at the general resurrection of mankind, for Paul uses virtually the same language in 1Co 15:55, where we know he is writing upon that subject. Repentance shall be hid means the Lord has his mind made up on the matters predicted and it will not be changed.
The phrase repentance shall be hid from mine eyes, simply signifies that what God has promised to do will be certainly and absolutely accomplished, conditioned upon the response of Israel to His promise. God does not repent! He does not change! His will is immutable! (cf. Psa 89:34-36; Psa 110:4). Israel, if she will, can put her trust completely in Gods promise to redeem her from the death of captivity and restore her to her intended destiny as a part of the Messianic people-if she will! It is not Gods will that has changed-He does not repent-it is Israels choice that has changed.
Hos 13:15 ThoughH3588 heH1931 be fruitfulH6500 amongH996 his brethren,H251 an east windH6921 shall come,H935 the windH7307 of the LORDH3068 shall come upH5927 from the wilderness,H4480 H4057 and his springH4726 shall become dry,H954 and his fountainH4599 shall be dried up:H2717 heH1931 shall spoilH8154 the treasureH214 of allH3605 pleasantH2532 vessels.H3627
Hos 13:15 THOUGH HE BE FRUITFUL AMONG HIS BRETHREN . . . We prefer K & D translation of the conjunction in Hos 13:15 which makes it read For he will bear fruit among brethren, rather than the Though he be fruitful . . . of the text. The opening phrase of Hos 13:15 then becomes a play upon the name Ephraim which means double-fruit-fulness. The prophet is saying, in essence, Yes, even your name signifies the promise of God that some of Ephraim will be redeemed and bear fruit. Of course, all the promises of God are fulfilled to those who adhere to the conditions under which they are given. Of the whole nation of Israel in Hoseas day, only that small remnant who walked in faith in the promises of God and were obedient to His commandments, would be fruitful among their brethren. On the other hand, upon the majority of the people of Israel that has turned itself into Canaan (cf. Hos 12:8), an east wind will come. A storm from the east will come upon them. This storm from the east (Assyrian soldiers) will consume the fruitful land of the northern kingdom, and all the impenitent sons of Ephraim with it. Their treasures shall be plundered. They become paupers.
Zerr: Hos 13:15. Though he be fruitful denotes that the apparent success of the unfaithful leaders of Israel will be reversed. As the east wind (see the comments at Hos 12:1) would destroy all vegetation, so the wrath of God will put an end to the unrighteous rule of these proud leaders. It is significant that the figurative east wind was to be accomplished by a nation (Assyria) that was literally east of Palestine.
Hos 13:16 SamariaH8111 shall become desolate;H816 forH3588 she hath rebelledH4784 against her God:H430 they shall fallH5307 by the sword:H2719 their infantsH5768 shall be dashed in pieces,H7376 and their women with childH2030 shall be ripped up.H1234
Hos 13:16 SAMARIA SHALL BEAR HER GUILT . . . Samaria (Israel represented by her capital city) must atone for her sins. She must pay! She has sown the wind-now she shall reap the whirlwind! One word summarizes the past and present history of the Northern Kingdom: REBELLION (cf. 1Ki 12:19; 2Ki 17:14-17). There is a gruesome description of the cold-blooded cruelty of the Assyrian conquest here. Children will be dashed to death upon the pavements of village streets; women, pregnant with child, will be ripped open with the swords of the soldiers. For a record of the actual fulfillment of this see 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16.
Zerr: Hos 13:16. Samaria shall become desolate is a prediction that was to he fulfilled literally, for that city was the capital of the 10-tribe kingdom, and it was destined to be overthrown by the Assyrians. The reason for such a fate against the people of Israel is stated in the words for she hath rebelled against her Lord.
Questions
1. Why is rebellion against God a prelude to self-destruction?
2. How did God give them a king in anger and take away a king in wrath?
3. Why does the prophet liken Israels situation to child-birth?
4. What is the promise concerning victory over hell and death to Israel?
5. Where is this promise quoted in the New Testament and what is its meaning?
6. What is the east wind that will come and destroy impenitent Israel?
7. Where is the record of the fulfillment of Hos 13:16?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Part III. The ultimate blessing of Israel in the kingdom chapter divider.
The response of Jehovah continues to the end, but at Hos 13:9 changes to entreaty and promise.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
thou: Hos 14:1, 2Ki 17:7-17, Pro 6:32, Pro 8:36, Isa 3:9, Isa 3:11, Jer 2:17, Jer 2:19, Jer 4:18, Jer 5:25, Mal 1:9
but: Hos 13:4, Deu 33:26, Psa 33:20, Psa 46:1, Psa 121:1, Psa 121:2, Psa 146:5, Eph 1:3-5, Tit 3:3-7
is thine help: Heb. in thy help
Reciprocal: Exo 14:13 – see the 2Ch 28:23 – But they were Psa 22:29 – and none Hos 8:4 – that they Jam 1:14 – when
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 13:9. Seif-destruction in the physi-cal sense is called suicide, and is classed with the most wicked of deeds. It should be regarded with equal or greater horror when it pertains to moral or spiritual matters; the Lord accused his people of this very evil thing. By plunging into a life of idol-atry. Israel incurred the wrath of the true God which waa to be satisfied only by the national death (Isa 22:14). Since this calamity was to be the result of their own rash deeds, it should be regarded as nothing short of national suicide.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 13:9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself Thy sins have brought down destruction upon thee, and it is from me only thou canst expect any help, which I will in due time afford thee. The Hebrew of this verse is capable of different versions. That of the Vulgate, Destruction is thy own, O Israel: only in me is thy help, seems one of the most literal; unless, taking for a verb, we prefer rendering the first clause, It has destroyed thee, O Israel; that is, all that sin and folly of thine, with which thou hast been before charged. As thy own wickedness has many a time corrected thee, so it has now at length destroyed thee. Observe, reader, wilful sinners are self-destroyers; obstinate impenitence is the grossest self- murder. Those that are destroyed of the destroyer, have their blood upon their own heads: they have destroyed themselves. Observe, also, that the case of such is not yet desperate: God will be their help if they will make application to him. This is a plank thrown out after shipwreck; and greatly magnifies not only the power of God, that he can help when things are at the worst, can help those that cannot help themselves; but the riches of his grace, that he will help those who have destroyed themselves, and therefore might justly be left to perish, and even those that had long refused his help. Dr. Pocock reads this verse, O Israel, this has destroyed thee, that in me is thy help. And R. Tanchum interprets it to the same effect. They understand the sentiment to be, that the cause of the destruction of Israel was, his presuming upon Gods readiness to help him. They hardened themselves in their corrupt practices, in the confidence that God would never give them up; that, notwithstanding the severity of his threatenings, he would interpose, as upon so many occasions he before had done, to rescue them from their enemies when things came to an extremity. The passage, thus understood is a cool reflection upon the fatal effects of Gods kindness upon the perverse minds of the Israelites. Horsley.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:9 O Israel, thou {f} hast destroyed thyself; but in me [is] thine help.
(f) Your destruction is certain, and my benefits toward you declare that it comes not from me: therefore your own malice, idolatry, and vain confidence in men must necessarily be the cause of it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Israel’s misplaced confidence 13:9-11
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
By turning against the Lord who only desired to help them (cf. Hos 13:4), the Israelites had done something that would result in their own destruction. How ironic it was that Israel’s helper would become her destroyer!